Last week, from 19 to 22 May 2025, the 9th Forum of the EC2U Alliance (European Campus of City Universities) took place in Coimbra, Portugal. This year’s topic was “Preparing Communities for a Sustainable Tomorrow”, so the participants were able to work together on the current challenges and their possible solutions.
The Forum brought together representatives from 10 countries: Portugal (Coimbra), Spain (Salamanca), Italy (Pavia), France (Poitiers), Germany (Jena), Austria (Linz), Finland (Turku), Romania (Iași), the Alliance’s new partner Sweden (Umeå) and Ukraine (Lviv).
The delegation of Ivan Franko National University of Lviv, an associate member of the Alliance since 2022, included Oksana Molderf, Head of the Centre for International Cooperation, Andriana Terekhovska, specialist at the Centre and local EC2U coordinator, as well as EC2U student representatives Khrystyna Hnidets and Marta Matviiv, University student representatives Kateryna Naidon and Maria Hopey, representatives of the ESN IFNUL section Yuliia Voloshchuk and Yeva Studenna. Oksana Krayevska, Acting Vice-Rector for Research, Teaching and International Cooperation, took part in the meeting of the Alliance’s Closed Council remotely.
The programme of the Forum was rich and included workshops, presentations of best practices, a number of events for students, and a series of working meetings. It is worth noting that the results of the Think Tank’s session “Building Resilience to Climate Change within Cities and Communities”, held at Lviv University on 5 and 6 March 2025, were also successfully presented at the Forum.
The “Voice of Students” session was also a milestone, during which students presented the work of their teams on developing the sustainability of universities, cities and communities. “I enjoyed working in a team with students from other countries, which gave me the opportunity to learn more about their cultures and mentality. As a result of working together for several days, we came up with and proposed the idea of the ECO2U app, which could motivate users to develop habits that contribute to environmental preservation in a positive and engaging way. Our team won the Voice of Students competition. I hope that the idea will be implemented within the Alliance,” says Yulia Voloshchuk, a member of the winning team.
The Forum was an opportunity to share experiences, gain new knowledge and lay the foundation for joint initiatives with partner universities in the future. During the meetings of the mobility task force, the applications submitted under the Erasmus+ programme and the possibilities of expanding cooperation in various areas, including research, were also discussed.
“Participation in the EC2U Forum has once again demonstrated the effectiveness of the platform for the development of youth leadership, international cooperation and the search for common solutions,” says Kateryna Naidon, “I am grateful for the opportunity to be part of this initiative, to continue my acquaintances, gain new knowledge, and to represent the voice of Ukraine in the European student community.”
Maria Hopey recalls: “The Forum was also an opportunity to talk about Ukraine, its culture and, most importantly, the war. It was nice to hear words of support from foreigners and their concerns. This is our reality. And to be able to tell the world about it is very valuable.”
We are grateful to the EC2U Alliance and the whole University of Coimbra team for the invitation and wonderful reception! Many thanks to all our partners for their continuous support.
