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UZH hosted the General Assembly of the Una Europa European university alliance for the first time last week. Vice President Elisabeth Stark looks back at the event and emphasizes the boost given to One Health.
Elisabeth Stark, you have just said goodbye to the 300 or so participants who attended the UZH-hosted Una Europa General Assembly. How did the event go, are you happy?
Elisabeth Stark: I’m very happy with how the General Assembly unfolded, how it was organized and the atmosphere we had. My sincere thanks go to Global Affairs for the excellent organization. The events, which were attended by researchers, students and members of the universities’ management bodies and central administration, were marked by open dialogue, with participants sharing their many ideas and opinions. I believe these two-and-a-half days were highly productive. We now need to process the insights we’ve gained, sort through the suggestions and ideas and focus on implementation.
This is the first General Assembly of Una Europa to be organized by UZH. You invested a lot of time and effort in putting together an interesting scientific and cultural program. Why is Una Europa important for the university?
Elisabeth Stark: The alliance enables us to forge close partnerships and collaborations with 10 like-minded universities across Europe. This is very important for us because Switzerland is not a part of the European Union, and we’re currently not an equal partner in the EU’s research programs either. Una Europa gives us indirect access to Horizon Europe and Erasmus+ programs that we would otherwise not be able to take part in. Our Una Europa partner universities are also well-connected advocates for Switzerland’s re-association with Horizon Europe and Erasmus+, which is highly relevant this year.
But of course, the alliance is also important on the level of content. Una Europa’s Focus Areas perfectly align with our own strategic orientation in research, innovation and teaching. The six areas, all interdisciplinary, are Cultural Heritage, Data Science and Artificial Intelligence, Europe and the World, Future Materials, One Health and Sustainability. As a comprehensive university, we’re in a perfect position to contribute.
The underlying theme of the General Assembly was One Earth, One Future. Can you elaborate on this?
Elisabeth Stark: The theme focused on the idea of togetherness and unity that we’re pursuing in our research and visions together with Una Europa. We all share the same planet, and many of UZH’s research focuses explicitly address this. The theme was of course also a nod to the topic of One Health, which was at the heart of this General Assembly and is one of UZH’s strategic priorities. Last year, for example, we were the first university in Europe to establish a One Health Institute.
This allowed UZH to showcase its expertise in the area. How was this perceived by the guests, what feedback did you receive?
Elisabeth Stark: We received a lot of positive feedback about our One Health Institute. I would like to quote Andrea S. Winkler, an expert from the University of Oslo and the Technical University of Munich, who congratulated us at the Una Europa Talk on One Health and was also a little envious that we had created such an institute. It’s still being developed and will continue to grow. But it shows our commitment as well as our diverse activities, for example our collaboration with Makerere University in Uganda. Thanks to Una Europa, we’re pooling additional expertise in the area of One Health, which we now want to leverage in joint projects. Bruno González Zorn from the Complutense University of Madrid, which is also a member of Una Europa, will be speaking at the upcoming One World One Health conference in South Africa about the relevance of research alliances when it comes to successfully tackling such global issues. A joint Master’s program of the Una Europa Alliance for One Health is also being discussed. These activities illustrate very well how Una Europa can act as a catalyst for our own efforts to achieve genuine interdisciplinarity.
Interview: Stefan Stöcklin; English translation by Philip Isler
