From November 29th to December 1st 2021, Université Gustave Eiffel hosted the members of the PIONEER Alliance. The meeting was an opportunity for exchanges, discussions and signing of two double degrees.
As part of its international relations, Université Gustave Eiffel aims to set up and manage a European network and to internationalise training and research. In March 2022, the university will submit a European university project, the PIONEER project, focusing on the “city of tomorrow”, with at least four partners: LAUREA Helsinki in Finland, the University of Zilina in Slovakia, TH Köln University in Germany and ISCTE-IUL Lisbon in Portugal.
From November 29th to December 1st 2021, the European delegation of the Alliance travelled to Champs-sur-Marne for preparatory meetings for the PIONEER project, as well as the official signature of two double master’s degrees in computer science (Master Systèmes Intelligents et Applications) between Université Gustave Eiffel, ISCTE-IUL and TH-KÖLN, in the presence of Professor Gilles Roussel, President of the Université Gustave Eiffel, Professor Stefan Herzig, Rector of TH KÖLN and Professor Maria de Lurdes Rodrigues, Rector of ISCTE-IUL.
The delegation also took part in the FUTURE Days (https://www.futuredays.fr/) for a session on “decarbonisation in the world” and by taking part in the European Hackathon which brings together students from the partner universities around a common theme: infrastructures for low-carbon mobility in Europe.
The PIONEER project
Through 16 campuses, and in order to meet the current and future needs of cities and citizens, the commitments of the project members are to promote European values, human dignity, freedom and democracy (Lisbon Treaty) and to respond to the needs of society. Thus, these universities are setting up innovative research and training activities benefiting and contributing to cutting-edge knowledge and innovation through new programmes in the following six areas Civil Engineering for Carbon Neutral Urban Areas, Safety, Security and Risk Management for Resilient Cities, Technology Solutions for Smart Cities, Service Design for Sustainable Cities, Sustainable Urban Living and Tourism, and Circular Economy for Urban Citizens.
The objectives of the ERASMUS + PIONEER programme:
- Establish a common campus governance model,
- Enable students to undertake physical, virtual and/or mixed mobility and promote inclusion,
- Improve the quality of education by engaging students and academic communities in learning activities promoting European citizenship,
- Co-create a common innovative pedagogical model called learning by doing that links research and training (joint degrees…),
- Designing innovative solutions for urban challenges through joint research programmes and the implementation of Living Labs that promote entrepreneurship,
- Involving citizens in educational research and innovation activities to meet the needs of society, including the ambitions of the EU Green Deal and the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
