YUFE European university alliance launches its 2023 Challenge Teams
1/16/23
The YUFE (Young Universities for the Future of Europe) alliance, which comprises 9 different universities from different European countries, including the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M), has announced the YUFE Challenge Teams’ call for applications to promote entrepreneurship and innovation.
This initiative will be carried out by teams made up of students, faculty and research staff from the Alliance’s universities, the general public, local governments and the business sector. These teams must find new and innovative social, scientific and technological solutions in order to solve a series of challenges proposed by the organisers. The registration period is open until the 5th of February 2023.
The YUFE Challenge Teams aim to develop creative thinking through collaborative and multidisciplinary work. The challenges will be carried out online and in English. This call has four challenges:
Ecosocial (ecological + social) collapse: this challenge aims to find collective strategies to solve the ecosocial crisis (specifically the energy and climate crisis). The work teams have from the 1st of March to the 28th of June to achieve this.
How to overcome barriers to social integration of refugees in the local environment of the host region?: the challenge consists of finding solutions to help eliminate the cultural, linguistic, legal and administrative barriers that refugees encounter, in order to facilitate their social integration in destination countries. The deadline for this challenge is from the 20th of February until the 22nd of May.
Redressing polarisation through digital communicative interventions: intends to find formulas to curb existing polarisation in digital communication through social media. The idea is to create a set of tools that combines communicative depolarisation skills and good practice guidelines. This challenge begins on the 20th of February and ends on the 20th of May.
Smart and Green Touristic Destinations: to solve the problem of so-called “mass tourism”. The aim is to find a form of tourism that reduces pollution and gentrification and protects the environment, through solutions interconnected with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals and the objectives of the European Union’s Green Deal. The deadline is from the 1st of March to the 30th of June.
Carrying out these challenges will allow students to obtain the Estrella Profesional (Professional Star) accreditation, which can be validated for credits in their degree.
About YUFE
The YUFE Alliance is made up of 9 European universities: University of Antwerp (Belgium), University of Bremen (Germany), Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (Spain), University of Cyprus, University of Essex (England), University of Eastern Finland, Maastricht University (The Netherlands), Nicolaus Copernicus University of Torun (Poland) and University of Rijeka (Croatia); as well as two collaborating partners: ETS Group and Adecco Group.
