Hello and welcome to ESNA podcast number 11 on European Higher Education Policy.

The European Commission has just announced the results of its latest university funding proposal,

called the European University's Initiative.

The initiative attracted 54 alliances involving 117 higher education institutions from across the continent.

In this podcast, we are talking with Olga Vessels, a delegate from the Brussels branch of the

European Consortium of Innovative Universities, or ECIU, which is one of the largest alliances

awarded funding via the initiative.

Mrs Vessels, thanks for joining us. Firstly, what is your alliance?

Yeah, so the European Consortium of Innovative Universities

already exists for over 20 years. We started in 1997.

It's an alliance of 14 universities today. And it's all universities with

strong links to their region. And that's really in their DNA. Innovation is in their DNA. And I think

that makes ECIU a very special consortium of young and entrepreneurial universities.

What are the core aims of the ECIU Alliance?

Back in 1997, it was not very done to say as a university that you work together with businesses and industry.

Back then, they were really pioneering entrepreneurship.

Students can work on real-life challenges,

and they shared best practices, but also failures,

so they could learn from each other.

You ask industry or the government or societal organizations

for a real-life challenge.

Then they ask students in a group to work on this real-life challenge

...