European Research Universities Research Articles

The UNANO consortium aims at uniting bionanotechnology research in Europe

The UNANO consortium consists of laboratories from eight European research universities that explore biomolecules as building blocks for the assembly of nanostructures and nanomachines. UNANO aims at uniting bionanotechnology researchers across Europe and transcending disciplinary boundaries to synergize research impact and explore applications of bionanotechnology.

Internationalization at home as a factor affecting intercultural competence. A study among Belgian university students

ABSTRACT Intercultural competence is an increasingly desirable life skill in a multicultural and globalized world. To promote this learning outcome, higher education institutions can offer internationalization activities both at home and abroad. Research investigating to what extent ‘Internationalization at home’ (IaH) initiatives, as opposed to study abroad, affect the development of intercultural competence (IC) in students, especially in universities where the home student population is still mainly white, like at the university in focus in this paper, is scarce. This survey study aimed to gain insights into the intercultural competence of 506 Flemish university students, and the factors predominantly positively affecting IC development. Our findings reveal that study abroad, participation in cocurricular IaH initiatives, foreign language mastery and use, and the personality traits agreeableness and openness have a bearing on IC and feature among the main explanatory factors. Overall, the findings suggest that the 60,000 student European research university in focus appears successful at having created a study environment that is truly international and can contribute to IC development over the years of study. Via the integration of international and intercultural dimensions into the formal and informal curriculum for all students within domestic learning environments, it contributes to developing international and intercultural mindsets in students.

ELECTRA: electricity-driven low energy and chemical input technology for accelerated bioremediation

The international cooperation project "electricity-driven low energy and chemical input technology for accelerated bioremediation" (abridged as "ELECTRA") is jointly supported by National Nature Science Foundation of China (NSFC) and European Commission (EC). The ELECTRA consortium consists of 5 research institutions and universities from China and 17 European research institutions and universities, as well as high-tech companies of EC countries. ELECTRA focuses on researches of biodegradation of emerging organic compounds (EOCs) and novel environmental biotechnologies of low-energy and low-chemical inputs. The project has been successfully operated for 2 years, and has made important progresses in obtaining EOCs-degrading microbes, developing weak-electricity-accelerated bioremediation, and 3D-printing techniques for microbial consortium. The ELECTRA has promoted collaborations among the Chinese and European scientists. In the future, ELECTRA will overcome the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and fulfill the scientific objectives through strengthening the international collaboration.

Off the beaten path: what drives scientists’ entry into new fields?

AbstractGiven that venturing into unknown territory carries substantial risk, scientists do not take the decision to enter a new field lightly. This paper analyzes a broad set of factors associated with the risks and rewards from entry into new-to-the-researcher scientific fields, including individual capacities and preferences as well as incentives stemming from career progression and access to funding. Using a panel of researchers in biomedical sciences and science and engineering from a large European research university, we find that productivity affects new field entry as such but is not associated with entry into fields that are very distant to one’s current expertise. Scientists in more senior ranks, with larger co-author networks and collaborating with PhD students, are more likely to enter new fields, but these factors do not represent an additional push to enter very remote fields. Such “long jumps” are more likely to be made by above-average talented rather than merely productive researchers. Finally, accounting for its endogeneity, we find that funding does not make new field entry more likely.

Educating PhD Students in Research Integrity in Europe.

No university or research institution is immune to research misconduct or the more widespread problem of questionable research practices. To strengthen integrity in research, universities worldwide have developed education in research integrity. However, little is known about education in research integrity for PhD students in European research-intensive universities. We conducted a content analysis of didactic materials of 11 of the 23 members of the League of European Research Universities (LERU) to map out the content, format, frequency, duration, timing, and compulsory status of their training programmes and the characteristics of instructors of the onsite courses. Quantitative results revealed substantial variation in educational materials among the studied institutions. This variation might be because European research universities are free to design curricula without any requirements from the European, national, or institutional public funding channels. Given the challenges inherent to modern science and preventing misconduct, research institutions should empower future generations of researchers to engage in responsible research practices. To promote integrity in research among PhD students, we provide a set of recommendations for university-wide education in research integrity for doctoral trainees based on our investigation of educational resources.

Mechanik Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego Władysław Antoni Grodzicki i jego skraplarki gazów

Mechanic of the Jagiellonian University Władysław Antoni Grodzicki and His Gas Liquefiers One of the significant achievements in Polish science was the liquefaction of oxygen, air, and other gases in 1883 by the Jagiellonian University professors – Zygmunt Wróblewski and Karol Olszewski. Over the next few years, Krakow became one of the leading units in researching the physicochemical properties of gases. The mechanical workshop of the Jagiellonian University, which produced custom-made laboratory devices for liquefying gases, also gained recognition. The devices were designed by Karol Olszewski, a professor of chemistry at the Jagiellonian University, who modelled them on the countercurrent condenser by William Hampson. The apparatuses were made by the university mechanic, Władysław Grodzicki (1864–1927), who held this post in the years 1897–1927. He offered three types of apparatuses: a cased apparatus, a demonstration apparatus for air liquefaction, and a universal apparatus for liquefaction of air and hydrogen. In order to test how they functioned, a complete gas liquefaction apparatus was installed in the laboratory (including purifiers, a compressor, etc.). These devices were bought by European research institutions, universities, and schools. Grodzicki’s activity contributed to the popularisation of research on low temperatures conducted at the Jagiellonian University. At the same time, it was one of the few Polish companies offering high-class scientific instruments.

Transforming to Excellence: Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL)

This paper investigates an institutional transformation at a European research university, Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL) by adopting a qualitative case study method. Open-ended interviews were held with 45 faculty members and administrators to investigate the driving forces and overall transformation of EPFL as well as their effects on the success of EPFL. The study reveals that the then president played an important role in driving the university’s transformation under the support of the federal government during his tenure. His strategies aimed at integrating American systems into the European context led to an improvement in the university’s academic culture, contributing greatly to the concentration of talent, the acquisition of competitive research funding, and the scientific excellence of EPFL. Furthermore, it also shows that leadership needs to gain the support from faculty members to secure a successful transformation.

Open Science approaches at the University of Edinburgh

Watch the VIDEO.The University of Edinburgh is a large, research-intensive, civic university at the heart of Scotland’s capital. As a member of the League of European Research Universities (LERU), the Universitas 21 consortium and the Russell Group, we value and cultivate partnerships and collaborations as second nature, and seek to be recognised among the world’s top universities. These are interesting times for us, not least from Open (and data-driven) Science perspectives. In May 2018 the LERU Rectors Assembly assembled in Edinburgh, where they collectively endorsed LERU’s Roadmap for Open Science; a movement which requires considerable alterations to traditional researcher behaviours, and increasingly balancing intellectual investment and ownership of research with “the common good.” More recently, in August the UK Prime Minister and the Scottish First Minister met at the University to launch the Edinburgh and South East Scotland City Region Deal, a £1.3bn investment package designed to increase the contribution of research, data analytics expertise and graduate skills to the region’s economy, ultimately aiming to make Edinburgh “the data capital of Europe.” The timing of these developments provides a challenge, however, as Edinburgh, Scotland and the rest of the UK prepare to leave the European Union in the Spring of 2019. In an ideal world Science and Scholarship would be independent of political shifts, focused as they are on ideals of universal truth, but the means via which research is funded, performed and disseminated are necessarily grounded in political reality. Edinburgh’s default responses to the changes and challenges we face are to influence them positively – or mitigate them proactively – wherever we can, and to prepare ourselves for their impact where we cannot do otherwise. The University’s newly integrated Research Data Support (RDS) team is a cornerstone of our institutional Digital Research Services. We aim to provide holistic, responsive, tailored and researcher-focused support to the University community, helping collectively meet contemporary expectations in scholarly communications, including Open Science requirements to make data (and code) available alongside publications to enable their conclusions to be reproduced. The RDS has published a Roadmap for ongoing development, and alongside other infrastructural and support units such as the Scholarly Communications and Research Information Systems functions – and together with the externally focused infrastructure, advocacy and skills development centres that Edinburgh hosts, such as the Digital Curation Centre and the Software Sustainability Institute – we are a key component of the University’s broader Open Science strategy. In this presentation we will describe and discuss Edinburgh’s Open Science environment and approaches, within the broader landscape of changing expectations, political risks and scientific and societal opportunities. We will discuss the benefits and challenges of Open approaches within and beyond the Sciences, and the challenges involved in turning the European Commission’s “as open as possible, as closed as necessary” dictum into reality, including outreach and skills development activities. Finally we will look at the University’s current RDS Roadmap, and consider how this might develop and adapt in the exciting (and potentially turbulent) years ahead.

Laser resonance ionization spectroscopy on lutetium for the MEDICIS project

The MEDICIS-PROMED Innovative Training Network under the Horizon 2020 EU program aims to establish a network of early stage researchers, involving scientific exchange and active cooperation between leading European research institutions, universities, hospitals, and industry. Primary scientific goal is the purpose of providing and testing novel radioisotopes for nuclear medical imaging and radionuclide therapy. Within a closely linked project at CERN, a dedicated electromagnetic mass separator system is presently under installation for production of innovative radiopharmaceutical isotopes at the new CERN-MEDICIS laboratory, directly adjacent to the existing CERN-ISOLDE radioactive ion beam facility. It is planned to implement a resonance ionization laser ion source (RILIS) to ensure high efficiency and unrivaled purity in the production of radioactive ions. To provide a highly efficient ionization process, identification and characterization of a specific multi-step laser ionization scheme for each individual element with isotopes of interest is required. The element lutetium is of primary relevance, and therefore was considered as first candidate. Three two-step excitation schemes for lutetium atoms are presented in this work, and spectroscopic results are compared with data of other authors.

The last ten years of research at Tarquinia

The Centro di Ricerca Coordinata ‘ProgettoTarquinia’ of the Universita degli Studi di Milano is a LERU (League of European Research Universities) exemplary interdisciplinary research project that involves groups from the Universita Statale di Milano (Archaeology, Information and Communication Technologies, Geoarchaeology, Palaeoanthropology), the Politecnico di Milano (Architecture and Topography) and bridges the gap between soft and hard sciences. This project stems from the ‘Progetto Tarquinia’ conceived by Maria Bonghi Jovino in 1982. During the last ten years, our integrated system of tools and services, supported by ICTs (ArchMatrix), through which multidisciplinary domain experts can examine all the typologies of data of a given culture, has made it possible to concentrate on the links between data-sources focusing on the recurrence of association rates within different aspects of material evidence and phenomena. The fields of application of our methodology in the domain of archaeology and epigraphy are multifaceted as regards the inside and outside connections of the Tarquinian heritage, whose necropolis with the famous painted tombs is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Research includes areas of the Civita plateau: the ‘monumental complex’, the Ara della Regina sanctuary, fortifications, and archaeological sites previously explored. In the past ten years, research in the necropolis (roughly 6,000 tombs, of which 400 are painted) and in the surrounding territory has also been implemented and has produced the complete corpus of the painted tombs of Tarquinia. Our holistic approach encompasses archaeological analysis of small (mobile finds), medium (archaeological contexts) and large scale (territory and landscape) architectural analysis and applications for integrated solutions for the cultural heritage, including the first bilingual Virtual Museum dedicated to an Etruscan city.

European research universities form a new lobby organization—but did they need it?

European research universities form a new lobby organization—but did they need it?

Luxembourg’s Expanding Higher Education System: Responding to Global Norms

Luxembourg has an expanding higher education system, with one of the youngest European national research universities at its center. The University of Luxembourg was founded, against local resistance, as an elite institutional response to global norms and to the Europe-wide Bologna Process.

Science and speed addiction: the scholar’s vocation in the age of efficiency

This article examines the consequences of a set of unexamined assumptions related to instrumentalism as a fundamental presupposition in higher education and research policy. In particular, the idea of ‘efficiency’ as an ultimate value is contrasted with the idea of guiding principles with regard to the inner organisation of science, scholarship and teaching at the tertiary level. It is argued that the indispensable criterion for any sort of serious research or solid educational program is that the time required for thinking through a problem cannot be compromised without therewith compromising the very idea of science. At the same time, contemporary innovation and educational policy necessarily treat time as a cost to be reduced. Accommodation to external pressures to increase efficiency on the part of faculty, however, began already with the emergence of the modern European research university two centuries ago, as a response to market and bureaucratic exigencies. Thus, it is instructive to see how ideas such as that of faculty self-governance and the autonomy of science were deployed as a way of negotiating a path for the continued existence of the university under such conditions. The article concludes with a reflection on the future of the contemporary multiversity inspired by Kant's famous defence of the idea of a free faculty of ‘pure’ science.

How to place European Research Universities in the global rankings? Policies and strategies of University International Excellence in France and Spain

Although global rankings do not classify national university systems, the majority of countries are reformulating their HE policies to improve the ranking position of their best universities. Accordingly, this paper studies the case of France and Spain through the analysis of their respective national policies for the promotion of university international excellence (state-level response to global rankings). In particular, we discuss two initiatives of university collaboration (institutional-level response to global rankings) aimed to create synergies and increase the international visibility of the participant institutions: the new branded university Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL) and the Campus of International Excellence of the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid and the Spanish Research Council (CEI UAM+CSIC). In both case studies the participant institutions keep their autonomy and legal personality, a difficult alliance formula to administrate. Nevertheless, they are good practices that reflect a wide state-run strategy for the modernization of both national university systems.

Universities and the emerging new players: building futures for higher education

Universities are long-established organisations, and although they have reinvented themselves several times, major reforms are needed again, underpinned by systematic prospective analyses. A novel method is needed to take into account the wide-ranging and complex factors, shaping the future of the higher education system. ‘Futures’ should be devised in a multi-level structure as the bulk of trends and driving forces are international in their nature and universities are embedded in broader socio-economic systems. This new approach is demonstrated here by devising ‘cascading’ futures for the European Union (EU), the European Research and Innovation Area (ERIA) and universities. Several advantages can be expected from this type of prospective analysis: (i) the potential changes of these broader settings, in which universities operate, as well as their impacts on higher education can be explored; (ii) the huge diversity of higher education systems and individual universities can be reflected; and (iii) the likely impacts of different policy options can also be explored. It is also proposed to select foresight programmes from the ‘prospective toolkit’, given their specific features and benefits compared to other prospective methods.

Turning science into business: a case study of a major European research university

The ‘entrepreneurial university’ is an increasingly frequent notion in debates about new ways of knowledge production and the changing relationships between university, industry and government. A rich literature has developed exploring outputs of such activity, most notably ‘patenting’, ‘licensing’, and ‘spin-outs’. There is also a literature exploring the organisational process in institutes of higher education (HEI’s). All too often these two streams of literature ignore each other. The objective of this paper is to make a bridging contribution by exploring the case of Universite Libre de Bruxelles (U.L.B.). The main research question is: Does it pay to make the entire university entrepreneurial? Our observations suggest that this would be an effort that could possibly overstretch an institution’s resources. The U.L.B. case illustrates the potential for nurturing entrepreneurial activities locally as well as the possibilities and limitations of top-down actions instilling entrepreneurial culture mongst academic rank and file.

Bibliometric statistical properties of the 100 largest European research universities: Prevalent scaling rules in the science system

AbstractThe statistical properties of bibliometric indicators related to research performance, field citation density, and journal impact were studied for the 100 largest European research universities. A size‐dependent cumulative advantage was found for the impact of universities in terms of total number of citations. In the author's previous work, a similar scaling rule was found at the level of research groups. Therefore, this scaling rule is conjectured to be a prevalent property of the science system. The lower performance universities have a larger size‐dependent cumulative advantage for receiving citations than top performance universities. For the lower performance universities, the fraction of noncited publications decreases considerably with size. Generally, the higher the average journal impact of the publications of a university, the lower the number of noncited publications. The average research performance was found not to dilute with size. Evidently, large universities, particularly top performance universities are characterized by being “big and beautiful.” They succeed in keeping a high performance over a broad range of activities. This most probably is an indication of their overall attractive scientific and intellectual power. It was also found that particularly for the lower performance universities, the field citation density provides a strong cumulative advantage in citations per publication. The relation between number of citations and field citation density found in this study can be considered as a second basic scaling rule of the science system. Top performance universities publish in journals with significantly higher journal impact as compared to the lower performance universities. A significant decrease of the fraction of self‐citations with increasing research performance, average field citation density, and average journal impact was found.

Mellom økonomi og kultur: Det europeiske universitetet i endring

Is the European Research University going to be a historical parenthesis? The question has been raised, yet there is no agreed-upon answer, and this article aims at providing a framework for making sense of the current dynamics of the University. The key issue is: What kind of university and what kind of academics for what kind of society? Using an institutional perspective, University dynamics is seen as driven by tensions between three of the key institutions of modern society - science, representative democracy and the market economy - and between different policy-sectors and levels of governance. Attention is in particular given to the increasing importance of Europe as the framework for university reforms, and how the University may adapt to changing demands and expectations without losing its institutional identity and integrity. A later version of this paper was published in Norsk Statsvitenskapelig Tidskrift , 2007, Vol. 23, pp: 267-287.

The European Research University: An Historical Parenthesis?

The European Research University: An Historical Parenthesis?

Patent Production at a European Research University: Exploratory Evidence at the Laboratory Level

Most studies of academic patenting focus on the university as the unit of analysis. In contrast, we examine this phenomenon at the laboratory level. Based on a sample of 83 research laboratories of Louis Pasteur University (ULP, Strasbourg, France) from 1993 to 2000, we constructed a panel data set that allows us to discriminate between patents that are owned by the university and those that are owned by firms and other organizations but invented by faculty members. We use these data to estimate a patent production function and find that university-owned patents are more responsive to specific public funding, while non-university-owned patents are more responsive to industrial funding. Our results also highlight the importance to control for disciplinary and institutional differences, since they significantly affect the production of the different kinds of ULP patents.