27 March 2023
Bilbao Campus
The University of Deusto, as part of the UNIC European Alliance, is organizing the 3rd edition of the UNIC CityLabs Festival, which is held annually. An event that aims to bring together universities and cities to share experiences, common challenges and co-create innovative ways to generate societal impact in our cities and communities through experiential activities.
On this occasion, the program will focus on the post-industrial link that unites UNIC cities, using the city of Bilbao as an example. Thus, the event will bring together students, the academic and research community, higher education professionals, city representatives, stakeholders and citizens of the (soon) 10 European cities that make up UNIC.
The meeting will take place on April 25th and 26th, and has been organized by the University of Deusto and Bilbao City Council, with the collaboration of partner universities and numerous city stakeholders of Bilbao.
A program open to participation
The sessions on the 25th are aimed at members of the UNIC Alliance who, after the opening ceremony, will participate in different activities designed to compile and extol the successes that have been achieved, both from the CityLabs and from the UNIC Alliance itself. There will also be space for strategic meetings in which the 10 Rectors and representatives of the cities will be able to discuss the main achievements of UNIC and their plans for future university-city collaboration.
On April 26th, the citizens of Bilbao will have the opportunity to join the UNIC community for a post-industrial tour (in English) through Bilbao’s past, present and future. Admission to the event is free of charge, subject of registration through the website. Four tours will be offered to help to learn more about the history and culture of the city:
- The river: from an industrial past to a natural axis of development
- Zorrozaurre: island of knowledge and sustainable development
- Cultural Drivers: international urban references and avant-garde projects
- Bilbao: city of events and Basque identity
The visits will be complemented by subsequent workshops to compare and share the challenges of Bilbao with the experiences and responses provided by the other cities of the UNIC Alliance.
The full program of the Festival, as well as useful information of Bilbao, is available on this website.
UNIC European Alliance
UNIC is an Alliance of 8 universities (soon to be 10) located in post-industrial cities. The universities that conform the UNIC Alliance are:
- Erasmus University Rotterdam (The Netherlands)
- Koç University (Turkey)
- Malmö University (Sweden) - joining in 2023
- Ruhr University Bochum (Germany)
- University College Cork (Ireland)
- University of Deusto (Spain)
- University of Liège (Belgium)
- University of Oulu (Finland)
- University of Lodz (Poland) - joining in 2023
- Zagreb University (Croatia)
UNIC’s main objective is to bring universities and cities together to provide inclusive quality education for our diverse societies. Inter-university mobility, inclusion and diversity, social impact and engaged research are the pillars and values of our mission. This partnership is part of the European Universities Initiative promoted and funded by the European Commission.
Should you want to know more about this event or the UNIC European Alliance, do not hesitate to contact the UNIC team at UD: unic.ud@deusto.es
