ENLIGHT has been selected for additional funding by the French Government’s “Investissements d'avenir” programme (PIA) in the framework of the 'European Universities' call for proposals. Funding of 865,185 € will be granted to the University of Bordeaux for a period of 36 months. This financial support from the French Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation through its Investment for the Future programme (PIA), operated by the National Research Agency (ANR), will help the implementation of ENLIGHT and further the internationalization of training and research at the University of Bordeaux.
The PIA support provided to the ENLIGHT alliance comes in combination to the support of the European Commission for the 'Training' dimension under the Erasmus+ programme and for the 'Research & Innovation' dimension under the Horizon 2020 programme. It will strengthen the links between the 'training' and 'research & innovation' components within ENLIGHT and facilitate the deployment of the project within the institution's departments and services. It will equally offer seed funding to foster the emergence of collaborative research projects within the alliance, around ENLIGHT's 5 priority societal challenges (health and well-being, equity, digital innovation, climate action, energy transition), thus supporting ENLIGHT R&I activities that will emerge through ENLIGHT RISE (H2020).
The additional funding from the French Government’s “Investissements d'avenir” programme is of great importance and, once again, underlines that the ambitious objectives of the "European universities" to contribute to the evolution of a more integrated European university system without barriers for learning, teaching, research and innovation between the partner universities can only be achieved in the long term if European and national efforts go hand in hand.
ENLIGHT will contribute to the deployment of a complete transformation programme among its 9 partners around its 5 major societal challenges, in close collaboration with their territorial partners (local authorities, companies, civil society), for a collective mobilization in favour of the United Nations' sustainable development goals and to promote a greener, healthier, fairer and more sustainable Europe.