19 March 2026
This year, three teams from the ten finalists received the Outstanding Collaboration Award during the Annual Strategic Forum dinner in Maastricht.
“The YUFE Alliance thrives through staff engagement. This award was created to celebrate outstanding staff engagement across partners and to recognize the incredible dedication YUFE staff bring to our activities, ultimately making the Alliance a reality” stated Maria-Valerie Schegk, YUFE Secretary General.
The YUFE Alliance launched a new award that recognizes and rewards remarkable examples of international collaboration within its alliance. The aim is to celebrate the collaboration that fosters research, teaching, administration, university services, and community engagement. The winning projects span multiple academic disciplines and involve diverse members of the academic community: a reflection of YUFE’s core mission of cross‑border collaboration.
The runner-ups: YUFE Research Relay and BIP English for Entrepreneurship
Two other projects were also awarded during the ceremony. This includes YUFE Research Relay. This project, developed collaboratively by all YUFE partner universities, aims to connect researchers with the Horizon Europe funding ecosystem, specifically targeting Early Career Researchers (ECRs). One of their key achievements was connecting over 600 researchers resulting in three submitted Horizon Europe proposals and multiple individual research grants.
Diego Corral Herreros, who accepted the award on behalf of the creators of this project, noted that this recognition is “motivating. We’re here to do work that benefits people”.
The other project that received an award was BIP English for Entrepreneurship, a project led by the University of Cyprus, University of Antwerp, University of Eastern Finland, University of Rijeka & Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń. This decade‑long (2021–2031) collaboration teaches Business and Law students how to pitch startup ideas in multicultural teams. “This project helps students in pitching ideas, in connecting with entrepreneurs to teach them what it means to start a company in Europe and how to succeed at it”, explained Andreas Athanasiades, from the University of Cyprus.
FINAL - Outstanding Collaboration Award (7)The winner: BioYUFE
BioYUFE was crowned winner for this year’s Outstanding Collaboration. Their project stems from a grassroots initiative connecting life-science programs to foster research-based, hands-on teaching. The aim is to strengthen collaboration across biological faculties by offering shared teaching activities and learning experiences. Some examples of their project include a quarterly webinar series on themes like biodiversity and mental health; they also “organized online events to bring together researchers from different disciplines to network on topics such as climate change”, as explained by Liliane Campos, one of the leads of the project from the Sorbonne Nouvelle University.
BioYUFE was developed jointly by all YUFE partner universities, embodying YUFE Alliance’s commitment to co‑creating the future of European research and education.
The project leads who accepted the award highlighted their gratitude for this award and how important this kind of recognition is to encourage them to continue their project. “It gives us fuel to keep on going in the future”, stated Nicholas Bradshaw, one of the creators of this project from the University of Rijeka.
BioYUFELooking ahead
BioYUFE, this year’s Outstanding Collaboration winner received not only a physical trophy marking their achievement, but also a monetary prize to support the continuation of their work. They have clear long‑term plans to expand their impact and further benefit students, researchers, and the wider YUFE community, particularly through the development of a joint inter‑university master’s programme in Biodiversity & Sustainability.
