EUniWell, the European University for Well-Being, is pleased to announce that the University of Murcia has joined the Alliance as its eighth member. The decision to add the University of Murcia to EUniWell was based on the added value that Murcia academic qualities brings to the long-term strategy of EUniWell, coupled with a desire to broaden the impact of the EUniWell mission further across Europe.
The University of Murcia is expected to make immediate contributions to the EUniWell mission, especially through the four key arenas for research and teaching. Murcia’s focus on teacher training will bring added value especially to EUniWell’s Teacher Education Arena and its researchers have international reputations in topics including European and international law, the urban environment and climate change, artificial intelligence in clinical settings, and Open Science, all of which are core topics for EUniWell.
The Steering Committee of the EUniWell Alliance states:
We are delighted that the University of Murcia is joining the EUniWell consortium. It is an institution with a strong history rooted in diversity and inclusion, and its commitment – through teaching, research and university services – to gender equality and reducing inequalities align well with the EUniWell mission.”
EUniWell’s newly elected Chief Student Officer Lotte Nagelhout from Leiden University affirms the Student Board’s approbation, the University of Murcia being ranked first in Spain for international students, and providing EUniWell with a portal to Latin America. Its initiatives to support early career researchers demonstrate its commitment to EUniWell values and the broad academic endeavour.
Prof. Dr José Luján Alcaraz, Rector of the University of Murcia, declares that “for the University of Murcia, the European Universities Initiative has long been a strategic priority and seen as crucial to our future. After careful consideration, and an in-depth analysis of the 41 existing European University Alliances, we have reached the conclusion that EUniWell is the alliance best suited for our university. The choice of well-being as a marker of identity corresponds perfectly with our institutional strategy. It is a theme which we believe we can significantly contribute to.”
To catalyse the participation of Murcia faculty members, students and staff in EUniWell activities, the University of Murcia will immediately participate in the 4th EUniWell Seed Funding Call which will be launched on 28 March 2022.
The University of Murcia
Founded in 1915 in its current form, the University of Murcia is a comprehensive university with over 33,000 students in 21 faculties, internationally renowned for disability services and social inclusion. It is ranked amongst the top 100 universities worldwide in four individual SDGs (THE Impact Rankings 2021), three of them closely connected to EUniWell’s key arenas. The University of Murcia is particularly high-ranked in Veterinary Science (32nd worldwide ARWU, 2021) and in Agriculture and Food Science and Technology (top 200 worldwide ARWU, 2021). In addition, 40 UM professors were recently included in the world’s top 2 % most-cited scientists list published by Stanford University, many of them in areas related to EUniWell’s core focus.
The University of Murcia joins the seven founding partners in the EUniWell Alliance: the Universities of Birmingham, Cologne, Florence, Leiden, Linnaeus, Nantes and Semmelweis.
EUniWell was launched in 2020 in the second pilot phase of the European University Initiative. The Alliance formed in response to the Council of the European Union’s invitation for member states to pursue a horizontal, cross-sectoral, knowledge-based approach to advance the ‘Economy of Wellbeing’, a virtuous circle between society, science and the environment, leading to greater well-being across those dimensions. Thus, the core mission of EUniWell is to understand, improve, measure, and rebalance the well-being of individuals, our own community, and society as a whole based on our joint values – democratic, inclusive, diverse, research and challenge-based, inter- and transdisciplinary, entrepreneurial, and co-creational.
More information about EUniWell: www.euniwell.eu
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Eszter Turopoli (Directorate of International Relations)
Photo: Directorate of International Relations
