Brussels, 14 April 2026
Today, ACE²-EU joined the European Universities Alliances Retreat, a full-day strategic gathering bringing together alliances from across Europe and representatives from the European Commission to shape the future of the initiative beyond 2027.
Four sessions structured the day, each addressing a question that will define the next programming period.
The first focused on the funding model for Erasmus+ 2028–2034: how to move beyond a system tied purely to the number of partners towards one that rewards genuine institutional transformation, with a stable baseline complemented by performance-driven elements. The second tackled mobility, one of the initiative’s most visible and most debated dimensions, exploring what a shared definition should look like and how targets should evolve to reflect the real depth of cross-border learning, not just its volume.
The third session examined the international dimension of alliances: how far partnerships should extend geographically, what role enlargement countries and global partners could play, and how to keep cooperation purposeful and coherent. The afternoon turned to the broader policy context, the Competitiveness Compass, the Union of Skills, and how alliances can contribute meaningfully to Europe’s skills and talent needs across all fields.
What made today especially valuable was the quality of the exchange. Alliances shared honestly what is working, where the challenges lie, and what the initiative needs to grow. ACE²-EU contributed from the experience of building real shared structures across nine universities: in curriculum development, quality assurance, joint programmes, and institutional governance. That concrete grounding matters when the conversation turns to what alliances should look like and be funded to do, in the decade ahead.
The policy decisions taking shape now will set the conditions for European higher education cooperation well into the 2030s. ACE²-EU is committed to contributing actively to getting them right.
