Working as a Postdoctoral Researcher in the School of Forest Sciences at the University of Eastern Finland, Samuli Junttila – a.k.a. The Eastern Prof – uses musical edutainment, namely rap, to spread awareness of forest research, and of UNITE, the new Forest-Human-Machine-Interplay competence centre selected to the Academy of Finland’s Flagship Programme.

Creating new procedures that improve mass drone traffic is the purpose of LABYRINTH, a European research project coordinated by the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M) with the participation of 13 international organisations within the R&D&I, transport, emergency, and auxiliary services fields. Researchers hope to use these drone swarm applications to improve civil road, train, sea, and air transport, making it safer, more efficient, and more sustainable.

Since 2000, the European Research Area (ERA) has led to important achievements in the Research and Innovation (R&I) European landscape, notably in areas such as Open Science, mobility of researchers, research infrastructures, among others. (1) However, progress has recently been slowing down, showing that improvements in key areas are needed. (2) It is in this context that the Young European Research Universities Network (YERUN) welcomed the Communication a “New ERA for Research and Innovation” and the Council Conclusions on the new ERA launched at the end of 2020. They set a direction for the future of the ERA through four strategic objectives: prioritising investments and reforms, improving access to excellence, translating R&I results into the economy, and deepening the ERA. It is now time to move from strategy to implementation, and to answer the questions: How to translate such strategic objectives into the reality of the different European R&I actors? How to ensure a strong commitment from the entire European R&I community, including national governments? How to keep track of progress and ensure an inclusive and effective governance and implementation of the ERA?

YERUN is delighted to announce that the University of Cyprus (UCY) has officially become a YERUN member! By welcoming UCY into the network, YERUN expands its representation towards South-East Europe.  For YERUN, the University of Cyprus is a fantastic fit: in only thirty-two years since its foundation, UCY has established itself as a leading research institution in the Euro-Mediterranean region, and its values and goals resonate perfectly with those of YERUN. A big welcome to UCY into the Young European Research Universities Network!

Click here to download the press release!