UNITE.H2020 was a unique opportunity to pool the extensive R&I expertise of its members. Ideally, each partner's long-term vision should merge into a joint R&I strategy where strengths complement each other. Moreover, it offers individual institutions an opportunity to make tangible progresses toward aligning with EC objectives through institutional transformations.
UNITE.H2020 results - by initiating the creation of researcher’s communities, promoting the participation in Horizon Europe, improving access to research infrastructures, fostering academia-business cooperation and entrepreneurial culture, supporting research career actions such as mentorship programs and new researcher assessment framework, by promoting Open Science practices - are expected to be a seed to foster collaboration, innovation, and excellence in European research thus promoting institutional transformations in Unite! universities and in HEIs. Short-term impact is expected with an increase in collaboration opportunities and greater participation in EU/Horizon Europe projects while in the long, it is expected to promote the internationalization of research, the realization of high-quality research projects, and research excellence. Expected impacts are also an increased awareness of the need for a reform of the Research Assessment processes and the implementation in the universities of the open scientific paradigm that is emerging in the ongoing evolving digital era.
The creation of joint R&I services is expected to streamline research management processes, enhance institutional efficiency of all the involved universities of the Alliance, and ultimately contribute to a more robust and interconnected European research landscape.
The societal outreach initiatives increased Unite! visibility and promoted European values among citizens.
The alignment of the action plans of the Unite! universities is expected to boost the Alliance capability to address future missions and specific goals with higher impact of the research outcomes, that can also be translated in socio- economic terms. The proposed cooperation and governance alignment models could be beneficial for the wider higher education and university sector community for replication and adaptation, and could be also used for future policy initiatives of the EC.
