Enhance Alliance

 

Enhance is an alliance of seven leading technical universities - including TU Berlin - that aims to shape the future of Europe and drive change in science and society. The ENHANCE alliance is part of the ERASMUS+ funding program for European universities, which is supported by the European Commission.

ENHANCE aims to create a new European academic space for interaction between innovative technological progress, society, and the environment. The Alliance is committed to socially inclusive and sustainable research and education. It applies inter- and transdisciplinary approaches and methods of co-creation and knowledge exchange to address the world's most pressing problems. To unlock the greatest potential, boundaries within the seven universities and society will become permeable. ENHANCE will ensure that education and research have positive social, economic, and environmental impacts. The alliance will help build a common European body of knowledge that underpins sustainable development and adheres to the highest standards of best practice in teaching and research, inclusivity and diversity.

The European values stated in the Lisbon Treaty form is the basis for all activities within the ENHANCE Alliance to create a common European education and research.

The alliance also includes the ENHANCE Think Tank which presents and embraces the strategic outcomes. On the ENHANCE blog, white papers and strategy papers are published.  In addition, there is a virtual makerspace that provides tools and approaches that can be used by other European universities and other institutions working towards a stronger European education space and a more sustainable Europe.

ENHANCE offers a variety of programs. For example, Early-Career researchers are offered an overview of the courses offered by all 7 member universities to acquire transfer skills. The courses are primarily open to researchers from the ENHANCE Alliance (broader participation is possible for some courses).

As a learning institution, ENHANCE aims to promote bottom-up innovation in new educational methods and modern university administration. This task is performed by the “Higher Education Innovator sector”; a virtual unit that supports change in the internal structures and procedures of member universities. It includes applied research to develop new policies, incubators for organizational change, training, tools and resources. New alliances and friendships between universities are also expected to develop through language tandems. The alliance also offers summer schools with the goal of bringing students from member universities together to address relevant issues of our time.

This summer, TU Berlin is co-hosting a summer school that focuses on transdisciplinary methods and tools for addressing sustainability and land use conflicts. The goal of this summer school is to gain insight into the foundations and challenges of transdisciplinary research and practice.

The summer school is open to all ENHANCE students, especially late-stage master's students and PhD students. Applications are open until February 28, 2022, and a kick-off will be held on September 25.