The Rector of the University of Oviedo and President of the INGENIUM Alliance Council, Ignacio Villaverde, along with the Vice-Rector for Internationalisation, Jesú Daniel Santos, the INGENIUM Director, Ana Isabel Álvarez, and the INGENIUM Partner Coordinator, Agustín Nieto
INGENIUM 2024: ‘THE YEAR OF IMPACT’
On Tuesday, December 19, the University of Oviedo held an information session to announce the innovations that INGENIUM will bring in 2024.
The Vice-Rector for Internationalisation, Jesús Daniel Santos, chaired the meeting, along with the Vice-Rector for Academic Management, José Miguel Arias, the Director of the Alliance, Ana Isabel Álvarez, and the INGENIUM Partner Coordinator, Agustín Nieto. The Rector and President of the INGENIUM Alliance Council, Ignacio Villaverde, also joined the session at one point to speak to the participants, stress the strategic importance of the Alliance, and urge the university community to make it a driving force for change.
Jesús Daniel Santos opened the meeting by presenting 2024 as ‘the year of impact’, in contrast to 2023, which he called ‘the year of foundations’. He described the time since the kick-off as ‘the phase of building and consolidating the structure’, where foundational agreements were signed and advisory and governance bodies were established. He also reviewed some of the initiatives that started in the first year, such as the 10 Days and the regulatory and call developments.
The Vice-Rector for Internationalisation of the University of Oviedo, Jesú Daniel Santos, the INGENIUM Director, Ana Isabel Álvarez, and the INGENIUM Partner Coordinator, Agustín Nieto
He then highlighted that ‘the next year should be the time to act, to turn agreements into outcomes’, and to ‘raise INGENIUM to a tangible reality with concrete initiatives that benefit students, researchers, and administrative staff.’
Among these initiatives, Santos explored the consolidation of the 10 Days of INGENIUM as the flagship of alliance mobilities and presented the programme for the two upcoming editions: the February Winter School in Ireland and Greece and the May Summer School in France and Romania.
On the other hand, he introduced the new call for INGENIUM research groups, which was published on December 5, with a proposal submission deadline open until March 15, 2024. The Vice-Rector referred to this opportunity as ‘the realisation of the potential that the Alliance has to support the careers of its researchers and foster collaboration among partner universities.’
Besides sharing the evaluation criteria, funding, and deadlines for the call, Santos demonstrated the use of the new CONNECT platform, developed by the University G. D’Annunzio under the Boosting INGENIUM for Excellence (BI4E) project. This platform will help applicants for this programme find researchers with similar interests from other universities in the INGENIUM Alliance.
The Vice-Rector for Academic Management at the University of Oviedo, José Miguel Arias, was in charge of presenting another challenge that INGENIUM expects to tackle next year: joint degrees. In that regard, he explained the different options for creating new programmes and encouraged working to make them possible.
INGENIUM Director, Ana Isabel Álvarez, concluded the session by presenting the status of multilateral mobility agreements within the Alliance, while Partner Coordinator Agustín Nieto addressed the Innovation Strategy developed by the consortium and the regulatory development of the new Alliance bodies, emphasising the INGENIUM Research School.
The information session, attended by directors and staff from various schools and departments served to showcase the progress and challenges of the INGENIUM Alliance, with a special focus on concrete results and tangible outcomes expected for 2024.
INGENIUM team at the University of Oviedo and participants of the information session
