CDS-Network

Looking back at the Aurora Biannual of May 20-22

Written by Niels Hexspoor on 18. 6. 2021. Posted in Academics, CDS-Network, Events.

On May 20 – 21st, the tenth Aurora Biannual took place, where Aurora presidents, students and staff met to learn from and with each other.

The first day began with an opening plenary focusing on the future of academic collaboration between British and other European universities following Brexit. Ms Adrienn Kiraly, Head of the Cabinet to Mariya Gabriel, European Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Education, Culture and Youth, touched upon our collaborations with universities and said “Your alliance is already well placed to be a role model for other higher education institutions in Europe and beyond: Your association with three other higher education institutions in Bulgaria, Slovakia and North Macedonia as well as your commitment to developing a capacity development support programme for more than 30 Universities from Central Eastern Europe and neighbouring countries testify for this.” She also highlighted our collaborations with our students by saying: “I am very happy to see that you have put in place the Aurora Student Champions Scheme in order to ensure student representation in each of your activities.”

During the plenary, Paul Boyle (Vice-Chancellor Swansea University and EUA Vice-President) outlined the 7 key points UK universities must address in order to advance in academic collaborations. One of these points is the need for a European wide funding system open to the world. He mentions that universities in the UK feel fortunate to be part of Horizon EU and participate in the vast majority of that scheme. However, there are many other countries from which they could gain value collaborating too. Karine Samuel (Vice President for International Affairs of Université Grenoble Alpes) stressed the importance of international collaboration and how the Aurora collaboration was especially useful in the pandemic by exchanging experiences and best practices with other Aurora universities. Ms Emily Reise from the University of Iceland added a students’ voice and emphasized on the accessibility and mobility of students and sees the advantage of short term mobility experiences for students.

After lively parallel session presentations and dynamic conversations, we entered the virtual reception building where Jón Atli Benediktsson (Aurora Network President and Rector of University of Iceland) welcomed the Minister of Education, Science and Culture of Iceland, Lilja Alfredsdottir. Ms Alfredsdottir believes that the strength of Iceland lies in its international collaborations and that these collaborating networks have ensured that Icelandic research is truly global and ambitious. She says: “No single institution can tackle world challenges on its own but collaboration brings a strength that can be greater than the sum of its parts. With that in mind, the European Commission has focused its recent efforts in higher education on forming strong European University networks capable of producing internationally competent European students, European research, and European solutions”. Jón Atli introduced Ms Anne-May Janssen who will take over from Kees Kouwenaar as Secretary-General of Aurora from July 25th of this year. The reception also welcomed a comedy sketch by comedian Ari Eldjarn. Ari enthused the public with his charismatic interpretations of the many European cultures.

The second day continued with open parallel dissemination sessions and a wrap up of the reports and reflections. President of the Alliance Board Mirjam van Praag shared the accomplishments and challenges of the last 6 months. Among the achievements are the many courses that have been identified to be Aurorarized, a 2-year master program, an international traineeship program, a framework for mobility grant allocation, the 32 students engaged in the Aurora Student Champion Scheme and 15 student ambassadors. Next to accomplishments, Ms van Praag also shared a key concern about the involvement of academics in Aurora and integrating Aurorarized course into existing degree programs. A full overview of the achievements can be found here.

In total, 25 of Aurora’s active working groups and task teams met during the Biannual, and 7 dissemination sessions informed a wider Aurora audience on aspects of the Aurora programme of activities.

In the wrap-up, it was announced that it is the last term of Callum Perry, initiator of the Aurora Student Champions Scheme and that his successor will be elected in the following months. And lastly, Maria José Figueras Salvat, Rector of Universitat Rovira i Virgili, announced that the fall biannual 2021 will physically be organized in Tarragona.

Health & Wellbeing Summer Meeting

Written by Niels Hexspoor on 18. 6. 2021. Posted in Academics, CDS-Network, Events.

On the 28th of June, the Health and Wellbeing Pilot Domain is organizing a summer meeting with a duo purpose to show education and research activities in the Health and Wellbeing pilot domain. The aim is to pave the way for the birth of a Health and wellbeing community within Aurora, with collaborations among the AURORA partners in the field of Education and Research. Therefore, the focus of the meeting is to present the activities in the field of Health and Wellbeing and to exchange ideas on current and future activities.

Programme

10.00 – 10.05 am Welcome and Introduction

10.05-10.20 am Presentation of a map of the Health and Wellbeing education within the Aurora universities

10.20 -11.00 am Education Session

Participants (one or two for each university) presents the teaching activities within the Health and wellbeing domain. Each presenter should provide information on:

- Initiatives opened or to be opened to all aurora students
- Existing, planned or even ideas for new activities in collaboration with other Aurora partners

11.00-11.15 am Discussion

11.15-12.00 am Research Session

Each university presents their research interests by answering the following questions

- what are the main areas of research of my University
- Research infrastructures that could be shared among Aurora Universities (WP 4.2)
- How being part of the Aurora Network could bring benefits to your research activities

Participants can register at the following link

Aurora Service Learning Toolbox

Written by Niels Hexspoor on 31. 5. 2021. Posted in Academics, CDS-Network, Events.

On June 17^th, the Aurora Service Learning Toolbox will be launched during the international learning lab conference, and will take place from 15:30 to 18:00 CEST.

The toolbox will provide relevant tools and resources to interested teachers and students interested in learing more about Service Learning.

These tools will further strengthen existing Service Learning courses and give the teachers inspiration on transforming an existing course by adding a service learning perspective. The event is open for students, teachers and experts from the Aurora universities and other national/international guest Universities for a broader discourse on service learning.

The event will include talks from international Service Learning experts:

Prof. Robert Bringle (Professor Emeritus, Indiana University – Purdue University Indianapolis, USA),
Prof. Wolfgang Stark (Professor Emeritus, Universität Duisburg Essen, Germany),
Prof. Marjolein Zweekhorst (Professor, Athena Institute, VU Amsterdam).

The event will also include presentations of students from Interdisciplinary Service Learning (iCSL2) – an “Aurorised” course open to Master students from any discipline/program across Aurora universities.

Click here for more information and access to the zoom meeting ID and password.

More information regarding the Aurora Service Learning Toolbox will be added soon.

Aurora Biannual: May 20th – May 21st

Written by Niels Hexspoor on 5. 5. 2021. Posted in Academics, CDS-Network, Events, Students.

It is time again for the Aurora Biannual! This community-building event, taking place twice a year, is the ideal opportunity to connect with Aurora colleagues from different universities.

Spread over the entire day of Thursday, May 20^th and Friday, May 21^st until Mid-afternoon, academics, students, university leaders and administrators will come together to continue ongoing work, meet new colleagues and celebrate existing friendships.

Register here

The Aurora Spring 2021 Biannual commences with a plenary session featuring European Commissioner Mariya Gabriel (in a recorded address) and a panel discussion on the future of academic collaboration between British and other European universities following Brexit. Prof. Paul Boyle, the vice-chancellor of Swansea University, UK and EUA Vice-President, will discuss this and join a panel discussion with Prof. Yassine Lakhnech (president of the University of Grenoble Alpes, member of Aurora) and an Aurora student representative (TBC). The panel will be moderated by John Style, Vice-Rector International of the University of Rovira i Virgili.

The first full day on May 20^th will end with a lively and informal virtual reception. Jón Atli Benediktsson will be introducing the incoming Aurora Secretary-General.

In between Plenary and Reception, the first Biannual day will offer many active Aurora task teams the time to sit and work together in parallel time slots in the morning and early afternoon. Simultaneously, the Aurora presidents will discuss their vision of Aurora’s future and the future benefits of being an Aurora university.

The afternoon will also feature four broad parallel sessions, each covering one of the more overarching themes of Aurora, such as “Education”, “Stakeholders”, “Academic engagement”, and “Sustainability”. Aurora welcomes president Joan Gabel of the University of Minnesota as a guest of honour. President Gabel will take part in the “Sustainability” session and share her views on the topic.

On Friday, May 21^st, both the Aurora Universities Network and the Aurora European University Alliance will have a session of their respective supreme governance bodies: the Network General Council and the Alliance Board of Presidents. These formal meetings will be part of the first and second Friday parallel timeslots. The Aurora Network, General Council meeting, will run concurrently with many dissemination sessions in which Aurora Biannual participants can find out about tools and services being developed to help Aurora academics, students and administrators. The Aurora Alliance Board of President’s meeting will run simultaneously with more task team working sessions.

For more information on the biannual, please take a look at the programme below:

Programme Aurora Biannual Spring 2021

2021 Spring School on Transferable Skills

Written by Niels Hexspoor on 19. 4. 2021. Posted in Academics, CDS-Network, Events, Students.

Are you interested in developing your professional skills? This may, our Aurora partners at the University of Naples Federico II offer a free online course, focused on developing skills in grant and CV writing, and how to get a faculty position. This program is open to all Master’s and Ph.d. students from within the Aurora Alliance, particularly those in a STEM-field (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathemathics).

The course will give an overview of the breadth of interviews that can be expected on your interview journey and will provide a space to practice interview questions. We will discuss team management and gender equality in academia and research and how improv games may improve your work-life.

This two-day Spring School will take place on Tuesday the 4th and Wednesday the 5th of May. Participation in this course will allow you to earn 2 ECTS-credits. For more information, please take a look at the Spring School’s website, or the flyer, containing the full program:

2021 Spring School on Transferable Skills Flyer

Interested in signing up? Please contact internationalfarmacia@unina.it, before May 1st.

Aurora Mini-Grants – List of awarded Mini-Grants

Written by Niels Hexspoor on 16. 4. 2021. Posted in Academics, CDS-Network, Students.

Friday, April 16, 2021 | After a very successful first call for applications, in which 27 applications were filed, the Aurora Central Office at Palacky University has finished its evaluation. It is our pleasure to announce the applications that will be awarded a Mini-Grant.

Out of the 27 applications, eighteen project applications were chosen to receive funding. In total, more than 1,6 Million Czech Crowns have been awarded in this first round. The funding of these projects paid directly from the Rectorate’s sources, will serve to further strengthen the Aurora Alliance, and will directly benefit these projects set up by our Academics.

This pilot phase of UP Aurora Mini-Grants received a wide range of applications, spanning several different fields, from five of our faculties and research centers. Below please find the list of funded projects:

Primary Investigator	Project Title
Barbora SITTOVÁ	Webinars on German grammar
David LIVINGSTONE	Promoting Mental Health among Students with Online Cultural Entertainment
Elona KRASNIQI	Evidencing online risks of youth’s mental health of those coming from state care, and foster care.
Filip KRAUS	Academic Networking on Researching Migration, Identities, and Sexualities in the Vietnamese Diaspora
František KRATOCHVÍL	Wordnets for low-resource languages: Creating a roadmap for using NLP technology to aid language documentation, description, and maintenance
Jaroslava KUBÁTOVÁ	Sustainable Social Enterprises
Lenka DZUROVÁ	Protein engineering in the collaboration with appropriate Aurora Partner Universities
Ľudmila LACKOVÁ	Aurorization of the course Complex Analysis of Text and Communication Process
Lukáš ZÁMEČNÍK HADWIGER	Theory of Digital Humanities
Martin SOUKUP	Colonialism in 21st Century
Michal PEPRNÍK	Sharing expertise in English studies: Ph.D. workshops and international conference
Miroslav KOPECKÝ	Active aging – a healthy lifestyle
Pavel ZAHRÁDKA	Remix Culture in the Music Industry
Pavlína FLAJŠAROVÁ	Aurora-Shared Interdisciplinary Series of Lectures on Cultural Diversity
Peter TAVEL	Starting shot
Petra VACULÍKOVÁ	Cradle for Excellence in Social Sciences and Humanities (CROSS)
Silvie VÁLKOVÁ	Bringing Academic Writing courses in English up-to-date
Tereza MOTALOVÁ	Galileo for Open Science: Network of Stewards and Navigation Interface for the World of Open Science (“OS Galileo”)

Ordered alphabetically, based on the first name of the PI.

The applicants were asked to specify whether their project dealt with Education, Research, and/or Professionalization, with most proposals concentrating on either Education or research.

The applicants were also asked to disclose the partner and associate partners named and included in the proposal. The University of Innsbruck and our associate partners from Kosice proved to be the most frequent collaborators.

In line with the overall vision and aims of the Aurora Alliance, applicants were asked to tie their proposals to one or several Aurora Pilot Domains.

The Sustainable Development Goals also hold an important position in all of Aurora’s endeavors. The applicants were asked to pick at least one of the SDGs and demonstrate how their proposal contributes to that goal. SDG 4: Quality Education and SGD 17: Partnership for the Goals were chosen most often, with SDG 3: Good Health and Well-Being proving popular as well.

The UP Aurora Office looks back on a promising, successful pilot phase for its Mini-Grant scheme. We are looking forward to further developing the scheme for future calls, and above all, we look forward to seeing these Mini-Grants contribute to the excellent international projects our Academics will carry out!

A complete overview of the programs and the participating Academics can be found here: List of Funded UP Aurora minigrants (pdf).

Report on Aurora Mini-Grant Scheme

Written by Niels Hexspoor on 13. 4. 2021. Posted in Academics, CDS-Network, Students.

Tuesday, April 13, 2021 | After a very successful first call for applications, in which 27 applications were filed, the Aurora Central Office at Palacky University has finished its evaluation.

The project applications and project evaluations are currently being reviewed by the Vice-Deans for internationalization, at their request, with the final outcomes expected by the end of this week. The selected projects are to be funded by the Palacky University Rectorate.

This pilot phase of UP Aurora Mini-Grants received a wide range of applications, spanning several different fields, from five of our faculties.

The applicants were asked to specify whether their project dealt with Education, Research, and/or Professionalization, with most proposals concentrating on either Education or research.

In line with the overall vision and aims of the Aurora Alliance, applicants were asked to tie their proposals to one or several Aurora Pilot Domains.

Looking back on the first CDS Awareness Raising Meeting Webinar

Written by Niels Hexspoor on 30. 3. 2021. Posted in Academics, CDS-Network.

On Friday the 26^th of March, the Aurora Alliance organized its first Capacity Development Support (CDS) Awareness Raising Webinar. This meeting, the first of series of six, focused on “Transforming teaching through soft skills, social engagement, and virtual exchange competencies”. As such, it tied into a wide range of Aurora Alliance activities, covering all of the Alliance’s three substantive work packages.

The webinar was organized by Aurora CDS Task Team leader & co-leader – Palacky University and Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. The sessions were moderated by Selma Porobic (Chair, UP), Anna Bon (co-chair VU), Tereza Kalouskova (co-chair, UP).

„One of the most informative webinars that I have attended lately. It allowed me to see how many opportunities the alliance offers and how many professionals are actively involved in this initiative. Your enthusiasm, creative ideas, and motivation were visible from the first moment. I am happy to be part of your team!“

Mgr. Mária Vasiľová PhD., Pavol Jozef Šafárik University

The webinar gathered our associate partner universities and Alliance members, to take part and discuss three important Aurora deliverables in our joint collaboration: Competence Framework, Service Learning & Co-creation, and VirtualExchange, aiming to initiate the co-creation process with our associate partners.

Kees Kouwenaar (the Secretary-General for the Aurora Universities Network) came to the VU in 2008 as Director for the Centre for International Cooperation and has also managed the VU’s Strategic Internationalisation Programme. Since 2015, Kouwenaar played a key role and is now coordinating the Aurora Universities.

His presentation focused on two distinct examples of competencies from the EntreComp Framework and the VALUE Rubrics framework to highlight how these “soft skills” added to the subject-related knowledge and skills of the course may advance the employability and recognisability of the students/graduates and offer pathways to international peer learning among academic teachers.

“The participation of the UT as an associate partner in such a network, alongside leading universities in research and innovation, presents an excellent opportunity to follow the pace of dynamic developments in the academic world.”

University of Tetova

Marjolein Zweekhorst is professor of innovation and education at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Her research aims to provide insight into themes related to inter- and transdisciplinary research and is focused on the development of educational approaches and innovations in health and life science education and methodology development for interactive policy and interactive technology development in the field of (international) public health (aiming to improve access to health care especially in low- and middle-income countries.

Sarju Sing Rai is a postdoctoral lecturer for Masters program courses – Research Methods, Epidemiology, Global Health, and a researcher in the field of health and societal sciences – community service learning (CSL), global health (GH), and public health (PH).

Their presentation introduced Service Learning and Co-creation as concepts and discussed how these are being developed within their Aurora Alliance task team to support staff and students and equip them with the knowledge, skills, and mindset to tackle societal challenges as social entrepreneurs and innovators.

Barbara Tasser is head of International Services at the University of Innsbruck. Since 2004, Tasser has been in charge of the Italy Centre, and the past five years now of the university’s International Services. Before dedicating herself to intercultural relations, she dived into the history of humankind. In 1992, Tasser began her archaeology studies at the University of Innsbruck.

In her presentation about Virtual Mobility, Dr. Tasser introduced and clarified the concept of virtual exchange and introduced the developing model of the Aurora task team Borderless Learning that she is leading.

Thanks to all! The 1 CDS meeting was most inspiring and productive in terms of understanding of the concept of the deliverables. It is always a pleasure to meet professionals and learn more! The information about the CDS Awareness Raising Meeting webinar will be posted on V.N.Karazin Kharkiv National University site.

Olena Mashintsova, V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University

The webinar proved to be an excellent starting point for further discussion on the Competence Framework, Service Learning & Co-creation, and Virtual Exchange, as the morning presentations cumulated in a fruitful brainstorming session and discussion, looking ahead to the implementation of these concepts across the Aurora CDS network.

The 1st CDS Awareness Raising Meeting Webinar put important accents on three modern and envisaging deliverables: Competence Framework, Service Learning & Co-Creation, and Virtual Mobility. The seminar was engaging, interactive, educational, and very productive. New ideas and opportunities for internationalization at home were born. The brainstorming process was really moving. Definitely looking forward to attending the 2nd Meeting! Thank you for your eagerness and inspiration!

Stanislav Grozdanov, South-West University “Neofit Rilski”

Continuing the conversation started during this webinar, the next CDS meeting will take place in the second part of the year.

The presentations, outcomes, and full recording of the session are available upon request, please contact Tereza Kalouskova if you are interested in any of these materials.