Our Vision and Ambition

The principal aim of our common vision, ambition, and associated long-term joint strategy in the context of the European Universities Initiative and the European Universities strategy is to establish a European higher education inter-university campus which has the potential to transform the capacity and quality of institutional cooperation between ACE²-EU member institutions and bring it to the next level, fostering deeper integration, enhancing collaboration, and increasing our overall impact and influence within the European higher education landscape. Our inter-university campus will become a legally recognised European University with European and global reach, reputation, and impact focussed on “Addressing Future Challenges and Delivering Sustainable Societal Transformation Today”.

Therefore, in ten years, we envisage ACE²-EU becoming a true European University with a common legal status and having an inter-university campus structure spread all over Europe which allows students, researchers, teaching, and administrative staff seamless mobility and learning opportunities, either through physical mobility or blended and virtual mobility via our fully integrated e-campus. Our students will be able to customise their education thanks to flexible curricula, further education opportunities, micro-credentials, and other unique learning opportunities and activities such as the ACE²-EU: ABC programmes, Flavour Schools, Impactathons, Student Entrepreneurs Traineeship Programme, Change Maker Ambassador Programme, Social Impactor and Culture Hub Volunteer Programmes. Multi-disciplinarity and inter-disciplinarity will have become the norm for our students, teachers, researchers, and stakeholders. Moreover, our members and the communities of all our regions will be reaping the benefits from our APP-Factory, ARIES-Incubator and SPACE- Centre, devoted to tackling issues that directly impact society, thanks to their applied challenge- based approach and focus on innovative solutions, transfer of knowledge and open science. In embracing the values, languages, and cultural nuances represented within our alliance, we empower our members to become true ambassadors of European citizenship, actively contributing to the interconnected and vibrant European Higher Education Area.

To realise our vision and ambition to ensure our inter-university campus is not merely an academic space, but also acts as a lever for transformative institutional cooperation, elevating the member institutions’ combined capacity to provide high-quality, innovative, and impactful solutions to future challenges our unique and differentiated vision centres on taking an:

Applied, Connected, Entrepreneurial and Engaged (ACE²) approach in its implementation.

The elements of our unique ACE²-EU approach are described below:

Applied: We create joint education, research, innovation, and service to society learning opportunities and activities which have a practical, applied focus, deal with real-world issues, and utilise active challenge-based learning approaches.

Connected: We connect the collective expertise and strengths of alliance members through our joint operational units and knowledge creation teams, thereby fostering a collaborative approach to the creation of joint learning opportunities and activities focused on finding solutions to future challenges.

Entrepreneurial: We promote, use, and generate novel and innovative approaches in the development and implementation of our joint learning opportunities and activities to address and tackle future challenges thereby nurturing an entrepreneurial mindset, across our alliance and among our stakeholders and surrounding ecosystems.

Engaged: We engage our external stakeholders and partners in industry, business, society, and government in the development and delivery of all our collaborative learning opportunities, activities and initiatives focussed on future challenges to ensure effective civic engagement and the promotion of knowledge transfer within our surrounding ecosystems.

To achieve our vision and ambition, we will implement our shared integrated long-term joint strategy for education which will engage the expertise of all the mission areas of our universities including education, research, innovation, and service to society and which will be responsive to the digital and green transition and key socio-economic challenges. Our vision, ambition, and joint long-term strategy, in line with the themes and priorities of the European Universities initiative, are underpinned by:

Shared values, principles, and objectives;
Collaborative joint governance and management structures;
A common pool of resources;
Agreement to achieve legal recognition of our alliance;
Co-created seamless mobility opportunities;
Innovative and flexible curricula, empowering students to customise and craft their own educational journey;
Diverse learning opportunities and alternative learning pathways for learners at all stages of life;
Practical and work-based experience and traineeships, fostering entrepreneurial and civic mindsets and knowledge transfer;
European Knowledge Creation teams utilise challenge-based approaches to create innovative solutions.

Central to our vision, ambition, and long-term strategy is the creation of our European higher education inter-university campus; ACE²-EU; to act as a central hub for advancing inter-institutional mobility and interdisciplinary collaboration. By achieving our vision and ambition; through the application of our unique ACE²-EU approach in the implementation of our long-term strategy; our alliance will:

Enhance exchange across our alliance and facilitate seamless mobility opportunities for students, researchers and staff to study, train, teach, and participate freely in education, research innovation, and service to society activities through our collaborative, connected and engaged approach;
Encourage and propel student engagement in new joint, flexible, and innovative curricula, learning opportunities, and learning pathways created by our joint operational units such as the APP-Factory, the ARIES-Incubator and SPACE Centre, thereby empowering students to customise their own flexible curricula and nurturing personalised and flexible educational experiences;
Mobilise and integrate all four mission areas of our universities – education, research and innovation and service to society – in developing our collaborative learning environment to achieve our ambition through the establishment of our joint operational units and systems;
Develop innovative curricula and joint learning opportunities designed to meet future challenges, committed to delivering sustainable societal transformation;
Offer joint learning opportunities across all areas of university engagement, directly aligned with the imminent challenges of our stakeholder community which are based on our applied practice-orientated focus and utilise a challenge-based active learning approach in their delivery;
Provide joint learning opportunities that span a diverse range of disciplines, leveraging the multi-disciplinary profile of our alliance members, offering both targeted micro-credentials and extensive degrees, with a focus on the digital and green transition agendas and key socio-economic challenges facing the EU;
Prioritise work-based learning and traineeship opportunities within our comprehensive joint learning framework, designed and delivered in partnership with our key stakeholders in industry, business, society, and government, to enhance practical learning and foster professional growth;

As a result of our practical challenge-based approach, cultivate an eco-system that nurtures entrepreneurial mindsets, civic engagement and responsibility, an open science approach and knowledge transfer with surrounding ecosystems through, for example, our Applied Research and Innovation Centres (ARCs), Social Incubators, and Entrepreneurship Academy;
Create multi-disciplinary European Knowledge Creation Teams combining the expertise of educators, researchers and external stakeholders drawn from diverse career paths of all members of the alliance to co-create our joint learning opportunities and activities focussed on future challenges within and between our operational units;
Advance innovative learning and teaching and the use of innovative solutions in addressing future challenges by bringing our collective strengths together in the creation of joint learning opportunities and activities across our joint operational units and within our European knowledge creation teams;
Embed EU values and promote EU Identity in all learning opportunities and activities, enriching educational experiences with a deepened awareness of our shared European values and identity, through our values awareness initiatives and activities;
Develop models of good practice to elevate the quality, international competitiveness, and attractiveness of the European higher education landscape. ACE²-EU is committed to co-creating and delivering its joint vision by offering high-quality learner- centred joint learning opportunities and development programmes. These initiatives, designed to benefit students, staff, and stakeholders alike, are forged in collaboration with external partners, embodying a shared commitment to excellence and innovation within our alliance, and include:
High-quality challenge-based joint education opportunities focussed on future challenges developed by the ACE²-EU Applied Programmes and Pedagogy Factory (APP- Factory);
Innovative applied research, innovation and entrepreneurship support services and associated learning opportunities developed by the ACE²-EU Applied Research, Innovation and Entrepreneurship Support Incubator (ARIES-Incubator);
Creative service to society and cultural awareness initiatives developed by the ACE²-EU Social Partnerships And Cultural Engagement Centre (SPACE Centre);
Advanced digital operation and information systems developed and operated by the ACE²-EU e-Campus.