As part of the visit made to the University of Huelva this Wednesday by Rectors from the universities belonging to the European University Alliance PIONEER, the signing of the Declaration of the Mission and Objectives of the Alliance took place.

The PIONEER project is oriented towards the creation of a European alliance of universities focused on Sustainable Development Goal 11: Inclusive, Safe, Resilient, and Sustainable Cities. The goal is to contribute to the development of future cities by focusing on educational possibilities, research and innovation potential, and the ability to co-create with local ecosystems. This alliance is coordinated by the Gustave Eiffel University in France and includes nine other universities from various European countries, including the University of Huelva.

After the signing ceremony, the Rector of the University of Huelva, María Antonia Peña, stated, “Today is a very important day for the UHU, as we have rarely hosted such important representatives from European universities at our university.” Specifically, nine European universities, along with the UHU, “are requesting the creation of a consortium, the Pioneer University Alliance, from the European Union. We have representatives from Slovakia, the Netherlands, Italy, Finland, the Czech Republic, Switzerland, Germany, Portugal, and France, the coordinator of the project. In other words, it is a very significant representation of Europe which symbolizes the commitment of the UHU to the internationalization process; not only in terms of typical student and professor mobility exchanges, but especially concerning the creation of a consortium that will help us build interuniversity European degrees and conduct far more robust research.”

Last year, the European Union awarded them a very high score, “a seal of excellence, and we hope that this year it will be approved as well so we can continue advancing.”

It is also an important consortium “because its objective is the execution of Sustainable Development Goal number 11: working for resilient, safe, and inclusive cities” which the “UHU completely identifies with, given the fact we are a university deeply rooted in the territory and with a great inclination for public service; in particular, we work for the well-being of our city and province,” Peña stated.

In this regard, we can also “strengthen our collaboration with organizations and companies in the local area, thanks to the Pioneer Alliance. So, we are crossing our fingers that we are given a score this year that will put us on equal footing with the rest of European consortia.”

In her own words, Agnes Jullien, Vice-Rector for Internationalization at the Gustave Eiffel University in France, stated, “My university formed a few years ago, and for some years now, we have been dedicated, above all, to the cities of the future. We are convinced of the importance of unions and alliances, and when we saw the European Erasmus call for alliances of European universities a few years ago we, we knew we had to participate.”

For Gustave Eiffel University, “it is a great opportunity to work together with the nine other European universities that are part of the alliance and work with students towards this goal,” she affirmed.

In this regard, “we will take on Challenge-Based Learning and work together with our environment, along with the local ecosystems of the thirty-three cities represented in the Alliance, in addition to research.”