Brussels, December 12 and 13, 2022. Crue Universidades Españolas organised an institutional visit to Brussels on December 12 and 13, headed by Jose Maria Sanz, the President’s delegate for Brussels, together with María Teresa Lozano, Secretary General, and María Blanco, Head of International Engagement.
On the first day, Crue’s delegation met with Apostolia Karamali, Head of Unit R&I Actors and Research Careers, Directorate-General for Research and Innovation of the European Commission, and Stijn Delaure, Policy Officer in Charge of the University File, with whom they exchanged on the Political Agenda of the European Research Area (ERA), and, specifically, on the support for Higher Education institutions within this strategy. The meeting focused on Action 13 that aims to strengthen higher education institutions and their development in line with the ERA, as well as to establish synergies with the European Higher Education Area (EHEA). In addition, they discussed the new European Innovation Agenda and the Council conclusions approved on December 2, and agreed on the need for all types of innovation to be included in this Agenda and for universities to be central actors in its achievement.
On the second day, Crue participated in an activity of the Establishment of Rectors Conference in Azerbaijan (ECAR) project, which aims to establish a Rectors’ Conference in this country. During this meeting, Crue’s Secretary General presented the association’s International Strategy to representatives of the Azerbaijani universities participating in the project.
Subsequently, Crue’s representatives attended the meeting with the Permanent Representation of Spain to the European institutions (REPER), in which David Gonzalez Martínez, Coordinator and Research Counsellor; Marta March Almela, Research Counsellor, and Isabel Rodríguez Gregorio, Education Counsellor. During this meeting, they discussed the lines of work currently underway in Europe, as well as the ways to advance in institutional collaboration.
Lastly, during the visit, Crue’s representatives attended the event organized by the European University Association (EUA), on ‘Deepening, widening, focusing. How to navigate transnational university cooperation into the future’. This is event was the first organised within the framework of the UniFE project ‘Universities and the Future of Europe‘, promoted by the EUA and that will take place throughout 2023. During the project, EUA will open a consultation process among the member organisations to find out about their expectations regarding future collaboration in Higher Education and their needs in terms of framework conditions, political structures, or multilateral frameworks. The results of the consultation process will feed into EUA’s considerations in the debates that take place towards the European elections of 2024.
