Seed Mobilities on Sustainable Cities and Communities

European Campus of City-Universities and Virtual Institute “Sustainable Cities and Communities” (VISCC)

The European Campus of City-Universities (EC2U) is a multi-cultural and multilingual Alliance consisting of nine universities committed to advancing education, research and innovation: The University of Coimbra, the University of Iaşi, the University of Jena, the University of Linz, the University of Pavia, the University of Poitiers, the University of Salamanca, the University of Turku and the University of Umeå.

EC2U addresses key global challenges through its Virtual Institutes (VIs). The EC2U Virtual Institute for Sustainable Cities and Communities (VISCC) focuses on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities (SDG11) and its sub-targets.

Objectives of the VISCC seed mobility programme

This initiative merges the strengths of multidisciplinary education, training and innovation to develop scientific activities aimed at improving urban living conditions and fostering environmental stewardship. The main objective of the VISCC short mobility programme is to actively promote in-depth collaboration among researchers and research groups of the nine EC2U universities, such as:

• Networking and training visits on the VISCC topics.
• Initiation of joint activities within the VISCC: collaboration in joint projects, publications, presentations at conferences or at scientific events is encouraged.
• Promotion of interdisciplinarity: projects engaging multiple disciplines involved in the broad scope of SDG11 and foster collaboration between research groups within the EC2U network are encouraged.

Two specific seed projects were selected for development:

• Reducing the adverse effects of natural disasters: This project focuses on reducing the risks linked to anthropogenic climate change and urban sprawl via multidisciplinary perspectives, advanced geospatial techniques, and artificial intelligence technologies.
• Legal and socio-political dimensions of urban sustainability: This project focuses on urban sustainability from a legal and social science perspective. Rethinking and reorganising for green social policies and welfare – social sustainability – is thus both a crucial task and a major challenge.

Individuals working directly on the abovementioned seed projects or on the topics listed in the mobility call are encouraged to apply.

Funding

A typical mobility will last five days (including travel days). The mobility grant will cover travel, accommodation, and individual support costs related to the visits. For details please contact the international office of the University of Jena. Mobilities must take place between November 2025 and the 15^th of June 2027.

Contact at the University of Jena