At the end of June, the first face-to-face meeting of the EULiST coordination office took place at the Universidad Rey Juan Carlos (Madrid). EULiST (European Universities Linking Society & Technology), opens in new window is an alliance of nine European universities - including TU Wien - at the interface of technology and the humanities and social sciences, which aims to improve coordination and cooperation between higher education institutions in study, mobility and research.

The Universidad Rey Juan Carlos (URJC) hosted the meeting to discuss cooperation in higher education and to initiate further activities to shape the EULiST Alliance. Representatives of the nine EULiST universities from all over Europe took part. These are LUH, URJC, National Technical University of Athens, Brno University of Technology, Slovak University of Technology Bratislava, L'Aquila University, Vienna University of Technology, University of Jönköping and Lappeenranta-Lahti University of Technology.

As the project was created during the pandemic, it was developed entirely remotely and this meeting was the first to be held face to face. María Luisa Humanes Humanes, Vice-Rector for International Relations at URJC, stressed that it was an honour for the university to host the event: "This is an expression of our commitment to the EULiST project, which also coincides with the celebration of URJC's 25th anniversary."

During the meeting, future actions to strengthen the educational link between universities were analysed, such as the creation of joint degrees, courses and micro-certificates in which students from EULiST universities can participate and which are recognised at European level. The basics of coordination and exchange of researchers, administrative and science support staff were also discussed in order to improve the experience and knowledge of all members of the university community. An exchange of good practice in supporting Ukrainian students and researchers concluded the coordination meeting.

Pablo Salvadores, Director of Projects and International Relations and URJC's local coordinator within the EULiST Alliance, highlights the positive development of the initiative. He underlines the importance of the European University Initiative: "It is the future and the present of education. It is the biggest commitment of the European Union to higher education in recent years, both financially and organisationally."

More meetings of this kind are already in the pipeline: the EULiST Presidents' Board, which will again take place at the URJC in October, and another meeting of EULiST coordinators in September in Barcelona on the margins of the European Association for International Education meeting.