The European Universities Initiative is a unique opportunity for Swiss higher education institutions to strengthen their relations with European partner institutions at a very strategic level in education, research, innovation and service to society, as well as to participate in the further development of the European Higher Education and Research Area (EHEA and ERA).

12 Erasmus+ “European Universities” with Swiss Participation

A total of 64 "European Universities" are now active. "European Universities" are possible at different levels and in different thematic areas. The projects with Swiss participation reflect this range. The following projects with links to Swiss HEIs were selected for Erasmus+ funding, and the respective Swiss partner institution for Swiss Programme for Erasmus+ funding (alliances in alphabetical order):

The 4EU+ alliance is constituted by seven leading, comprehensive and research-intensive universities across Europe (incl. UNIGE), organised as an association since 2021 to realise its vision of a truly European university. The 1CORE project (2022-2026) from 4EU+, building on the achievements of the past years and structured around the 4EU+ flagships (Urban health and demographic change, Europeanness, Digitalisation - modelling - transformation and Environmental transitions), will expand the alliance's common educational offer, develop innovative pedagogies, move towards seamless mobility, deploy new solutions for the common campus and implement new actions to engage society.

Find out more: 1CORE, 4EU+ and UNIGE & 4EU+

The Challenge.EU alliance consists of 9 medium-sized universities in Europe. In their project (2025-2028), they are committed to the joint further development of practice-oriented, innovative teaching and research (challenge-and-impact driven education, research and innovation) that is geared towards future social issues. The focus of the alliance is on the topics of 1) Sustainable Futures, 2) Health and Well-Being and 3) Smart Digitalisation, which are dealt with on an interdisciplinary basis. More than 90 associated regional partner institutions from business, administration, education and society are involved in the alliance.

Find out more: ChallengeEU Project, ChallengeEU Alliance and News FHNW

CIVIS is – like Una Europa and EPICUR – one of the largest alliances and aims to strengthen the competitiveness of the European Higher Education Area and ensure access to higher education for a larger number of students and staff. The project CIVIS2 (2022-2026) focuses on sustainably increasing mobility, pooling resources and strengthening cooperation through common education and research agendas.

Read more: CIVIS2, CIVIS and UNIL & CIVIS

EELISA (European Engineering Learning Innovation and Science Alliance) is a transnational alliance of 10 higher education institutions, including the ZHAW. The alliance has its origins in the engineering sciences and its project (2023-2027) aims to bring together a new generation of creative Europeans. The aim is to enable them to work together across national and disciplinary boundaries to address the major societal challenges and skills shortages facing Europe.

Find out more: EELISA Project, EELISA alliance and media release ZHAW

The ENHANCE alliance, which includes nine other technical and scientific universities in addition to ETH Zurich, is intensifying its cooperation in teaching and innovation promotion with the ENHANCE+ project (2023-2027). By working together, it creates new teaching opportunities with attractive formats and content, facilitates mobility between institutions and promotes discourse with society on current and visionary topics. In this way, students develop a broad range of competences and are optimally prepared for the upcoming social and professional challenges.

Find out more: ENHANCE+ Project, ENHANCE alliance, ETHZ & ENHANCE, Blog (On the Importance of European Exchange)

By joining ENLIGHT, the University of Bern has entered into an alliance of ten research-intensive generalist universities. As part of its project (2023-2027), ENLIGHT is developing innovative mobility offers for students and diverse exchange opportunities for staff. The aim of ENLIGHT is to create an open teaching and learning space where students and staff can engage in lifelong learning. Its thematic focus is on societal challenges in the following key topics: health, digitalisation, climate change, energy transition, social justice, culture and creativity.

Find out more: ENLIGHT – Membership of the University of Bern, Interview with Rector Christian Leumann, Media release of the University of Bern, ENLIGHT alliance

The EPICUR alliance brings together nine EU higher education institutions. The project EPICUR-SHAPE-IT (2022-2026) aims to deepen and expand the systematic and long-term institutional cooperation from the 2019-2022 pilot project. In teaching, a joint range of courses on socially relevant topics is to be established and innovative teaching formats suitable for inter-university studies are to be developed. In addition, joint structural elements are to be created that will sustainably increase the joint educational offer and expand the content. Another important goal is to increase student mobility at Bachelor's, Master's and doctoral level. The UNIBAS will engage in this alliance as a member of the EUCOR network.

Read more: EPICUR-SHAPE-IT, EPICUR und press release UNIBAS

The European University Alliance EUonAIR (European University on AI in Curricula, Smart UniverCity and (Return)Mobility) consists of 10 main and more than 20 associated partner institutions. With its project (2025-2028), it aims to improve education through artificial intelligence (AI) across Europe by promoting education, research and personal mobility in this field and establishing a cross-university governance structure. It also aims to make education more accessible, inclusive and sustainable by integrating AI into learning and management and collaborating with non-academic stakeholders.

Find out more: EUonAIR project, EUonAIR Alliance and press release SUPSI

EuroTeQ 2030 (2023-2027) brings together seven leading universities of science & technology and two business schools to shape the engineering education of the future and, in particular, to increase the positive impact of their activities on society. In the project, the alliance will research, create, test and implement innovative engineering education based on educational mobility, relevance to society and adaptability to the changing needs of the future workforce.

Find out more: EuroTeQ 2030 Project, media release EPFL, EuroTech alliance, EPFL & EuroTeQ

As a "European University", PIONEER (The European University of Future Cities) is primarily dedicated to Sustainable Development Goal 11 "Sustainable Cities and Communities" with the aim of making cities inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable. The alliance brings together 10 universities, 32 cities and 16 regions in Europe in its project (2025-2028). As a complementary academic ecosystem, the alliance is dedicated to inter-institutional cooperation for smoothly functioning learning mobility and innovation in teaching as well as internationalisation in its own institutions and countries within the Alliance network.

Find out more: PIONEER project, PIONEER Alliance and BFH media release

The alliance Una Europa expands the network, activities and ambitions of the pilot project 1EUROPA 2019-2022 in the Una.Futura project (2022-2026). Eleven renowned research universities are involved in the alliance. In six focus areas (Cultural Heritage, Data Science and AI, European Studies, One Health, Sustainability and Material Design & Engineering), further joint learning opportunities including degrees are to be established and the mobility of students and staff further increased.

Read more: Una.Futura, Una Europa and UZH & Una Europa

The UNITA project (2023-2027) brings together 12 partner higher education institutions, including the HES-SO, as well as the independent legal entity UNITA. The project promotes transnational cooperation in the areas of communication, cooperation in mountain regions and the promotion of Romance languages. The UNITA alliance covers in particular the areas of education through innovative training models as well as research through the cooperation of research teams. Activities are carried out with the close involvement of staff from all universities, and the alliance also implements sustainable, transnational leadership and cooperation models.

Find out more: UNITA Project, UNITA alliance, HES-SO & UNITA