‘Inspiring People – Sparking Innovation’ was the guiding principle of the X Unite! Dialogues and the II Unite! Branding Event. TU and Unite! President Tanja Brühl picked up on this in her opening speech and formulated an appeal: ‘As European University Alliances, as Unite!, we are inspired by this European idea. And, most importantly, we aim to take this inspiration further, we aim to be a spark of inspiration for others. We want to be lighthouses for the transformation of Higher Education in Europe. We educate the next generation of Europeans who embody this European spirit wholeheartedly because it is an integral part of their educational journey.’
This was taken further in two panel discussions. The panellists looked at the role of European University Alliances as incubators for collaboration, innovation, talent and strategic regional connections and at success stories and strategies for fostering innovative entrepreneurship, technology transfer and building long-term partnerships and how these can be made more accessible to students.
Success stories were also the subject of the Short Pitches from the various Unite! initiatives, from Unite! Seed Fund projects, student activities such as U!Train!, innovative doctoral programmes and examples of cooperation between business and science, moderated by Dr Jana Freihöfer, Unite! Key Liaison Officer at the TU Darmstadt.
Hessian Minister of Science and Research, Arts and Culture Timon Gremmels also emphasised the crucial role of alliances such as Unite! in promoting peace, strengthening democracy and fostering the innovation needed to tackle future challenges.
Astronaut Thomas Reiter showed how these could be tackled together with his inspiring report from space. According to Reiter, exploring new frontiers pushes the boundaries of human knowledge, cooperation and technological progress.
The guiding principle also ran through the plenary sessions and the cross-cutting working meetings of the Unite! Communities, SURE! and the Governing Bodies. The first Unite! World Café allowed members to work together beyond their respective areas of work and status groups and to develop mutual understanding and, above all, new ideas. For the first time, the Unite! Awards were presented with the choice of the nine awardees which was not an easy task as said Tanja Brühl during the award ceremony. Unite! thrives on the great commitment of its members.
The first Unite! Start-up Award represented a bridge to the start-up scene. Start-ups from all nine Unite! partner universities took part in a two-stage selection process. An international expert jury made up of Unite! representatives and experts from various industries selected two final start-ups that were invited to the Start-up & Innovation Day 2024 in Darmstadt. The winning team, CeraSleeves, was honoured during the closing session of the Unite! Dialogues – a fitting transition to the subsequent InnoDay24, where the start-up scene of the nine Unite! partners had the opportunity to network for the first time.
The XI Unite! Dialogue ‘Unite! Students: Our soul, Our core’ will take place in February 2025 at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya in Barcelona. The Unite! signpost, which was unveiled as a gift to the Unite! community on the TU city centre campus between the canteen and ULB to mark the event, shows the way to Barcelona.
