12 February 2026
Innovating Together:
BRUSSELS – The YUFE (Young Universities for the Future of Europe) Alliance has officially announced the ten finalists for the Outstanding Collaboration Award. These projects represent a diverse array of disciplines, from the ethics of AI to the protection of shareholder rights, showcasing how the alliance’s 10 partner universities are successfully dissolving borders to co-create the future of European research and education.
“These submissions demonstrate that the most impactful solutions emerge when we bridge the gap between disciplines, seniority levels, and national borders,” the YUFE coordination team stated.
The Finalists: A Deep Dive into European Collaboration
Digital Bills of Rights
University of Bremen & Maastricht University
Started in 2021, this collaboration analyses global digital policies to identify the values shaping our online world. Through the Digital Constitutionalism Network, they have built an open-access database that turns complex documents, like the UN’s Global Digital Compact, into actionable insights for research and policy.
- Key Achievement: Showcasing the Digital Bills of Rights Database at the 2025 UN Internet Governance Forum, where they demonstrated its practical impact to global policymakers and civil society.
- Future Vision: They have been expanding the dataset and testing LLMs to support qualitative coding, collaborating with a multi-disciplinary team of YUFE students and international experts.
Minority Shareholder Protection
University of Cyprus & Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń
Solving a vital problem: the lack of a clear “big picture” for minority shareholder protection in the EU. By comparing legal systems like Cyprus and Poland, they are helping law practitioners and policymakers build more confident, fairer markets.
- Key Achievement: They have built a lasting research powerhouse, successfully hosting three international conferences and publishing a joint volume, with a major Routledge book on the way.
- Future Vision: They are heading toward our next international conference in May 2026. The goal is to expand our reach to EU-level policymakers and publish a new global volume that defines the future of company law.
Upcoming projects:
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ATLAS: AI-driven Innovation in Higher Education
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YUFE Network in Philosophy of Technology
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BIP English for Entrepreneurship
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LingYUFE: Uniting European Linguistics
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BioYUFE: Reimagining Life Sciences
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YUFE Network for Postdoctoral Researchers
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YUFE Research Relay
Looking Ahead
The winner of the YUFE Outstanding Collaboration Award will receive a monetary prize to further the sustainability of their project. Common goals among the teams include the creation of joint Master’s programs, the expansion of open-access toolkits, and the hosting of international workshops in 2026 and 2027.
Regardless of who takes home the trophy, these ten submissions prove that the “YUFE spirit“, rooted in inclusivity, innovation, and cross-border synergy, is thriving.
If you want to find out more about the call, click here.
