On 18–19 September 2025, the University of Maribor celebrated its 50th anniversary by hosting the ATHENA Plus Working Group Meeting and the International Conference on European Universities. Professor Peter Harrig Bolivar presented ATHENA’s innovative “Clusters and Sandboxes” model, highlighting its contribution to the European Research Area and the recommendations of the Draghi and Letta reports. The Alliance also announced its new governance, with the presidency transferring to the University of Orléans under Professor Eric Blond, supported by Professor Ioan Todinca as General Secretary. The events reaffirmed UM’s role as a driver of academic excellence and international cooperation.
The conclusions of the meeting follow:
“Integration of Research, Teaching and Innovation in a European University Campus – Why, How and When”
On the occasion of the gathering of representatives of European University Alliances hosted by ATHENA PLUS European University during the week of the 50 the Anniversary of the University in Maribor on September 19 th , 2025, after discussing the views presented byrepresentatives of the European Commission’s general directorates on Education and
Research and representatives of European Alliances, the participants of the meeting conclude:
1. The European University Initiatives, starting in 2018, have become a major movement encompassing a major part of the future united European Higher Education and Research Area (EHERA).
2. The European University Alliances plead for a holistic approach to fostering the further development and establishment of the European Higher Education Area with the help of the lighthouses of the European University Alliances and the community ofpractice, which means that a harmonisation of the European policies in the fields of science, education and innovation is necessary. This must result in the strengthening and maintenance of the EU programmes of all three fields at the universities of the European Higher Education Area on European, as well as regional and nationallevels, to be able to compete with their counterparts in other parts of the world.
3. As the EHERA stands for European values of democracy, tolerance and freedom, the European University Alliances call on the national, regional and European policy levels to strengthen their efforts in the field of the knowledge-based, competitive, democratic and inclusive society with equal opportunities for all. Especially in the field of smart specialisation and prioritisation, there is much room for improvement. The present European University Alliances are prepared to take their part in their role as stakeholders in all the mentioned fields.
4. In the area of Open Science, the European universities meeting in Maribor welcome the European Commission’s efforts to improve the wide range of practices that comprise Open Science and specifically to develop its enablers. Such efforts allow European universities to make relevant scientific contributions and become the desired competitive knowledge-based society. The present European Universities express their readiness on the path to the goals set out in the UNESCO Recommendations on Open Science (from 2023), and Barcelona Declaration on the topic of open access and open science.
5. The European University Alliances gathered in Maribor understand the approach for a diverse and open handling of the challenges of institutionalising the European Universities. However, the European Universities assembled in Maribor call for a stronger and more open dialogue between the European Commission and the member states, as well as other relevant stakeholders, to make way for European solutions in the question of institutionalisation and enable the fulfilment of all three missions of a European University – research, education and innovation. Here, the assembled European Universities stress the need for criteria for the status of a European University apart from periodical financing based on limited calls.
