From 4 to 6 June 2025, 140 participants from the ten ENLIGHT universities, city representatives, Rectors and students have gathered in the beautiful city of Bordeaux (France) to share around the theme of « Stimulating Cities: How do cities and alliances move forward together? » The event was hosted by the University of Bordeaux.
This Mid Year meeting’s primary ambition has been to encourage and strenghten the collaboration between cities and universities, around some workshops and plenary sessions with round tables.
The key question being: How do we create an environment that enables individuals to move beyond disciplinary or institutional silos and acquire the specific skills required for effective collaboration ?
Over the course of the meeting, we collaborated with our external partners - city representatives, explored joint programmes, future-proofing teaching and learning, expanded digital potential, and worked on strengthening our alliance-wide communication.
One of the main focus of those workshops and meetings has been using the international network to identify synergies as well as best practices to adopt and how to Ensure continuity across different ecosystems – from schools to higher education. As a result, it has put the light on the need to prioritise collaboration over competition between institutions cooperating with the city, the need to break down silos and keeps the focus on practical solutions that benefit the city. The focus should be on building an ecosystem within the city – one that brings together not only the university and municipal administration, but also entrepreneurs and other key stakeholders.
Also, challenge-based collaboration between cities and universities remains essential. Scientific insights generated through such collaboration and training must be taken up further to inform policy development. Interdisciplinary approaches within universities are crucial for addressing the complex political and social challenges faced by cities.
To quote Sandra Štasselová, Architect and Urban Planner at the Metropolitan Institute of Bratislava: « It was inspiring to see that other universities are cooperating with the cities in a bit more complex way than we have been doing. Not to say that we haven't been collaborating enough before, we have, but just now, thanks to this meeting, I have the ambition to do things in a more complex way. E.g. I am motivated to include more creative & research capacities from Comenius University Bratislava and we would like to deliver more innovative solutions together with the university ».
In the end, this meeting has provided a valuable platform for cities and regions to showcase their capacity to create growth and jobs, implement European Union cohesion policy, and demonstrate the crucial role of local and regional authorities in effective European governance. It could also serve as an excellent venue to highlight and further develop collaboration between cities and universities.
As Leah Vandeveer, the Secretary General of ENLIGHT states: « The 2025 ENLIGHT Mid-Year Meeting reaffirmed that our alliance is much more than a network of 10 universities — it’s a living ecosystem powered by deep collaboration across our cities, regions, and institutions. At the heart of ENLIGHT is a collective mission: to build a more inclusive, sustainable, and innovative Europe through impact-driven and research-based education and meaningful societal engagement.
The active participation of our city representatives, alongside the presentations showcasing ongoing university-city collaborations, highlighted the essential role of our local partners in driving this transformation. Cities are not just stakeholders—they are co-creators and essential collaborators in our shared vision. We were reminded that real, lasting transformation takes root at the local and regional level, and we saw these partnerships are helping to shape a more sustainable, connected, and forward-looking Europe as ENLIGHT is embedded across our local ecosystems.
As we ourselves look ahead together as an alliance, one message stands out from our meeting together: transformation is only possible when we continue to choose one another — our partners, our cities and regions, and the collective purpose that unites us — and continue to choose to build a better Europe, from the ground up. »
As the role of Chair for ENLIGHT passes to Comenius University, with Vice-Rector Dr 𝗝𝗼𝘇𝗲𝗳 𝗧𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲𝗿 officially accepting the symbolic globe, we look ahead to reconvening in 𝗕𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝘀𝗹𝗮𝘃𝗮 𝗼𝗻 𝟮–𝟰 𝗗𝗲𝗰𝗲𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟱 — ready to keep building a more inclusive and collaborative European Higher Education Area.
