PIONEER Alliance

The PIONEER Alliance has been in existence since 2019. It unites ten European universities, over 130.000 students and 17.000 faculty and staff members across Europe.

PIONEER leverages the European University Initiative to bring together our ten institutions in a federal organisation with a joint development strategy which provides a clear added value to inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable cities.

The PIONEER member universities want to further develop into and establish themselves as impact-orientated and challenge-driven institutions. They aim to educate a new generation of learners, knowledge producers and innovators who are able to tackle the global challenges of inclusive, safe, sustainable and resilient cities and maximise the PIONEER Alliance's impact on society as well as its educational and scientific excellence in the long term.

Promotion of UN Sustainable Development Goal 11 - Sustainable Cities and Communities

The PIONEER Alliance focuses on urban transformation in the cities of the European Union. It will help European cities to become more inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable, as stated in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 11 - Sustainable Cities and Communities - in order to realise their potential in the face of increasingly pressing challenges at European and global level.

To this end, PIONEER members orchestrate pan-European ecosystems in which knowledge is co-created with relevant ecosystem actors.

Through challenge-based learning, society-orientated research and innovation, the PIONEER Alliance aims to enable local authorities and municipalities, industry, SMEs and start-ups as well as citizens to collaborate with universities and jointly develop urban solutions that specifically address the challenges of Sustainable Development Goal 11.

• Coordinator: Université Gustave-Eiffel (France)
• AVANS University of Applied Sciences (Netherlands)
• Bern University of Applied Sciences (Switzerland)
• University of Huelva (Spain)
• ISCTE University Institute of Lisbon (Portugal)
• IUAV-Università IUAV di Venezia (Italy)
• LAUREA University of Applied Sciences (Finland)
• UTB-Tomas Bata University (Czech Republic)
• University of Žilina (Slovakia)

Researchers and teaching staff

The PIONEER Alliance offers educators and researchers the opportunity to network and collaborate with committed partners at the PIONEER partner universities in education and research projects. In particular, the alliance addresses topics in the context of Sustainable Development Goal 11 - Sustainable Cities and Communities:

• Questioning urban transitions
• Nature in the city
• Energy in the city
• Vulnerability, integration and health in the city
• Mobility
• Digital change
• Sustainable and resilient cities

Cooperation in research and teaching can include joint research proposals within European funding lines or the development of joint, international teaching formats, such as a blended intensive programme (BIP) or an international summer school.

Contact: ture.petersenn@th-koeln.de

Students

Contact us and discover the opportunities to study at one of the nine partner universities of the PIONEER Alliance or to participate in one of the international education programmes of the PIONEER Alliance.

Contact: outgoings@th-koeln.de

Non-academic staff

Employees supporting research and education have the opportunity to engage in an individual staff mobility to one of the nine PIONEER partner universities. Such mobilities can be financially supported through the Erasmus+ staff mobility program.

PIONEER partners regularly invite non-academic staff to participate in their international staff weeks with special workshops and networking opportunities.

Contact: martina.bruederle@th-koeln.de

Stakeholders from the private sector, public authorities and civil society

The PIONEER Alliance consists of impact-orientated universities. Their approach is to create knowledge together with relevant stakeholders from business, public institutions and civil society, in order to contribute to a more sustainable cities and a more sustainable world. PIONEER thus acts as an interface between universities and society in order to promote their interaction and cooperation, particularly with regard to the creation of solutions for the topics of UN Sustainable Development Goal 11.

Interested businesses, public entities, NGOs and associations are welcome to participate in this mission. Contact us with your interests and project ideas, or to find out more about the PIONEER Alliance.

Contact: ture.petersenn@th-koeln.de