Consortium

Dublin City University was founded in 1981 and comprises over 17,500 students including over 2600 postgraduate students, of whom c. 800 are research students. Following the incorporation in 2016 of leading colleges of education (St Patrick’s College, Drumcondra; Mater Dei Institute of Education; Church of Ireland College of Education) into the University, the number of DCU staff members increased from 400 to over 650. The University is now a multi-campus university occupying approximately 60 hectares just north of Dublin City Centre. Having grown its student population by more than 50% in the past five years, DCU is Ireland’s most innovative university and fastest growing university, and delivers more than 200 programmes across its five faculties – Humanities and Social Sciences, Science and Health, Engineering and Computing, DCU Business School and DCU Institute of Education. Excellence in DCU education and research activities has led to the University being consistently ranked among the top young universitiesglobally, appearing in the 2021 QS Top 70 under 50, and 2020 Times Higher Young University Top 150.

Nationally, DCU has been named Sunday Times ‘University of the Year’ three times (2004, 2010, 2021). The latest Times Higher Education World University Subject Rankings (2021) placed DCU amongst the top 200 universities globally for Arts and Humanities, and in the top 250 universities in the world for Social Sciences and for Business and Economics. DCU is also in the top 300 for Computer Science, the top 500 for Education and Engineering disciplines and in the overall top 600 for subject choices in Physical Sciences and Clinical and Health. Competitively won research funding is approximately €38 million per annum, and DCU invests considerable amounts of its resources to develop research infrastructure and support key programmes.

At DCU, the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences is the largest faculty with a full range of disciplines. The School of Law and Government is the top-ranked school in the University. It is in the top 150 globally for politics in both the QS and Shanghai rankings and it is in the top 300 for Law. This places the School as the most consistently highly ranked department of political science on the island of Ireland. The School has an outstanding reputation for excellence in teaching and research. It's host to the longest running MA in International Relations and the only BA in International Relations in Ireland. The School is also host to the International Master in Security, Intelligence and Strategic Studies (IMSISS), an Erasmus Mundus Joint Masters Degree (EMJMD) which has been running since 2017 and is now widely regarded as one of the premier programmes on security studies in the world. DCU graduates are represented at the highest level of government and in international organisations from the UN to the EU.

The Global Governance Institute (GGI) is an independent, non-profit think tank based in Brussels. Since 2010 GGI has brought together policy-makers, scholars and practitioners from the world’s leading institutions in order to devise, strengthen and improve forward-looking approaches to global governance. 

Our mission is to promote comprehensive research, cutting- edge analysis and innovative advice on core policy issues, informed by a truly global perspective. This also includes raising awareness about major challenges of global governance among the general public. 

Our vision is a more equitable, peaceful and sustainable global order based on effective but accountable international organizations, the global rule of law and the empowerment of the individual across borders and cultures. GGI places particular emphasis on the improvement of the United Nations system and its mutual reinforcement with strong regional organisations. 

The Ivan Franko National University of Lviv (IFNUL) is one of the oldest universities in Ukraine (founded in 1661) with strong academic traditions aiming at maintaining its position as one of the leading research and higher education institutions in Ukraine. IFNUL is strongly committed to promoting excellence in research and is ranked by Hirsch index (h-index) in the top three Ukrainian universities. The University offers education through its 19 faculties, consisting of 142 departments, serving a student body of over 20,000 individuals. The IFNUL staff actively engages in expert work and offers academic advice to several Ukrainian public authorities on different topics, e.g. implementation of the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement (to MESU and Ministry of Economy of Ukraine), legal issues (Ministry of Justice, Constitutional Court of Ukraine, Supreme Court of Ukraine) etc. IFNUL’s academic staff is active in public councils advising public authorities at different levels.To modernise the teaching process with a focus on digitalization and internationalisation in higher education institutions (HEIs), it is crucial to draw from our experience gained in international projects such as "Two steps: Internationalisation in practice – Sweden, Ukraine, Belarus" (2019) and "Digital at home: new steps in internationalisation of education" (2020-2022). Both projects are coordinated by the Baltic University Programme (BUP) and Uppsala University (Sweden), and are financed by the Swedish Institute.

The University of Coimbra (UC) is a public higher education institution founded in 1290. The mission of UC comprises three pillars: Education, Research and Knowledge Transfer. UC was classified as World Heritage by UNESCO in 2013 and it holds several UNESCO chairs. It is part of the Center for World University Rankings of the 500 best universities in the world. It is considered by QS Stars University Ratings a top institution (five stars) and obtained an excellent rating in several U- Multirank indicators, in the areas of research, knowledge transfer and internationalisation. In the areas of Civil Engineering, Law, Environment, among others, the University of Coimbra is among the top 200 in the world. The University of Coimbra stands out in the QS World University Rankings: Sustainability 2024, securing the 181st position globally (81st in Europe) among over 1400 higher education institutions.

UC offers 46 undergraduate degrees, 127 master’s degrees and 77 doctorates. In 2021/2022, 200 PhD theses were concluded. UC comprises 12 research and education units and 38 centres of pure and applied research that are responsible for the production of knowledge in several scientific fields, bringing together around 2100 researchers. A number of these centres are leaders in their areas, as regularly evaluated by international panels. There are also units supporting cultural, training and education activities, namely: The Botanical Garden, The Common Library, 25th of April Documentation Centre, The Archive, The Press, the Science Museum, the Academic Theatre Gil Vicente, University Stadium and the Library of Health Sciences. The University’s buildings, distributed among three campuses, sum up to 124 buildings.

Concerning knowledge transfer, UC deepens the innovation policy through INOV.C, an Innovation Ecosystem that comprises more than 500 partners. As a result of these dynamics, in 2022, the UC managed a total of 475 project grants (368 national grants and 107 international grants), and a total amount of 86.42M€ was contracted to support education, research, innovation and other institutional projects. The UC has around 28,000 students, of which more than 5,000 are of foreign nationality; it employs 1,900 teaching staff, 300 researchers, 1,370 technical staff and hosts 340 researchers.

The Ukrainian European Studies Association is the national-wide association of professors and researchers – experts in European Studies in Ukraine. UESA builds upon the longlasting networking efforts of leading pro-European NGOs and private foundations. Committed to European values, transparency, and building leadership skills in the EI issues, the UESA is the first national-wide NGO that undertook to unite prominent academics in ES in Ukraine, acting Jean Monnet grantees, secondary school teachers, and leaders of pro-European CSOs, public servants and researchers in the domain of European Integration (EI) in Ukraine. Since the UESA's founding meeting on 7 October 2006, more than 22 regional branches of the Association were established.

To reflect the inter/multidisciplinary nature of European studies as the UESA changed its internal structure and currently is re-organizing its work into 5 committees dealing with such issues as sustainable development and economics; good governance; security issues in global and regional dimensions, human rights, democracy and rule of law issues and Ukraine’s integration into European Educational and Research Area. Within the cooperation in the education area, the UESA cooperated closely with the Ukrainian network of Euroclubs and supported its activities. UESA gained recognition for its expertise, and comprehensive scope, it operates transparently and democratically, prioritizing an interdisciplinary approach in ES. UESA is a member of the ECSA World international network UESA members are active in support of the European Choice of Ukraine at local, regional, and national levels, providing expertise in their respective professional areas. Currently UESA is engaged into the realization of 2 HORIZON projects EMBRACE (embrace-democracy.eu) and RE-ENGAGE (re-engaging.eu) and 2 Erasmus+ projects UNICOM (unicom.community) and EU4UA.