Universities look to EU’s €800B COVID-19 recovery fund to upgrade campuses 01 Jun 2021 | News
Investments in lower-cost, greener buildings will help universities balance their budgets and contribute to the EU’s overarching plan to become carbon neutral by 2050
Virginie Dupont, vice president of the Conference of University Presidents (CPU). Photo: Institut Universitaire Européen de la Mer website
As of today, 22 EU member states have submitted national plans for their share of the EU’s pandemic recovery fund, with a number looking for money to modernise university campuses, reducing the energy footprint and cutting maintenance costs.
The recovery fund prioritises project that promote the green transition and digitalisation. The money needs to be spent over the next four years, meaning universities that have already drawn up improvement plans which fit these priorities stand to benefit the most from the €800 billion Recovery and Resilience Facility, the key inst
Getting higher education working for a greener Europe
Many higher education institutions in the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) are addressing environmental sustainability in their research and education missions. They are actively involved in a broad range of forward-thinking activities, both to green their own institutions’ footprint and to contribute to society.
By working with a wide range of partners, from local communities to global university networks and industry, universities are proving themselves as key actors in the transition towards carbon neutrality and sustainable societies.
Notably, they play a role in the achievement of the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda and the European Green Deal and its goals of leading global efforts towards a just green transition.
Criminalisation of Belarus students, academics condemned universityworldnews.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from universityworldnews.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
By Rebecca Trager2021-05-28T08:30:00+01:00
The drumbeat of calls for scientific publishers to become less restrictive and allow the authors of research papers to more freely disseminate and reuse their findings is growing louder. In a new joint statement, 880 European universities, research organisations and science funders are urging publishers to allow researchers to deposit their accepted manuscripts in a repository with an open licence.
Members of the European University Association (EUA), Science Europe and CESAER – a non-profit association of leading science and technology universities of in Europe – note in their statement that scholarly publishers still typically demand authors sign exclusive publishing agreements that include re-use restrictions and embargoes on depositing them in open access repositories.
The European University Association (EUA), the European Students’ Union (ESU) and Scholars at Risk (SAR) join together to condemn the criminalisation of students and academics in Belarus. They call on the Belarusian authorities to protect and promote academic freedom and related fundamental rights and urge European governments to support at-risk scholars and students from Belarus.