CIVIS - A European Civic University

The Alliance was founded in 2019 with the status of Erasmus+ European University, one of the flagship programmes of the European Commission. Driven by similar core values and close strategic orientations, UNIL joined the CIVIS alliance as its eleventh member. UNIL benefits from the support of the Swiss national agency Movetia.

CIVIS members are research universities active in a wide range of thematic fields and scientific disciplines. They combine excellence in teaching and research with a strong interest in diversity issues and civic engagement. Theses values underpin the CIVIS alliance whose programme is based on the awareness of the numerous challenges faced by contemporary society. CIVIS particularly focuses on five thematic hubs:

• Health (co-directed by UNIL and la Sapienza Università di Roma)
• Cities, territories and mobilities
• Climate, environment and energy
• Digital and technological transformation
• Society, culture and heritage

The coming year will not only see a consolidation of the Alliance's progress, but will also allow to implement more fully its vision. In the near future, CIVIS will strive to:

• strenghten the "Inter-university campus" concept by increasing student and staff mobility through the development of summer schools, short-term mobility, or blended intensive programmes (BIP);
• implement integrated and credited joint modules, programmes and diplomas;
• foster civic engagement, in particular through an increased support to the CIVIS Open Labs, incubators for projects in education, research or innovation.

CIVIS activities are launched through calls for projects. Numerous activities are already running or being developped, such as CIVIS courses. Calls for projects are published on the CIVIS website or on CIVIS calls and are disseminated directly to the target audience by institutional CIVIS representatives.

Students, PhD students, research and teaching staff, technical and administrative staff of the member universities and of the cities and local communities are invited to co-create and benefit from the CIVIS activities.

• Members of the teaching staff create joint teaching modules and programmes.
• Students benefit from joint teaching programmes and are represented in consulting bodies.
• Academic staff is involved in a challenge-based research strategy (RIS4CIVIS and CIVIS3i are Horizon 2020 research projects stemming from CIVIS).
• The administrative staff offers expert support and quality control, and benefits from the exchange of good practices and a range of shared tools and services.
• Local communities, regions and cities surrounding the member universities are part of the CIVIS Open Labs to create synergies between science and civic action.

CIVIS has eleven member universities:

• Aix-Marseille Université (France)
• National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (Greece)
• University of Bucharest (Romania)
• Université libre de Bruxelles (Belgium)
• Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (Spain)
• Sapienza Università di Roma (Italy)
• Stockholm Universitet (Sweden)
• Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen (Germany)
• University of Glasgow (Great-Britain)
• Paris Lodron Universität Salzburg (Austria)
• Université de Lausanne (Switzerland)

In 2022, CIVIS signed partnership agreements with six African strategic partners:

• Makerere University (Uganda)
• Universidade Eduardo Mondlane (Mozambique)
• Université Hassan II de Casablanca (Morocco)
• Université de Sfax (Tunisia)
• Université Cheikh Anta Diop (Senegal)
• University of the Witwatersrand (South Africa)