YERUN Focus Areas and Priorities
Talent Development
The YERUN member universities share a common understanding on their unique role and responsibility in delivering most favourable environment and various opportunities to maximize the development potential of the entire university community: from students, researchers and academic staff to administrative staff, leaders and stakeholders.
Within this focus area the YERUN members are working together on the following priorities: Career development and Leadership in academia, Innovative Teaching and Learning pathways, Lifelong Learning. Following YERUN Ad hoc groups are currently active:
- Ad hoc Group Development of academic careers
The objective of the group is to create a deeper understanding of the current ERA policy actions related to academic careers and research assessment methods as well as the recommendations and tools that are aimed to be used by the university sector, among others. The topics of research and academic careers are handeled by two focus groups.
- a group dedicated to the Action 3 within the ERA Policy Agenda and the EC initiative of reforming the research assessment (CoARA). 12 out of 23 YERUN Members are already part of the CoARA signatories. Prof. Rianne Letschert (Rector of Maastricht University and YERUN Member) is the elected presdent of CoARA. YERUN was actively engaged in the initial EC consultations, the drafting of the Agreement and advised on the implementation regarding governance and working mechanisms.
- a second group focuses on Action 4 within the ERA Policy Agenda, addressing relevant research careers topics, like working conditions, employability and attractiveness of research careers within and beyond academia, transferable skills, mentoring, inter-sectorial mobility and balanced talent circulation.
The University of Konstanz is represented by:
Anda Lohan, member of the University Development, Research and Transfer Unit team
Mirjam Müller, member of the Academic Staff Development unit, team Staff Development and Advancement of early career researchers
Explore the work of the group here
Upcoming events: YERUN lunchtime events on early career researchers
- Ad hoc Group Innovative Teaching and Learning
The group was launched in November 2022. The overall objective of the group is to define the challenges and potentialities of innovative education in a broader sense. The group enables exchange of best practices and mutual learning cross the network by mapping innovative teaching methods fostering inclusive and high-quality education as well as development of transferable skills.
The University of Konstanz is represented by:
Sibylle Mühleisen, member of Transfer in Teaching team
Alexander Klein, member of Academic Staff Development unit, team Didactics and Digitalisation in teaching
- Ad hoc Group Lifelong Learning (LLL)
The group was launched in November 2022. The overall goal of the group is to map and better understand existing LLL practices and approaches across the network. Within the group experts of the member institutions share their expertise, views and experiences related to relevant topics, like content development, financing, governance, accreditation and quality assurance, offer and recruitment or cooperation and partnering with relevant stakeholders and other sectors.
The University of Konstanz is represented by:
Christina Blake, Regional Network Manager at AfWW
Dr. Ulrich Wacker, Manager of the Academy of Advanced Studies and Lifelong Learning consultant University of Konstanz
Open Culture of Excellence
YERUN members share the view that excellence in education, scientific research and innovation requires among other things collaboration and exchange of knowledge. Within this focus area YERUN strives to create beneficial opportunities to increase collaboration among its members in an open education and research culture environment. Following priorities are part of this focus area: Promotion of Open Science, Enhancement of European Collaboration, Knowledge circulation across disciplines, sectors and borders. Following YERUN Ad hoc groups are currently active:
- Ad hoc Group on Open Science
Open Science has been a key priority for YERUN since its establishment. Under the current strategy, the ad hoc group on Open Science is working towards concrete activities aimed to overcome together as a network obstacles that are still hindering Open Science from being mainstreamed, bringing forward Open Science in their institutions, across the YERUN and wider community. This is done via peer learning, discussions and interactive activities organised by and for the members. In June 2022, the group organised an online event on "Dimond Open Access: How can we make it shine?". More than 60 participants attended the event. Matthias Landwehr and Andreas Kirchner, from the University of Konstanz, presented the ‘KOALA’ project (Establishing Consortial Open Access Solutions). Another great achievement of the group is a page on the YERUN website collecting all Open Access resources of the members.
The University of Konstanz is represented by:
Matthias Landwehr, Head of Open Access at the Communication, Information and Media Centre (KIM)
- YERUN Group of Research Spport Officers
This group was created to increase research collaboration opportunities for YERUN members. It establishes beneficial connections among colleagues and makes analysis of profiles, strengths and participation in European research collaborations. A concept for a YERUN Research Collaboration Platform was developed with the idea to implement it in 2024.
The University of Konstanz is represented by:
Annett Giebelhausen, Research Support Team Member, University Development, Research and Transfer
- Ad hoc Group on European Universities
The European Universities Initiative (EUI) aims to deeply transform the way HEIs in Europe collaborate, and explore ways to overcome the obstacles of the Bologna process, e.g. via long-term structural, sustainable and systemic transnational cooperation on education, research and innovation, creating European inter-university campuses, enabling seamless mobility of students, staff and researchers and the development of a European Degree label and a legal status of the Alliances. The main objective of the group is to develop a deep understanding of the implications European Alliances have on Universities by facilitating and stimulating the exchange of experinces and views on opportunities and challenges among membres currently involved in University Alliances. Currently, 17 out of 23 YERUN members are taking part in eght alliances (CIVIS, EDUC, ERUA, EUTOPIA, EUGLOH, UNIVERSEH und YUFE). YERUN supports advocacy on the future of the Initiative as an independant network to ensure that the framework conditions of the initiative are set for success.
The University of Konstanz is represented by:
Daniela Kromrey, Project Coordinator (ERUA, EUniWell)
Groups of Awards Officers
YERUN awards two types of prizes, the YERUN Research Mobility Awards and the Open Science Awards.
- YERUN Research Mobility Awards is aimed to increase research collaboration opportunities for YERUN members. Since the beginning of the scheme in 5 years a total of 157 Early Career Reserchers were awarded. A group of Research Mobility Awards Officers is responsible for drafting the call each year. Petia Popova and Daniela Kromrey are representing the University of Kostanz in this group.
- YERUN Open Science Awards target and reward initiatives that support the scholarly community to adopt and implement Open Science principles in their work, and that are implemented by researchers and by administrative staff or professional services (in teams of individually). The group of Open Science Awards Officers is responsible for drafting the call as well as organising the Awarding Ceremony.
If you are interested in applying for the YERUN Awards, you can find more information and current calls here.
Responsible and engaged universities
The YERUN universities share a common understanding of their social responsibility and the crucial model-role they play within their individual ecosystems. They are commited and strive a collaborative stakeholder's engagement and develop continuously agile structures promoting institutional transformation and encouraging a culture of flexible leadership. Following priorities are part of this focus area: Stakeholders' engagement, Societal Impact, Organisational Culture and Institutional Development. The currently active groups within this focus area are:
- Ad hoc Group on SDG's
The main objectives of the group are to share best practices on how different initiatives and structures at universities contribute to the implementation of the SDG's and to advance together in this endeavour as a network. The group contributed to the YERUN paper "Education for more sustainable world" published in June 2022, with inspiring practices from YERUN members demonstrating how sustainability can be integrated in the academic curriculum as well as in extra-curricular activities. The Green Office and the Certificate "N" of the University of Konstanz are also highlighted in the paper. The paper was presented at the EU Research & Innovation Days.
The University of Konstanz is represented by:
Hilmar Hofmann, Director of the Staff unit Sustainability
- Informal Group on Knowledge Valorisation
The objective of the group is to create a common understanding of knowledge valorisation across the netwowrk and to influence the EU policies on this topic. YERUN engages in EU consultations and workshops as key reference stakeholder for the EC on this topic and participated in the organisation of the EU knowledge valorisation week in 2023.
The University of Konstanz is represented by:
Anja Weidenmüller, Startup Officer