EuroTech’s excellence in research and education, entrepreneurial spirit and dedication to technological innovation can truly make a difference in the fight against Covid-19 and its manifold future implications. This was the key message to take away from this year’s online High Level Event of the Alliance.
In three panels, university presidents and scientists, EU-officials and prominent representatives of industry and society discussed
- Possibilities for systemic change in a post-pandemic world,
- How to empower entrepreneurs for a sustainable future, and
- Ways to fuel the technological sovereignty of Europe.
Building on a close interaction with stakeholders on national and EU-level as well as within their innovation eco-systems, the six partner universities’ collective intelligence is able to deliver on the manifold challenges arising out of the current pandemic.
EuroTeQ Engineering University launched
“The work of our Alliance has not slowed down in times of crisis – quite the opposite!”, explained Thomas F. Hofmann, President of the Technical University of Munich and the EuroTech Universities Alliance, in his welcoming words. “Challenged by adversity, we are now looking back on many success stories, such as quickly adapting to virtual teaching across our partner universities.” With much enthusiasm, he announces the Alliance’s success in the European Universities Initiative of the European Commission: “This November, we will launch the EuroTeQ Engineering University and jointly make it our firm goal to shape Europe’s engineering education of the future.” The innovative approach for the next years is to build an open campus, bringing our students together, connecting them with the wider society, and looking at technologically inspired value creation in a new collaborative and holistic way. EuroTech can then proactively match the demands for continuing professional qualification of talents in Europe’s rapidly changing labour markets.
See the full video of the welcome address by President Thomas F. Hofmann.
Investing in our talents
The topic of nurturing Europe’s talents, also raised in the keynote speech by Thierry Breton, EU Commissioner for Internal Market, carried through all panels. He stressed the vital role that technical universities play in Lifelong Learning, a key element to keep Europe prosperous. We need to invest more to keep up in a world that has gone digital with breath-taking speed. “Talents are equally distributed, opportunities are not”, stated Lina Gálvez Muñoz, ITRE Vice-Chair in the European Parliament. The EU programs and university cultures need to address the same goals to incentivize interdisciplinary, cross-country research and teaching, and offer conditions that promote our talents and keep them on the continent. While all scientist on the panel appreciate the financial incentives such as the EU’s Recovery Plan, they recommend to the Commission an investment in long-term measures that promote innovation – which forms the core of the solution for Covid-19.
“Europe is better that its reputation”
Professor Eugénia da Conceição-Heldt, Chair of European and Global Governance at the TUM School of Governance, underlined that Europe should not be underestimated. Having survived many crises such as Brexit and the refugee and financial crisis, Europe has proven resilient already and will ultimately emerge from the Corona crisis even stronger than before. Still, the European Union can only make use of its full potential when speaking with one single voice, acting in a truly cohesive and unified way. To become a technological leader, Europe needs to strengthen the knowledge transfer and take its citizens along when implementing new measures. Professor Sebastian Pfotenhauer, Coordinator of the EuroTech SCALINGS project at the Technical University of Munich, highlighted the vital impacts of co-creation and incorporating societal responses and citizen involvement to build a truly resilient Europe.
#DaReEU #strongertogether
The EuroTech Universities Alliance is committed to take up the vital inputs from the discussions during this year’s High Level Event and dedicate their combined strengths to the future of Europe. Relying on strong ties to their innovation eco-systems with an emphasis on tech-transfer and community engagement, innovation will continue to be EuroTech’s mission to the benefit of society. The EuroTech mission for 2025 also foresees a strong contribution to European digital sovereignty through a digital ecosystem committed to European values.
Stay tuned on EuroTech’s activities: https://eurotech-universities.eu/, @EuroTechU