The University of Southern Denmark joins European University Alliance EPICUR

The EPICUR Alliance welcomes a new member: the Southern Danish University (SDU).

With the Southern Danish University, the number of members of the EPICUR Alliance increases to nine.
Currently, the following universities are members of the Alliance:
- Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan (Poland)
- University of Amsterdam (Netherlands)
- Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (Greece)
- Albert Ludwigs University in Freiburg (Germany)
- University of Upper Alsace Mulhouse (France)
- Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (Germany)
- University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna (Austria)
- University of Strasbourg (France)

The integration of the University of Southern Denmark, with 27,000 students and 3,800 employees, into the various activities and the Steering Committee of the University Alliance will take place in the last year of the pilot project phase, which ends in October 2022. During 2022-2028, the implementation phase of the University Alliance, SDU will be fully embedded as a new university member. This expansion comes at a time when the European Commission has just recently - on November 30, 2021 - published the new call for proposals under Erasmus+ to support the further development of the European Higher Education Initiative. The call offers educational institutions the opportunity to join existing alliances and receive operational funding for six years following the three-year pilot phase.

"We are very pleased to welcome the Southern Danish University to the EPICUR Alliance. We see this as a great enrichment as well as an opportunity to be able to strengthen the presence in Northern Europe and, above all, to have among the members a university that is very advanced in the development of education and training programs. Southern Danish University has also rooted the goals of sustainable development in all its strategic axes. With campuses in six cities in Denmark, Southern Danish University has many associated partners. This is an important aspect for the Alliance to develop its relationships with public and private partners at regional, national and European levels", so Jean-Marc Planeix, vice president for academic partnerships and governance at the University of Strasbourg and strategic director of EPICUR.

For Jens Ringsmose, Rector of the University of Southern Denmark, joining the EPICUR Alliance means playing a leading role in the future of European education and research. He is convinced that the nine universities will reap significant benefits from their joint commitment to further developing the project: "It is a great honor to be part of this alliance, consisting of such great and competent universities, to jointly develop innovative education and research for the Europe of the future."

EPICUR is part of the first generation of European University Alliances co-funded by the European Commission since November 2019. It now consists of nine higher education institutions from seven different European countries. EPICUR enables students, faculty, staff and researchers to gain comprehensive, unlimited and interdisciplinary academic perspectives through a network of European universities. By promoting mobility (virtual and physical) and developing innovative didactic approaches - regardless of nationality, mother tongue, cultural or socio-economic background - the EPICUR Alliance brings together the four core competencies of a "European University": teaching, research, scientific innovation and interaction with society - these are the four key areas covered by the European Knowledge Square.