Good practices of innovative management of internationalization

Abstract

Through FORTHEM’s latest project, FIT FORTHEM, standing for Fostering Institutional Transformation of R&I Policies in European Universities, launched in 2021, the Alliance has made clear its willingness to put an even greater emphasis on the internationalization of the research of its members. In FIT FORTHEM, the seven partner organizations aim at making the FORTHEM Alliance a unique and united entity, a European University, not only with a strong higher education strategy, as developed within the Erasmus+ project, but also with a comprehensive research and innovation strategy and tight links to the socio-economic environment, with a view toward increasing competitiveness and the success rate of the Alliance and its partner universities, on the European and global scenes. Consequently, the real and very ambitious challenge is to make sure that all researchers within the FORTHEM alliance develop the awareness of being full members of a European university, at least as much as they feel part of their home university. Almost ten centuries ago the University was founded based on a sacred covenant between students and professors, which was sanctioned by political and religious authorities. It was a covenant for knowledge and research, devoid of borders.