The EU supports Icelandic universities

Last week I had the honour of speaking at the inaugural event of Aurora 2030, the newest chapter of the Aurora University Partnership. The University of Iceland participates in the Aurora collaboration together with eight other universities, and under the leadership of the University of Iceland, the collaboration received this summer a grant of almost two billion ISK from the European Union, which covers four years. That is a large sum and I wish the Aurora collaboration and the University of Iceland congratulations on receiving the grant.

In 2018, the European Commission launched a new program aimed at strengthening cooperation among European universities in all fields i.e. in terms of teaching, research and innovation. This ambitious program was named the "European Universities Initiative" and is primarily financed through Erasmus+, which many Icelanders are familiar with. An interdisciplinary and transnational approach is necessary to address the major challenges facing future generations, such as climate change, threats to democracy, and harness the opportunities of digitalisation. Therefore, the European Union has decided to allocate no less than 168 billion ISK (€1.1 billion) to the European University Initiative in the budget period 2021-2027, through Erasmus+.

European “University Alliances”, like Aurora, include great benefits, e.g. by improving the international competitiveness of European higher education institutions, as well as promoting European values and shared identity. The university alliances also create diverse opportunities for students to pursue part of their studies at other universities within the alliance, where universities systematically contribute to the creation of common study paths and courses. Likewise, university academic staff can strengthen cooperation with each other and conduct research and teaching in the alliance's universities.

Today, there are around 50 European University Alliances within the program comprising more than 430 universities. Of those, there are three Icelandic universities, the University of Iceland, the University of Reykjavík and the Agricultural University of Iceland. The University of Reykjavík participates in NeurotechEU, together with eight other universities, which is a joint project of Europe's leading research university in the field of neurotechnology. The NeurotechEU alliance received around ISK 2.2 billion in funding from the EU, in the summer. The University of Agriculture of Iceland participates in the UNIgreen (The Green European University) alliance together with seven other universities, and last year the partnership received around 960 million Icelandic ISK in funding from the EU.

                Icelandic higher education institutions enjoy the right to participate in European collaborative projects like this and access to countless grants thanks to the EEA Agreement. This is one of many examples of the positive and important cooperation that the EEA Agreement has resulted in. Next year we celebrate the 30th anniversary of the entry into force of the EEA Agreement, and I invite you to take part in the various events that will be held in the coming year to mark the agreement's big anniversary.