CIVIS renews its call for proposals for Virtual Mobilities Programmes

Aiming to increase mobility among its students and staff members, promoting CIVIS values, and cultivating innovation in all addressed areas, the CIVIS Alliance renews its call for Virtual Mobility programmes to be designed, submitted, and implemented by all partner universities.

Proposals can be submitted at all times and they will be evaluated periodically. However, the new application deadline for VM competition-based budget allocation is 31 January 2022 (with a possible extension until 28 February 2022 if there is a remaining budget). Funding from CIVIS will only be granted to projects which involve 3 or more universities in their development. More details, as well as the VM budget allocation proposal is available here. For further information about evaluation and award criteria, contact us at VM-CIVIS@unibuc.ro.

Description

Virtual mobility (VM) and physical mobility are complementary; VM allows students who so far were not able to participate in exchange mobility for various reasons, to be part of the international community. Therefore, VM opens perspectives for all students, offering an inclusive mobility context.

VMs may be organized independently by any Faculty / School / Department of the CIVIS Alliance Universities, at Faculty/School/Department level, collaboration is encouraged.

Topics can be selected by the universities from all research/study domains, wherever possible, approaching also the 5 major challenges identified by CIVIS: Climate, Environment, Energy; Health; Society, Culture, Heritage; Digital and Technological Transformations; Cities, Territories, Mobilities. The VM initiatives can have a specific sub-theme that can vary from edition to edition. If possible, the proposals can include topics cultivating bridges between Europe and the Mediterranean Region and Africa.

Regarding the length of VMs, the number of hours/weeks allocated for delivering the activities can vary from short, intensive learning experiences (in the case of open courses) to one or two semesters. The VMs can be offered in the Winter/Spring Semester or during the semester breaks.

The VM courses/modules can be delivered in any of the CIVIS Universities languages. According to the CIVIS objectives, multilingualism is encouraged.

Objectives

The purpose of the CIVIS Virtual Mobility Call is to enhance collaboration among the partner Universities of the CIVIS alliance, bringing together their scholars and students. Accordingly, the main objectives of the CIVIS VM are:

• to increase student mobility,
• to offer mobility opportunities for all students, including those unable to participate in traditional (physical) mobilities, increasing inclusiveness,
• to increase the recognition of our partner institutions among our students and academic staff,
• to offer a concentrated educational experience over a short period of time, including some practical work, or in the case of micro-programmes, over a longer period of time which may be flexible, but must be ended before the regular course of studies,
• to promote the exchange of knowledge, ideas, and discussions on specific topics, instigate new thoughts and animate debates,
• to expose students to the academic and cultural experience of other universities and to combine theory and practice,
• to cultivate an international mentality among students,
• to create bonds among partner institutions, academics, and students, offer networking opportunities,
• to support structuring learning/research collaboration or strategies,
• to promote the CIVIS brand among the academic community of the alliance. 

Types of VMs eligible for submission

CIVIS Open Course (1-10 ECTS)

This category covers any learning experience (regardless of the duration, topic, language) organized within the CIVIS universities’ curricula for different educational levels (BA/MA/PhD). The courses are open to CIVIS students, in an online format, allowing their attendance and completion based on specific criteria established by the course responsible.   

CIVIS Modules (5-15 ECTS)

Modularization is CIVIS’s answer to the EC’s priority of micro-credentials. Such modules can be offered as collaborative monodisciplinary modules (in one subject), extra-curricular topics (e.g. transferable skills), or as transdisciplinary coursework on a challenge-oriented theme (i.e. in the hubs). They can be in the form of regular semester coursework or intensive winter or summer schools. Wherever possible, at least another CIVIS partner university or – ideally recommended – at least three CIVIS partner universities should be involved, considering geographical balance. 

CIVIS Micro-Programme

One can combine smaller units: courses and modules into ‘micro-programmes’ with a certification possibility.

In particular, with transdisciplinary course programmes, one can design a possibility for our students to follow their own interests, to deepen their knowledge in certain of the five CIVIS areas or broader and choose individually, if they want to do so, and into which fields they would like to gain a deeper insight. Thereby we are offering our CIVIS students flexible learning pathways. 

CIVIS Summer / Winter School

CIVIS virtual summer/winter schools are one of the short-term types of activities for virtual mobility. The virtual school can either be an existing event extended/ implemented as virtual mobility within the CIVIS alliance or a newly designed one by several partner universities, covering usually one or two weeks of intensive activities. Topics/disciplines/subjects: topics can be selected by the CIVIS universities from all domains of study and R&D, but they can also approach hub thematic areas. 

CIVIS “BOOTCAMPS” (Practical / Research intensive stages)

Research Activity / Practice / Internship requirements are compulsory in many programmes of study, starting from bachelor up to PhD level and a number of ECTS are usually assigned. Moreover, students at all levels are interested to extend their experience in additional /optional research practice or internships.

More details about the CIVIS Call, about the application procedure, as well as about the evaluation and selection of the Virtual Mobility programmes are available here, and the online application platform for this permanent call can be accessed here.

CIVIS is a European Civic University formed by the alliance of nine leading research higher education institutions across Europe: Aix-Marseille Université, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Universitatea din București, Université libre de Bruxelles, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Sapienza Università di Roma, Stockholm University, Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen and University of Glasgow. It brings together a community of more than 450,000 students and 65,000 staff members including 30,000 academics and researchers. Recently, CIVIS was joined by Paris Lodron University of Salzburg.