The European university alliance ENLIGHT has announced the selection of six new Impact Ambassadors during the closing ceremony of the ENLIGHT Impact Conference held on 28-29 March 2025 in Groningen.

The ENLIGHT Impact Ambassadors represent the awarded teams that have demonstrated to be exemplars in the planning for and achieving impact in the ENLIGHT's flagship areas: Health & Wellbeing, Digital Revolution, Climate Change, Energy & Circular Economy, and Equity.

We are pleased to announce that 144 proposals have been selected for inclusion in the programme of the ENLIGHT Teaching & Learning Conference 2025! This year's call attracted 172 submissions—an increase of more than 30% compared to the previous edition.

All proposals were reviewed by two independent teaching and learning professionals, and we thank all contributors for their time, effort, and thoughtful ideas. The selected contributors have been informed, and the full list of accepted sessions will be shared as part of the conference programme.

The programme is expected to be published by the end of June 2025 on the official conference website.

Frederik Verbeke, lecturer at the University of the Basque Country, has been a key academic voice in the ENLIGHT alliance, notably leading the BIP course “Connecting Cultures”, which earned a podium spot at the 2024 Teaching & Learning Awards. A passionate advocate for Challenge-Based Education, Verbeke sees ENLIGHT as a powerful platform to harness Europe’s cultural and linguistic richness. His work continues to foster transnational collaboration and innovation in higher education. Read more here.

From 1 to 4 April 2025, representatives from the ENLIGHT universities of Bern, Galway, Ghent, Göttingen, and Groningen took part in the IPORA event held in Bordeaux, France.

IPORA is an international transdisciplinary research network, funded in 2023, between four main universities: Abidjan (Ivory Coast), Addis-Adeba (Ethiopia), Bordeaux (France) and Rabat (Morocco).

ENLIGHT brings together academics, researchers and prominent cultural agents to discuss and find new cooperation paths across the alliance. The third edition of the  ENLIGHT European Dialogue  focused on  Co-creation of knowledge together with the Cultural & Creative sectors and was hosted by the University of the Basque Country on 21-22 May 2025. 

The ENLIGHT Blended Intensive Programme (BIP), Connecting Cultures Across Europe, is an established path of collaboration among ENLIGHT partners. This course is holding its onsite week during the week of 12-19 May 2025 in Vitoria-Gasteiz, with a multidisciplinary team of lecturers from four ENLIGHT institutional partners.

The second edition of this course focuses on sustainability, travel, translation and migration-related societal challenges that the students try to address from a socio-cultural perspective. The course, co-organised with local agents, is taught by academics from four ENLIGHT universities and includes Master and PhD level learners from nine partners of the alliance.

If you are passionate about AI and healthcare and have an entrepreneurial spirit, you are welcome to the AIProHealth Summer School, which offers an intensive learning experience for students, postdocs, junior specialists, and startup employees in AI, medicine, and business who focus on innovation in medical technology.

At the event you will learn about AI's technical, ethical, and legal aspects in healthcare and gain entrepreneurial experience in bringing AI solutions to the healthcare market. 

Anette-Mai Pirk-Birk, student representative of ENLIGHT and former Vice President of the University of Tartu’s Student Union, believes in the transformative power of collaboration. From organizing student activities to participating in high-level governance, she has helped bridge perspectives across disciplines and borders. In this interview, she reflects on her experience with ENLIGHT, the lessons learned through international cooperation, and why she believes student voices are essential in reimagining education across Europe.
Read the full interview here.

On April 30, 2025, the Public Defender of Rights, JUDr. Róbert Dobrovodský, PhD., LL.M. (Tübingen), gave a lecture as part of the international Blended Intensive Programme (BIP) titled Migration in Global & Local Context, held at the Faculty of Arts, Comenius University in Bratislava. His lecture was also part of the university’s Regional Academy platform.

Join the 9th ENLIGHT & Arqus Alliance Open Science Ambassador Webinar featuring Hildrun Walter (University of Graz) on 19th May 2025 from 10:00 - 11:30 AM (CET). This session will explore the vital role of science communication in today’s society and how Open Science practices can help strengthen trust in research—especially in times of global crises like the pandemic and climate change. Find out more and register here.

The application for the University of Groningen summer schools has opened! These interdisciplinary, research driven programmes are an opportunity to learn more about your own field or to broaden your knowledge, work on important questions and gain inspiration for your studies and/or research! 

Femke De Backere, associate professor at Ghent University and senior scientist at imec, blends software engineering with impactful healthcare research. Through ENLIGHT, she co-teaches the interdisciplinary summer school Innovation Game: Applying Serious Game Design in Health Care at Uppsala University. In this interview, she shares how ENLIGHT has helped her build international collaborations and push the boundaries of education and research in personalized, serious games. Read the full interview here.