15-17 October 2024 Uppsala University hosted a Staff Week with participants from all ten ENLIGHT universities. The Staff Week was created as a platform for knowledge exchange on the theme "Impactful Collaboration."
A Staff Week provides university staff from different universities the opportunity to gather and share best practices, experiences, and methods on a specific topic or for a specific target group. This particular Staff Week was focused on staff working with collaboration and external partnerships. The event offered a unique opportunity to discuss innovative approaches to collaboration between universities and external actors, as well as strategies for creating impactful innovation.
Over the course of three days, participants engaged in workshops and presentations that highlighted the various methods and tools used by the universities within the ENLIGHT network to promote collaboration. The programme also included visits to the Innovation Partnership Office, Gustavianum – Uppsala University Museum, and the museum Biotopia, which provided participants with deeper insights into Uppsala University’s work in research and innovation.
According to Sepideh Razavi, one of the organisers from Uppsala University, the meeting was also an opportunity to reflect on past collaboration within the ENLIGHT network and to plan for the future: "We have been working together for a few years, and we are going to continue working together in the future, so at this meeting in Uppsala we are going to have some reflection on the years that passed but also plan together for the upcoming years."
Participants were also expected to actively contribute by sharing their own university's best practices and methods, as well as helping to develop a common database aimed at promoting future collaborations between the institutions. This Staff Week not only served as a platform for the exchange of ideas but also played a crucial role in building long-term partnerships that could drive innovation and address societal challenges across Europe.
Amrie Landwehr from the University of Göttingen described the meeting as a creative opportunity to better understand each university's role within the network: "Today is about finding out more clearly what can I contribute, Who am I in ENLIGHT? This is a very creative moment in the project. Decisions have to be made about the way ahead and I see better what our contribution can be. It is important to find our common language, and what the words mean in this context."
For Arno Ratzinger from the University of Bern, the meeting was an important step in positioning the innovation office of the University of Bern within the European ecosystem: "As a young organization, we wanted to learn from more experienced partners and share best practices on collaboration. For the ENLIGHT vision to become a reality, we needed to strengthen personal relationships and institutional knowledge. This was my first contact with ENLIGHT partners, and I hoped to bring this spirit of collaboration from Uppsala to Bern."
Amrie Landwehr University of Göttingen, Sepideh Razavi Uppsala University and Arno Ratzinger University of Bern.