Project description
University role in strengthening democracy in Europe
The European Commission and Parliament view democracy as under threat. The European Education Area, especially higher education institutions, must engage with communities, support disadvantaged and migrant students, and uphold democratic values. With the support of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the DRU project will explore how universities can strengthen democracy in society. It facilitates mutual learning between institutions in post-apartheid South Africa and post-colonial Australia. The project will examine three practical ways universities, academics, and students can engage with local communities and support an inclusive educational environment for all students, including refugees. It will also address how institutional frameworks and governance systems can influence these practices.
Objective
DRU’s objective is to find new ways that universities can strengthen the democratic fabric of society. The European Commission and Parliament see democracy - the cultural ‘glue’ that holds Europe together - under threat. The European Education Area and especially higher education institutions are tasked with connecting to their communities, being inclusive of students from disadvantaged and migrant backgrounds, and sustaining democratic values in everyday life.
Democratic backsliding is not peculiar to Europe. DRU engages in mutual learning about universities fostering democracy in South Africa’s post-apartheid rainbow nation and Australia’s move to a post-colonial era. DRU’s consortium is from north, south, east, and west Europe, South Africa, and Australia. It consists of ten different kinds of universities and six non-academic organisations, all committed to collaborating in activities to enhance democracy spanning from community action to international policy making.
DRU has the cross-disciplinary, cross-sectoral and international expertise to critically examine existing knowledge about universities and democracy. We break the issue into five constituent parts. Three are practical ways universities, academics and students engage with their local communities through research and civic action and create a thriving educational environment for refugees and all students. Two address how these practices are fostered or hindered by institutional frameworks and systems of governance. DRU designs experiments and case studies to test alternatives. DRU’s ‘whole system’ approach connects policy and governance priorities at the ‘top’ of the system to the conditions for embedding democratic practice in the everyday life of institutional members and citizens. Its practical results will be disseminated as toolkits, trainings and policy briefings to students, academics, stakeholders, leaders and policy makers to transform universities’ impact on democratic society.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- social sciences sociology governance
- social sciences political sciences government systems democracy
- social sciences sociology demography human migrations
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
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Topic(s)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-SE - HORIZON TMA MSCA Staff Exchanges
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2024-SE-01
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
4099-002 Porto
Portugal
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.