What is EUniWell?
EUniWell - the European University for Wellbeing - is one of 60 European university alliances funded by the European Commission as part of the ERASMUS+ programme. EUniWell consists of the eleven universities of Birmingham (United Kingdom), Cologne (Germany), Florence (Italy), Inalco (France), Constance (Germany), Linnaeus (Sweden), Murcia (Spain), Nantes (France), Santiago de Compostela (Spain), Semmelweis (Hungary) and the Taras Shevchenko University of Kiev (Ukraine). The Alliance also works with more than 100 associated partners from all areas of society. The University of Konstanz has been a full member of EUniWell since 1st November 2023.
In the first funding period from November 2020 to October 2023, EUniWell developed a joint research and teaching agenda on the topic of "Well-Being", which follows the core objective of recording, understanding, improving and balancing the well-being of individuals, their own members, the environment and society as a whole at regional, European and global level.
Why “Well-being”?
With its focus on well-being, EUniWell responds to the Council of the European Union’s invitation for member states to pursue a horizontal, cross-sectoral, knowledge-based approach to advance the ‘Economy of Wellbeing’ (24 October 2019), a virtuous circle between society, science and the environment, leading to greater well-being across those dimensions.
Europeans today have comparatively high life expectancy and Europe has a strong economy. Yet, the long-term well-being of European citizens is threatened by global challenges such as climate change, new diseases, rising populism, a growing divide between different groups in society, and wars. Meeting these challenges will require a holistic approach in which institutions of higher education, research and innovation have a leading role to play.
Based on their joint values – democratic, inclusive, diverse, research and challenge-based, inter- and transdisciplinary, entrepreneurial, and co-creational – the EUniWell partners aim to develop an action-oriented solution, grounded in high profile research expertise, educational leadership and civic engagement. EUniWell aims to play a critical, intermediary role in shaping research-based policy and pedagogy to inform decision-making, underpin skills development, and realise a measurable impact on our students’ learning experience and the citizens’ quality of life.
Do you have questions and want to know more about EUniWell? We are happy to answer them under euniwell@uni-konstanz.de.
