NEWS & EVENTS

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.

Looking for an inspiring way to spend your summer? Join UniTartu Summer School 2025 from 28 July to 8 August in the vibrant and historic city of Tartu, Estonia! Applications are open until 30 April 2025.

Join University of Galway, University of Groningen/UMCG and Uppsala University on April 8^th  for a dynamic pan-European forum exploring Public and Patient Involvement (PPI) in research. This event brings together distinguished speakers from Sweden, the Netherlands, and Ireland who will share insights from case studies, highlighting both the commonalities and differences in PPI practices across diverse European contexts. There will be opportunities to hear perspectives from other ENLIGHT colleagues across Europe.

To stimulate and support the bottom-up cooperation between the ENLIGHT university communities, ENLIGHT launched a first set of calls for joint initiatives in April 2024. A second set of calls is launched in April 2025. 

Each call targets joint proposals for specific types of actions involving at least three ENLIGHT instutions.

180 participants from 18 different countries, 55 different organizations and a total of 50 universities/ universities of applied sciences. We look back on a very inspiring ENLIGHT IMPACT Conference, hosted by the University of Groningen. We engaged with inspiring keynote speakers Marthe Walvoort, Thomas Alslev Christensen and Igor Campillo. We have had thought-provoking discussions with Maria Hägglund, Daniela Lud, Frederik Verbeke, Natalie Walsh, Iona Dewandeler and Jorge Molina Martinez. Engaging campfire sessions by Julie Bayley, Maristela do Nascimento Rocha, Nele Bracke, Jacqueline Drost, Lorenzo Squintani and Balzhan Orazbayeva and inspring workshops from Emma Siddall, Ailsa Cook, Saskia Walcott, Giovanna Lima, Anabel Sánchez Plaza. Anja Smykowski, Esther de Smet and Zuzana Lisonová. Thank you all for your input on how to bring about meaningful impact and break down the walls between science and society.