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Dive in some of our current projects.

U!REKA joint activities

The U!REKA network is committed to partnering around the shared themes of applied research, professional education, focus on our students’ future world of work and the professional development of our staff.
This page presents our ongoing activities from 2023. We are currently transitioning to activities related to our European University Alliance status and will update this content in the near future.
People collaborating around table at U!REKA activities.
Our network of higher education institutions has partnered in a number of ways. Working to strengthen our ties across Europe and to build upon the urban expertise that we share as knowledge institutions. Here is a few examples of how U!REKA has worked together across borders.
  • We successfully submitted a bid for the European Universities Initiative in 2023 and were selected as one of the newly funded networks! This means that we are now setting to work on transforming our network into one of the ambitious European Universities Alliances, which will take our collaboration to the next level.

  • The annual U!REKA Connects event is the networking opportunity of the year for our consortium. It brings together key teachers, researchers and administrative staff to discuss and develop new education or research projects and collaborations.

  • Colleagues within our Mobility Working Group focused on fostering mobility across U!REKA by contributing expertise in creating, maintaining and developing approaches to mobility provision within all partner institutions.

  • The U!REKA Research Support Working Group focused on setting up and facilitating joint research initiatives and research projects between the U!REKA partners, providing expertise and proposal development support for researchers across the consortium.

  • In our U!REKA Lab: Urban Commons, which is still ongoing, we have an international and interdisciplinary blended learning and research project that deal with urban commons and focuses on different co-creation initiatives in five partner cities.

  • Our successful U!REKA Change Agents programme runs across many of our partner institutions, challenging students to work together on joint projects focusing on the topic of water sustainability.

Dive in some of our current projects.

U!REKA Lab: Urban Commons

The U!REKA Lab: Urban Commons is a joint project of the U!REKA partner universities. This international and interdisciplinary blended learning and research project deals with urban commons and focuses on different co-creation initiatives in our partner cities.

Urban commons with partner schools.
During the different phases of the U!REKA Lab: Urban Commons, students and staff work on common research questions and meet online and during summer schools and blended intensive programmes in order to facilitate an ongoing knowledge exchange. The U!REKA Lab: Urban Commons is financed by the DAAD national co-funding programme and the U!REKA network partner institutions. A few examples of U!REKA Urban Commons projects are included below. Visit the project website for the latest information.
Visit the website

Blended Intensive Programme

The first Urban Commons interdisciplinary and international BIP took place from 3-7 May 2022 at Metropolia, Helsinki. Here 40 students, 8 lecturers and 12 stakeholders of the prepared design challenges gathered for the first Erasmus Blended Intensive Programme (BIP) of our U!REKA Lab: Urban Commons.

In Spring 2023 another BIP was organised, this time focusing on how urban commons can help transform an industrial mining region in Ostrava, home to our U!REKA partner university VSB-TUO. Students and teachers across the U!REKA network pooled their expertise in an interactive and international project: Common Regeneration – How can urban commons transform an industrial and mining region? Case study: Ostrava. This collaborative learning module was organised from 15 March to 28 April 2023 both online and on-location during a field trip to Ostrava.

Urban Commons School

In October 2021 the Urban Commons Working Group hosted a ‘summer school’ in Frankfurt. The Urban Commons School: Commoning the Post-Covid City was a hybrid event, open to all students, staff and partners at U!REKA institutions.

Lecture series

U!REKA brought together urban commons experts from higher education institutions across Europe to share their expertise during thematic online lectures. Each session approached the topic from a different perspective, discipline or organisation. Click on the image below to watch recordings of the lectures.
Watch recordings

Launch of virtual exhibition

The U!REKA Lab: Urban Commons Virtual Exhibition officially opened during the U!REKA Conference 2020. This virtual exhibition was produced at four participating partners and focuses on the Urban Commons’ educational framework and work created by students. It consists of videos, photos, and written and spoken texts, presenting insights into urban commons initiatives and projects in the participating cities of Amsterdam, Ghent, Frankfurt and Helsinki.

Students across our European network are working together on sustainability challenges in the U!REKA Change Agents programme

The U!REKA Change Agents programme brings students together from across our European network to work collaboratively on a pressing environmental question: How can we create more public awareness about the sustainable use of water across different European cities, taking into account socio-cultural, health, climate, and economic dimensions?

Change agents project's participants at garden.
More info and registeration
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@ Metropolia University of Applied Sciences 2025