European university alliances:"France must play a leadership role" (D. Itier, French R&I&E Ministry)

"I don't know what the future of alliances will be, and I'm not sure the European Commission does either. They have 64 very different alliances, and they don't seem to have a clear strategy for managing them in the long term. There's everything to build, and I think that France must play a certain leadership role, and we're going to build it together", declared David Itier, head of the European Strategies Department for Higher Education and Research at the French Higher Education and Research Ministry, on 28/08/2024.

He was speaking at the conference of VPs of French universities for research and development in Lyon (France), during the round table "Initiating and influencing European policies".

While 64 French institutions are members of 54 alliances, these are having a "transformative effect", according to him. The French Ministry for R&I&E has therefore launched an internal analysis of the first wave of European university alliances to assess their real effect on institutions and thus "transform this impression into fact". The Ministry is also due to organise a symposium at the…