About EU-CARE
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The EU-Ukrainian Cooperation for Academic Resilience (EU-CARE) project is an Erasmus+ Cooperation Partnership in higher education running from 1 October 2025 to 30 September 2027. It is led by Dublin City University (Ireland) and brings together the University of Coimbra (Portugal), Ivan Franko National University of Lviv (Ukraine), the Global Governance Institute (Belgium), and the Ukrainian European Studies Association (Ukraine). EU-CARE was designed in response to the profound impact of Russiaās war of aggression against Ukraine on higher education, and to the urgent need for stronger, longer-term cooperation between Ukrainian and European universities. The project focuses on advancing Cooperative Academic Resilience (CAR): the capacity of students, faculty, university leaders, institutions, and higher education systems to withstand disruption, adapt under pressure, and recover through effective cooperation. Its broader aim is to equip higher education actors with practical tools, training, and partnership mechanisms that help embed resilience into institutional life and support Ukraineās deeper integration into the European Education Area.
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At the centre of EU-CARE is a strong evidence-based and practice-oriented approach. The project begins with a comprehensive mapping exercise exploring how academic resilience and cooperative academic resilience are currently understood, supported, and institutionalised across Ukrainian, European, and wider international higher education contexts. This work combines desk research, a large foundational survey, expert input, and needs analysis in order to identify concrete practices, gaps, and cooperation needs. Rather than treating resilience as an abstract concept, EU-CARE links it to the practical realities universities face in times of war, displacement, disruption, digital transition, and long-term recovery. The mapping and best practice work will provide the foundation for all later project activities, ensuring that the projectās training offers, tools, and policy recommendations are rooted in real institutional experience.
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Building on this evidence, EU-CARE develops a set of practical results aimed at strengthening resilience through cooperation. The project will produce four open-access curricula, four online trainings, and an implementation guidefocused on different dimensions of cooperative academic resilience. These trainings are designed for students, faculty, university leaders, and policymakers, and will be delivered through a blended digital format supported by the EU-CARE Digital Resilience Hub. Alongside this, the project will run six Living Labs and three Design Workshops, bringing together European and Ukrainian partners to analyse common challenges, co-create practical solutions, and turn these into ready-to-use tools such as cooperation models, action plans, protocols, and policy recommendations. A peer-mentoring scheme for academic leaders will complement this work by helping participants reflect on institutional challenges and translate project insights into concrete action within their own universities.
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EU-CARE also has a strong long-term ambition beyond the formal life of the project. Through policy briefs, an online handbook, a podcast series, a webinar, and major dissemination events, it aims to strengthen wider European and international debate on how universities can respond to crisis through structured cooperation. To sustain this work, the project will establish NEIRU, the Network for European & International Resilient Universities, as a permanent platform for exchange, partnership-building, and continued reflection on academic resilience. In this way, EU-CARE seeks not only to respond to the current consequences of war, but also to support more resilient, connected, and adaptable higher education cooperation between Ukraine, the EU, and international partners over the longer term.