Launch of the "Future4Alliances" project: supporting the development of European universities alliances

Campus France, Project Coordinator of “Future4Alliances”

The European “Future4Alliances” project, led by Campus France, started in March 2025. Co-financed by the European Union, this three-year programme is designed to support the continued development of the 65 European universities alliances by creating an environment conducive to the expansion of their activities, as well as by enhancing the coherence of funding provided by national and regional authorities.

The project has a total budget of 1.2 million euros, including 962,642 € co-financed by the EU.

“Future4Alliances” pursues two main objectives:

• To establish a legislative and technical framework that is favourable to European Universities alliances.
   
• To strengthen the coherence of national and regional funding for these alliances, complementing Erasmus+ and other European programme funds.
   

Within this framework, the consortium has identified three priority themes:

• The sustainability of funding for alliances.
• Joint educational programmes and activities.
• The international dimension of alliances and hosting measures.
   

To achieve its objectives, the consortium will organise both face-to-face and virtual seminars, as well as field visits, to foster the exchange of best practices and stimulate discussion on how public authorities can support future developments.

Based on analyses conducted as part of the project, the consortium will publish recommendations intended for EU member states, the European Commission, European alliances, and stakeholders. Given the transformative nature of the alliances, these recommendations are expected to benefit European higher education as a whole.

Members of the European Consortium

• Campus France (coordinator, France)
• the Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research (BMBWF, Austria)
• the Ministry of Education and Science (MoES, Bulgaria)
• EDUFI (Finland)
• the Ministry of University and Research (MUR, Italy)
• HK-dir (Norway)
• the Foundation Tempus (Serbia)
• CMEPIUS (Slovenia)
• the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities (MICIU, Spain)

In addition, 23 associated partners from 13 European countries will support the project’s activities: European Students' Union (Belgium), Vlaamse Gemeenschap (Flemish Authority, Belgium), Ministry of Culture and Education (Finland), Ministry in charge of Higher Education and Research (France), High Council for the Evaluation of Research and Higher Education (Hcéres, France), French National Erasmus+ Agency, Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF, Germany), Secretariat of the Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs of the Länder (Germany), DAAD (Germany), Ministry of Education, Culture and Science (the Netherlands), Nuffic (the Netherlands), Uni-Italia (Italy), Movetia (Switzerland), University of Poitiers (France), University of Applied Sciences St. Pölten (Austria), Technical University of Sofia, (Bulgaria)   Metropolia University of Applied Sciences (Finland), University Ca’ Foscari of Venice (Italy), University of Oslo (Norway), University of Belgrade (Serbia), University of Primorska (Slovenia), University of Barcelona (Spain), Ministry of the French Community (Belgium).

The European Universities Initiative

The initiative for European Universities alliances originated following the speech delivered by President Emmanuel Macron at the Sorbonne on 26 September 2017, in which he mentioned the creation of innovative European institutions and the establishment of multilingual programmes to meet current challenges and uphold European values.

Since 2019, 65 alliances have brought together 570 European institutions, including 64 French institutions. France is thus the second most represented country in terms of the number of institutions involved, after Germany (67 institutions). Spain ranks third with 56 institutions.