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Welcome to the 6th edition of the EUniverCities Newsletter
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6th edition EUniverCities Newsletter

 

Friday, 11 December 2015 

Welcome to the 6th edition of the EUniverCities Newsletter. A special Christmas Edition!


Find out the latest updates about the EUniverCities Network. In this edition you will get to know what happened since the meeting in Lausanne, May 2015. You also get a glimpse of the Network Meeting held in Norrköping and Linköping (Sweden) from 24-27 November 2015. Furthermore, this newsletter also contains information about the outcomes of the plenary meeting and strategy document discussion.
 
Enjoy reading this newsletter. We hope you have a wonderful Christmas and we wish you a happy and healthy New Year!



 
 

EUniverCities
Secretariat

City of Delft
Department of Urban and Economic Development

Patrick van Geel,
Jessica Slaats and
Adrie Steenbeek


Address:
PO Box 78
NL - 2600 ME Delft
The Netherlands


Phone:
+31 15 260 2513
+31 683210243

+31 15 260 1834

E-mail:

network_eunivercities
@delft.nl



Websites:
eunivercitiesnetwork.com
 

EUniverCities Meeting in Lausanne (May 2015)

What happened since? 

First of all, jointly organizing the meeting in Lausanne was an excellent opportunity for both the City and the University to develop a deeper acquaintance and create a dynamic in engaging into a mid-term project of structured collaboration. Furthermore, as was already stated by other cities in the past, hosting the EUniverCities Network peer-review meeting was a way to create commitment from the authorities to further support the development of collaboration projects.
 
That is why an informal meeting between Mayor Daniel Brélaz and Rector Dominique Arlettaz took place in early September, so as to take advantage of the momentum. It was successful: both decided to further develop a structured collaboration pattern between students and scientists of the UNIL and services of the City. A joint working group was appointed to create an “exchange platform” (whatever this will be) that UNIL and City staff will rely on when developing collaboration projects. The platform was allocated a joint yearly budget of CHF 40,000.- as of 2016, which will be used to develop the platform as well as to support collaboration projects. A three years framework agreement is being drafted, so as to ensure institutional support beyond the city elections, next June, and UNIL’s change of Rector next August .
 
Some 40 UNIL researchers and City staff met at an end-of-the-day event, late September, in order to get input about the peer review report by Willem van Winden and to be informed about the political intention to further develop a collaboration platform. They were as well given the opportunity to shortly express their own expectations or advices. The first purpose of the meeting was to create adherence . It was also a good opportunity to identify people motivated in taking part to the working group.
 
The working group (10 members) is now set up, under the lead of Nadia and Marc. The kick-off meeting is to take place mid-January. Its first assignment will be to submit, by April next, a platform concept and an action planwhich ensure the proper use of the financial resources allocated.
 
Marc de Perrot/UNIL
Nadia Yersin/City of Lausanne

Read Peer Review Report

 

EUniverCities Network Meeting Norrköping and Linköping (24-27 November 2015) 

From 24-27 November 2015 the EUniverCities Network Meeting took place in Norrköping and Linköping, Sweden. The aim of the Network Meeting was to exchange experiences, share knowledge and insights among each other and jointly develop recommendations on how to improve city-university cooperation. The meeting consisted of Interactive Seminars and a Peer Review Meeting.  Main topic of the peer review meeting was “A Civic University and Academic Cities”.
 
The meeting was a very inspiring one with lots of interesting discussions and examples of collaboration between city and university. Key players from Linköping´s University and the Cities of Linköping and Norrköping presented examples and information about how they work to become a Civic University and Academic Cities. Afterwards there was a very fruitful Peer Review to discuss the questions raised by Norrköping, Linköping and Linköping University about how to become a civic university and academic cities. There are different interpretations of definitions, usefulness and necessity of a civic university and academic city. Therefore, the discussions were not only about how to become it, but maybe even more about ‘what does it mean to different parties’. The second half of the programme was filled with interactive seminars and we visited impressive sites like CMIV in Linköping (see website) and the Visualisation Centre in Norrköping.  
 
Presentations of the Network Meeting are sent to the participants and coordinators by email.  The peer review report of the meeting and a video impression will follow soon.

The presentation of John Goddard 

'The University and the City'
The EUC Network had the honour to welcome Emeritus Professor John Goddard of Newcastle University. John Goddard gave an impressive presentation about ‘The University and the City’. John Goddard told about universities as anchor institutions and how universities can be strongly connected to the development of cities. Furthermore he gave us some insights in the so called ‘university black box’ and shared his view on going from triple helix to quadruple helix. Finally, John Goddard also gave a committed speech about the importance of leadership from decision-makers from both local authorities and universities to foster cooperation and mutual understanding .
 
If you would like to receive the presentation, please contact one of the coordinators or the secretariat (or see this interesting video of another presentation about innovation Professor Goddard gave at ‘InnovateNE 2013’).

Top 3 highlights

During the plenary meeting participants were asked to say which best practices they would take back home after the meeting in Norrköping and Linköping:
 
1. A tool with indicators for measuring cooperation between municipality and university (co-developed by Norrköping, Tampere and Trondheim)
2. The municipality PhD (municipal employees taking a PhD in a specialized area)
3. Examples of cooperation agreements like Lyskraft
 
Some other frequently mentioned highlights:
The presentation of John Goddard see the weblink in topic ‘The presentation of John Goddard’ in this newsletter. The Visualization Centre (see website) and LuMink (see video).



Review of the Network Meeting Norrköping and Linköping by Kristina and Monica

Two weeks ago the EUniverCities Network conference started in Norrköping.  Today we take care of the "after work" which a conference generates. We want you to know that we are so pleased and happy with the outcomes. At a conference the content of the programme is of great importance: lecturers, premises, breaks and FIKA are also vital. But….most important of all are the PARTICIPANTS.
And they were the best : interested, engaged, inquisitive, demanding, positive, patient, sustainable through the day and evenings and sharing their knowledge and expertise so generously with us. We want to thank all the participants for that!
 
During the conference, participants highlighted perspectives that we more or less take for granted - such as student engagement and participation in collaborative activities and our different strategies and agreements between Linköping’s university and the two municipalities. However, participants gave that a new dimension.
The participants also gave us some good input on how to go forward in different areas, like the indicators, clusters building, a more holistic approach, to present what we do in a more structured way and of course what we don´t do!
 
Some of the “local participants” have also come forward by saying they also learned so much and see new possibilities in our forthcoming work in Linköping and Norrköping.
We look forward to seeing the report of the Peer Review.
 
We hope that you will come back soon. You are most welcome! We wish you a happy seasons  filled with joy and a fantastic new Year.
 
Monica Hjern/City of Norrköping
Kristina Lyngenberg/Linköping University

 

Plenary meeting and Strategy Document 

Friday 27th of November the plenary meeting of coordinators took place in Norrköping. During the meeting the coordinators discussed a draft strategy document as an outline for a future EUC Network Strategy 2017-2019.
 
Context
The EUC Network was created in January 2012. At the time, cities and universities agreed to sign a Memorandum of Understanding for a period of three years. The MOU defined the main elements for cooperation and policy development. Last year, when politicians and decision-makers of cities and universities met in Ghent, they called for renewal of the network strategy and new actions. Several  meetings and previous evaluations have led to the first draft strategy document.
 
The discussion of the draft strategy document was a fruitful one with a lot of concrete and valuable inputs. The coordinators decided to elaborate on the document in the coming months and strive to finalize and present the document to decision-makers in October or November 2016. The new strategy will then apply for the period 2017-2019. Pending a new joint strategy the network budget forecast for 2016 will be equal to the one of 2015.
 
If you have any questions about the draft strategy document please contact the secretariat.

 


To end this newsletter in a Christmas mood, here are some fun facts about the Swedish Christmas traditions. The participants of the Network Meeting in Norrköping have also experienced some of those traditions.  
 
Christmas in Sweden begins with the Saint Lucia ceremony. Before dawn on the morning of 13 December, the daughter or wife from each family puts on a white robe with a red sash. She wears a crown of evergreens with tall-lighted candles attached to it. She wakes the  family and serves them coffee and Lucia buns while singing the Saint Lucia song. Other children may accompany her. The other girls also dress in a white robe, but no crown of light - and the boys dressed as star boys in long white shirts and pointed hats. The custom goes back to Lucia, a Christian virgin martyred for her beliefs at Syracuse in the fourth century. The Saint Lucia ceremony is fairly recent, but it represents the traditional thanksgiving for the return of the sun. 


In the old City Hall - the Lucia came from a school in Norrköping.
 

The Lucia bun  Lussekatt!
 
The participants of the Network Meeting in Norrköping and Linköping also experienced the Swedish Julbord. It’s a typical Swedish Christmas buffet with lots of pickled herring, different kinds of salmon, ham, Jansson´s temptation, cabbage, meatballs etc. You always start off with mulled wine and sing songs to get the snaps or beer down - Like "Hej tomtegubbar!".

 

 
- 10-13 October 2016: Open Days Brussels (Belgium): 14th European Week of Regions and Cities.
- October / November 2016: Annual EUC Network Meeting. More information will follow soon.

 


EUniverCities is also active on LinkedIn. If you would like to share any news, updates, activities or events, please post these in our group or send this information to the EUniverCities Secretariat.

You can join us by clicking this link.

 
Should you have any further questions regarding this newsletter or about the EUniverCities Network, please contact us through the following media:
EUC Network Website
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