Every year, the Unite! Awards recognise outstanding contributions to the Alliance, honouring nine recipients in this edition. The awards have become a moment to celebrate the people whose ideas and commitment help Unite! grow.
Among this year’s award recipients is Bartosz Stec from Wrocław University of Science and Technology (Wrocław Tech), recognised for his contribution to promoting the Alliance in Wrocław and building connections between student and academic communities.
Meet the winners of this edition:
As Aalto’s representative in the Unite! Seed Fund project Digital Solutions for Sustainable Water Management, Teemu has played a key role in driving academic collaboration. He has actively enhanced Unite!’s teaching initiatives by piloting the Metacampus platform for coursework and contributing valuable proposals for platform development.
Since joining the Alliance in 2023, Barbara has dedicated her expertise to structuring and developing Community 6, making Unite! accessible and engaging for academic and administrative staff. As co-Chair of the FOREU4ALL group on Community Engagement, she actively organises key events and strategic reflections across partner institutions.
Kjartan has significantly advanced international cooperation within Unite! through educational and research initiatives. He led the Seed Fund project Circular Architectural Engineering, integrating sustainability into curricula, and has continuously fostered academic connections by coordinating doctoral collaborations, joint student activities, summer schools and shared project proposals.
Alberto Godio (Politecnico di Torino)
Alberto is recognised for his long-standing dedication and valuable contributions to the Alliance. Serving as Deputy KLO, SLO, and an active member of the Unite! Academic Forum within the Student Activity Evaluation Board, his ongoing commitment has been vital to driving student engagement and institutional collaboration.
Professor Kubin has leveraged Unite!’s potential from the start, uniting educators and researchers across all nine member universities. Notably, he successfully secured EU funding for a European Graduate School for Speech, Language, and AI Technologies through the highly competitive Erasmus Mundus Design Measures programme to shape joint Master’s programmes.
The U!Train 2025 organising team is recognised for designing and executing the Blended Intensive Programme (BIP) Entrepreneurship with a Focus on Sustainability and Multicultural Collaboration. This innovative teaching format combined online preparation with sessions at TU Darmstadt and TU Graz, using a joint train journey as a learning space.
The Community 3 management team is awarded for its outstanding work coordinating partners across the Alliance. Their sustained efforts have delivered essential inclusion and support frameworks, including the Welcome Kits, the Inclusion Office, wellbeing initiatives and the centralised Unite! Welcome Centre.
Since the founding of Unite!, Josep has exemplified the impact academic leadership can have on the Alliance. Through his commitment, enthusiasm and leadership – particularly within the Unite!.H2020 project and Community 8 – he has demonstrated how senior expertise enriches both Unite! and academic career development.
Bartosz has consistently fostered local awareness of the Alliance by driving the Let’s UNITE! promotional campaigns in Wrocław in 2025 and 2026. Through these initiatives, he has helped strengthen the visibility of Unite! at Wrocław Tech and connect student and academic communities. He also efficiently manages complex international training projects and builds lasting collaborative networks between partner universities.
