14,4 million euro for the ENHANCE+ project | Gdańsk University of Technology

The ENHANCE Alliance was founded in November 2019 as an association of seven European technical universities: Technische Universität Berlin (Germany), Chalmers University of Technology (Sweden), Norwegian University of Science and Technology (Norway), Politecnico di Milano (Italy), RWTH Aachen University (Germany), Universitat Politècnica de València (Spain) and Warsaw University of Technology. In 2022, the Alliance welcomed three new partners – Gdańsk University of Technology, Technische Universiteit Delft (Netherlands) and ETH Zürich (Switzerland). In March 2023, the Board of Directors assigned Prof. Krzysztof Wilde, the Rector of Gdańsk Tech, to act as the co-chair of the Board. Prof. Janusz Nieznański, the Vice-Rector for Internationalization and Innovation, is a member of the Steering Committee of the Alliance and Anna Modrzejewska, M.A., head of the International Relations Office, is the Core Officer.

– When in November last year, during the meeting of the ENHANCE Board of Directors in Aachen, Gdańsk University of Technology was officially accepted into the Alliance, we knew that it was not only a prestigious distinction for our university, but also a prospect of actual benefits resulting from cooperation with the leading technical universities in Europe. Joining ENHANCE meant a new impulse
in the process of internationalization at Gdańsk Tech – says Prof. Krzysztof Wilde, the Rector of Gdańsk University of Technology.

In January 2023, ENHANCE - already as a consortium of 10 universities - submitted a joint application ("ENHANCE+") as part of the European Universities call (more information on “European Universities” available here). There were 65 proposals, involving 500 European institutions that took part in the call.

One of the best evaluated projects

The European Commission announced the results of the call for proposals on Monday, July 3. Funding was awarded to 23 existing alliances and 7 new ones. Currently, the European Universities Initiative includes 50 alliances associating 430 higher education institutions. The total budget of the call amounted to a record 402.2 million euro. Applications were assessed according to the following criteria: relevance; project design and implementation; partnership and cooperation arrangements and the impact of the project. The ENHANCE+ application received 24 out of 25 points in each of the above categories.

As we read in the evaluation summary report,  “The proposal consistently addresses the goals of the European Universities call and fully supports the long-term vision of the European Universities initiative. With pedagogically new teaching and learning approaches, systemic thinking and ambitious goals, the proposal is very ambitious. Major strengths are the joint educational offer (e.g. European Education Pathways) and the joint IT infrastructure and services (e.g. interoperable IT system)”.

The application of Gdańsk University of Technology was prepared under the supervision of Prof. Janusz Nieznański, Vice-Rector for Internationalization and Innovation. The following persons participated in the process: Anna Modrzejewska, MA, Head of the International Relations Office, Prof. Joanna Mytnik, Director of the Innovative Education Center, Katarzyna Dzięcielewska, MA, Director of the HR Center, and Justyna Szostak, PhD Eng., Chair of the Internationalization Committee.

Prof. Janusz Nieznański, Vice-Rector for Internationalization and Innovation: – Participation in the ENHANCE+ project fits perfectly into our strategy and the assumptions of the IDUB project. Work on the application proved that Gdańsk University of Technology can benefit from valuable experience of other universities of the alliance, and also has a lot to offer itself. The university community - authorities, employees and students - have now four years of very intensive work ahead of them in order to fully use the potential of this project.

Gdańsk University of Technology - the leader in one of the thematic areas 

Activities in the ENHANCE+ project have been divided into 10 thematic areas (so-called work packages). Gdańsk University of Technology will be the leader of one of them (WP 2: Human Dimension). Activities within this thematic group will be coordinated by the HR Center in cooperation with other Gdańsk Tech units. The representatives of the university - research staff, academic staff, administrative staff and students will also be actively involved in activities in other areas, including the following:

WP 1: Project Management and Governance

WP 3: Future Learning

WP 4: Future Skills for Engineers and Scientists

WP 5: Sustainable Entrepreneurship and Innovation

WP 6: Transdyscyplinary Lab for Societal Transformation

WP 7: European Education Pathways

WP 8: New Formats and Frameworks

WP 9: IT Infrastructure and Services

WP 10: Diversity, Impact and Dissemination

 – Being a new member of the Alliance, we received a great opportunity to coordinate one of the key thematic areas in the ENHANCE+" project. It was our initiative to include the broadly understood development needs of administrative, research and teaching staff more in the activities for 2024-2027 – says Anna Modrzejewska, Head of the International Relations Office and ENHANCE Core Officer at Gdańsk Tech. 

The ENHANCE+ project starts this November.

An official announcement of ENHANCE on the results of the Erasmus+ call for proposals, European Universities initiative, can be downloaded here.

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About ENHANCE: The ENHANCE Alliance was founded in November 2019 as an association of seven European technical universities (in 2022 three more universities joined the alliance). ENHANCE goal is to create a European and interdisciplinary space for interaction of innovative technological progress, society and our environment. Gdańsk University of Technology has been a member of ENHANCE since 2022. More about ENHANCE.