Sapienza Rector Eugenio Gaudio has been elected President of the CIVIS - European Civic University Alliance. The new European university, which brings together ca. 384,000 students and 55,000 academic and technical-administrative staff, was recently selected for European funding. Rector Gaudio’s term will begin in October 2019

Sapienza Rector Eugenio Gaudio has been elected President of the CIVIS - European Civic University Alliance. The new European university, which brings together ca. 384,000 students and 55,000 academic and technical-administrative staff, recently received funds for 5 million euro from the European Commission. Rector Gaudio’s term as President will begin in October 2019 with the first operative meetingat Sapienza to kick off the implementation phase. The Rectors from eight European universities involved in the CIVIS Alliance will participate in the meeting.

The Civis Alliance is one of 11 European university networks - in which Italian universities are members - that have been funded by the EU Commission following the Erasmus+ “European Universities” Call. Besides Sapienza, CIVIS Alliance members include Aix-Marseille Université (France), Ethniko kai Kapodistriako Panepistimio Athinon (Greece), Universitatea din București (Romania), Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (Spain), Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen (Germany), Université libre de Bruxelles (Belgium) and Stockholms universitet (Sweden). 

One of the main objectives of the alliance is to promote multilingualism and European cultural diversity. The EU funding, which will be added to individual co-funding by the various partner universities, will allow the development of a wide curriculum of activities. 

Students will be able to attend courses and programmes at all participating universities and receive joint degrees, as well as to access innovative tools for learning languages and a unified student card – the same for all students in all countries – that will simplify access to services. 

Professors will be able to conduct integrated research activities with easy access to collaborative European environments to develop partnerships, shared innovative pedagogic methodologies and enjoy a greater basin for the dissemination of scientific results. 

Technical-administrative staff will be able to conduct on-the-job training with colleagues in partner universities.

The free exchange between universities and citizens is also fundamental. The latter will be able to participate actively in the definition of Alliance research initiatives through civic science tools and learn about research results through an open science strategy. Moreover, stakeholder research labs will be made available to locals through the “openlabs” formula.