The group of nine universities will work to develop programs focusing on providing graduates with “competencies that allow them to make an impact and to make a difference to the world”.

“Many students and many staff in all of our Aurora universities working together are going to benefit from this”

Including EU grants as well as funding from partners, the Alliance has been awarded €9,998,000 in total.

Vice-chancellor of the University of East Anglia and Aurora president, David Richardson, said the network will explore the role of universities.

“We think that universities are here to serve society, and therefore they have to be socially inclusive,” Richardson said in a statement.

“Aurora is a socially inclusive network that has exciting ideas about how to deliver relevant inclusive curricula for the future.”

The grant will enable the group to develop curricula that address key issues such as social inclusion in education and the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, he continued.

“I know that many students and many staff in all of our Aurora universities working together are going to benefit from this. And that, in these days of Covid-19, this global pandemic, that is more important now than ever before,” Richardson added.

Key competencies include Sustainability & Climate Change; Digital Society & Global Citizenship; Health & Well-being; Culture: Diversity & identity.

The Alliance’s mission is to “get beyond explaining how our teaching and research relates to the SDGs towards showing how our teaching and research actually contribute to the achievement of those goals”, the group added.

Additionally, the Alliance is committed to ensuring each student will gain meaningful international experience.

Originally formed in 2016 at the Aurora Universities Network, the Aurora Alliance is a consortium of research-intensive universities deeply committed to social impact and with a proven history of community engagement.

Members include the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, University of East Anglia, University of Iceland, University Duisburg-Essen, University Rovira I Virgili, University of Naples, University of Innsbruck, Copenhagen Business School, and Palacky University in Olomouc.

While not part of the Aurora Alliance program, the University of Aberdeen and the University of Grenoble Alpes will “be involved as much as possible”.

A network of associate universities in central and eastern Europe will also be working closely with Aurora.