Are you looking for a way to identify, analyze, and assess the impact of your university initiatives? The ENLIGHT Impact Toolkit is here to help! Whether you're working on education programs, research projects, mobility actions, or outreach initiatives, this free and open tool provides structured guidance, templates, and key questions to support your impact assessment journey.

But that’s not all!

Join us at the ENLIGHT Impact Conference in Groningen on 27-28 March 2025, where international impact experts, academics, and university leaders will explore how to integrate impact into all aspects of higher education. Registration is open for everyone!

What to expect?

✔ Insights into embedding impact across education, research, and societal engagement
✔ Expert discussions on impact assessment strategies and tools
✔ Showcases of impactful university initiatives
✔ Networking with ENLIGHT Impact Ambassadors and peers from across Europe

Be part of the conversation. Shape the future of impact-driven universities!

Try the ENLIGHT Impact Toolkit now

Register for the conference.

In this session, you will discover Peer Community In (PCI), a non-profit initiative offering free, transparent peer review for preprints. PCI ensures rigorous evaluation across 18 thematic communities, providing DOIs and citability without requiring journal publication. Alain Queffelec (University of Bordeaux) will present PCI’s structure, benefits, and impact on scientific publishing, followed by an open discussion. Stay tuned for details!

More inforamtion and registration link you will find here.

Louise Hannon, Head of Research Post Award, University of Galway will host an online session on Wednesday 12 March at 11 am CET aimed at staff of ENLIGHT universities who are working in the Research Support area. Attendees will have the opportunity to hear how pitch training is delivered to the research communities in the alliance.

Experts presenting are:

• Delphine Charles – Science Communications Officer, University of Bordeaux
• Ruth Hynes – Head of Research & Innovation Strategic Development, University of Galway
• Marlies Kluck – Grant advisor, trainer & editor, University of Groningen Central Services

Registration is now open at this link https://forms.office.com/e/80K2Hb5neW – those registered will receive a MS Teams link prior to the event.

The upcoming ENLIGHT Student Network (SN) conference, hosted by the University of Göttingen, will focus on three pivotal themes: inclusivity, sustainability, and mobility. Around 100 students from 10 alliance universities are expected to participate in this exciting event, which promises a mix of lectures, workshops, and informal discussions.

The main goal of the conference is to foster an exchange of best practices among students from alliance universities. Through sharing experiences, inspiring one another, and engaging in meaningful conversations, participants will not only broaden their perspectives but may also establish valuable networks for future collaboration in these essential areas.

The ENLIGHT Student Conference offers a unique opportunity to bring together bright minds from across Europe, empowering students to drive positive change in their institutions and beyond. ENLIGHT Student Network conference will be held on 27.02.2025 - 02.03.2025

We are excited to announce that nominations are now open for the ENLIGHT Sustainability Award 2025 and the ENLIGHT Inclusion Award 2025! These awards celebrate the outstanding efforts of students who have shown exceptional dedication to promoting sustainability and inclusion through their projects and initiatives.

Eligible initiatives must be carried out between January 2024 and May 2025. To qualify, nominees must be Bachelor or Master students at an ENLIGHT partner university, and only non-profit, implemented initiatives will be considered. The selected winners will be invited to showcase their projects at the 5th ENLIGHT Teaching & Learning Conference in Uppsala, Sweden, from 8 to 10 October 2025. 

We welcome submissions from across the ENLIGHT network. Applications must be submitted through your university, with each university nominating one initiative per category. To apply, please contact your university’s ENLIGHT office or reach out to your inclusion or sustainability coordinator for the application form and submission details.

ENLIGHT is pleased to announce Iker Callado as a featured voice at Faces of ENLIGHT. A Psychology graduate and educator, he champions inclusion in education and sports, earning recognition at the 2024 ENLIGHT Inclusion Awards. As a coach for Bilbao’s “Athletic” lionesses, he embodies equity on and off the field.

Read the full interview on the Faces of ENLIGHT and stay stuned, more inspiring interviews are on the way!

Join us at the ENLIGHT IMPACT Conference on 27-28 March 2025 in Groningen! Registration is now open!

We look forward to connecting international impact experts with practitioners, academics and management staff to explore and exchange on how to integrate impact into all facets of our universities.

In addition to discussions, workshops and campfire sessions, the conference hosts the ENLIGHT Impact Awards 2025. Our nominees have all made outstanding contributions to advancing knowledge, research and societal impact but who has the best pitch? Who will be the 6 new IMPACT Ambassadors? Find out and vote on the spot.

Find the programme information here.
Please register here.

The ENLIGHT regional academy on Smart, Sustainable cities and communities brought together academics, researchers, professionnals and policy makers in Bilbao to discuss the challenges faced by land planning and determine the key competences to be developped within a future educational programme.

Aligned with the ENLIGHT competence framework and innovative educational methodologies, the cooperation among the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), Uppsala University, University of Groningen and Comenius University-Bratislava is building common educational initiatives that will shape future-proof professionals involved in the planning and design of future urban and rural spaces applying sustainability principles.

One of ENLIGHT's key objectives is to strengthen and integrate sustainability and sustainable development in all fields of action. Within the cooperation of the ENLIGHT Green Network, staff from the central event management teams and sustainability coordinators from the ten partner universities participated in the virtual workshop on "Sustainable Event Management" on 5 December 2024. They shared best practices, discussed challenges, and agreed to jointly develop a food policy and a guide for sustainable event management.

This collaboration will enhance the sustainability of events within ENLIGHT and across the ten partner universities. These activities complement the ENLIGHT Sustainable Travel Policy published last year and the ENLIGHT Sustainability Engagement Agreement signed in 2021.

This year’s General Meeting, held at the University of Bern, once again featured an indispensable delegation of students from the ENLIGHT Student Network (SN), representing all the universities in the alliance. It was remarkable to see that nearly every work package had student representatives actively participating in their respective workshops. The Student Network views this as an incredible opportunity to address various challenges from a student perspective.

What made this meeting in Bern truly special? The ENLIGHT SN Day, where we dedicated an entire day to brainstorming and advancing the Student Network’s initiatives. The day began with two focused sessions: Community and Governance.

In the Community session, discussions revolved around strategies to increase ENLIGHT’s visibility in the institutions, adopt sustainable practices regarding merchandise, and prepare for the upcoming Student Conference in Göttingen. Meanwhile, the Governance team managed both to understand what wasn't working for them and also setting goals for the future; such as the planning of a policy paper focused on knowledge and visibility of the SN within at Alliance level, local level and also internal level or the mapping of the WP tasks that team wants to be active in.

Following the morning sessions, the ENLIGHT SN General Session took place. During this session, we tackled key issues such as improving the Student Network’s internal and external processes, enhancing its “outreach strategy”, and working together to make the ENLIGHT alliance truly unique.

The day concluded in a relaxed atmosphere over fondue, providing a perfect ending to an intensive and productive day. The ENLIGHT SN Day proved to be a fantastic opportunity to refine the functioning of the Student Network, with the added benefit of full representation from all member universities.

What more can we say? It was an amazing three days of hard work and collaboration, leading to decisions and plans that will, we hope, propel the alliance forward.

Challenge-based education (CBE) is a core element of teaching and learning initiatives within ENLIGHT. The focus of CBE is on incorporating real-life cases into the teaching of university courses and working on students' 21st century skills. This is a call for participants in the next edition of the CBE training sessions for educators.

This online training opportunity is targeted towards educators or educational designers who would like to gain deeper insights into theory and practice of CBE. The training team will go over relevant frameworks, examples of previous courses and practice applying these principles with colleagues from the ENLIGHT university network. 

 Am I ready for CBE?

You are ready if you are:

• Committed to student-centred education
• Willing to give up control of the learning process and to trust students to develop their own knowledge with your facilitation
• Experienced in facilitating group and/or team work
• Willing to guide and mentor students

These sessions will be held online with the additional possibility to network, exchange ideas and questions with colleagues from other ENLIGHT universities.

The training has 3 components:

• An asynchronous online path that opens on 21 February 2025. The path requires approximately half a day with the objective of participants gaining familiarity with the concept.
• ZOOM session 1 on 5 March 10:00-12:30 CET – In this session, participants will meet colleagues from the online path in a ZOOM session, reflect on existing knowhow on CBE and design a challenge-based module.
• ZOOM session 2 on 6 March 10:00-12:30 CET –Participants will work in small groups and choose the appropriate teaching tools and techniques to guide and coach students throughout a CBE Module

Please send an expression of interest to the ENLIGHT coordinator at your university before 14 February 2025.

Mervin Bakker, former Director of Internationalisation at the University of Groningen, reflects on his impactful role in shaping ENLIGHT. This alliance of ten European universities has redefined collaboration in higher education, fostering inclusivity and accessibility. In a recent interview, Bakker shared insights into ENLIGHT’s vision, achievements, and its path toward a sustainable future.

Read the full interview here.