Edinburgh Napier joins pan-European urban research collaboration

U!reka university alliance board members - Napier University

Edinburgh Napier University has entered a partnership with five other European universities to collaborate on urban research projects.

Launched in Amsterdam this week, the institutions will work together on city sustainability, ageing city populations, education in the urban environment, logistics and mobility in a city and research in education.

The Urban Research and Education Knowledge Alliance (UREKA) agreement also hopes to enable staff and student exchanges.

Napier has already linked with Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences in the past, and hopes the formal alliance will pave the way for similar relationships with institutions in Germany, Finland, Norway and Belgium.

The move comes amid fears the UK leaving the European Union could damage international collaboration in higher education, with rumours some UK teams are already being left off European collaborative funding applications.

In a recent interview with Holyrood Napier principal Andrea Nolan said Universities would have to work hard to keep international collaborations open.

“I worry about the impact on the incredible diversity of students who come from Europe, I worry about research funding and access to that, and I worry about the partnerships. But you know what? We will work hard to find a way through that brings us out successfully,” she said.