CHALLENGES AND ENABLERS OF INSTITUTIONAL TRANSFORMATION IN HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS THROUGH ACCELERATION SERVICES

Research and research-based education provided by European Universities are key assets for Europe’s competitiveness, scientific leadership, and capacity to address societal challenges. Launched in 2000, the European Research Area (ERA) was conceived as a major political initiative to overcome the fragmentation of the EU’s research and innovation system by creating a single market for research and innovation (Art. 179 of the Lisbon Treaty1). This involves restructuring the European research landscape towards greater cross-border cooperation and accelerating innovation ecosystems that convert scientific advances into societal and economic value (European Commission, 20202). Together with the European Education Area (EEA), the ERA forms the foundation of an integrated European knowledge and innovation space supporting long-term European competitiveness and cohesion. The Pact for Research and Innovation (R&I) and the ERA Policy Agenda 2022-2024 further reinforced the central role of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) and their academic and non-academic partners as core actors within Europe’s R&I ecosystems. As these actors play a central role in the creation and diffusion of scientific knowledge and innovation, accelerating these processes becomes crucial to deepening an internal market of knowledge (Priority Area 1), empowering HEIs to strengthen societal engagement and generate the skills and ideas needed to drive Europe’s green and digital transitions (Priority Area 2), facilitating access to R&I excellence (Priority Area 3), and fostering the free circulation of researchers, scientific knowledge and innovation. In this context, the Pact calls on the Union and its Member States to take decisive steps to support HEIs in its pursuit of R&I excellence, capacity building, and societal relevance. Moreover, more recent policy reflections have further reinforced this ambition through the concept of a fifth freedom to enhance research, innovation and education in the Single Market. As highlighted in Enrico Letta’s 2024 report on the Single Market, completing the internal market requires removing persistent regulatory, administrative and institutional barriers that still hinder research collaboration, data exchange, mobility of researchers and transnational cooperation among HEIs3. In this context, HEIs and Research Performing Organisations (RPOs) are recognised as key enablers of the fifth freedom, given their central position at the intersection of education, research and innovation. Achieving this objective requires coherent and coordinated support for universities and their ecosystems across all levels of governance. Institutional, national and European investments play a pivotal role in advancing research excellence, strengthening innovation capacity, and equipping professionals with the skills needed to address emerging and persistent challenges (Priority Area 4). Within this framework, the ERA Policy Agenda 2022–2024 introduced ERA Action 13: Empower Higher Education Institutions to develop in line with the ERA, and in synergy with the European Education Area (EEA). This action specifically targets strategic institutional cooperation and identifies relevant policy and programme measures to support individual HEIs and their networks in implementing institutional changes aligned with ERA priorities, most notably strengthening research careers, mainstreaming Open Science, and enhancing knowledge valorisation. ERA Action 13 is structured around three core outcomes: 1) Supporting universities in their digital transition. 2) Developing a policy approach to equip researchers with the skills needed for an interoperable career within academia and beyond. 3) Developing a policy approach for future EU-level support to further develop Horizon Europe institutions, through the consolidation of the European Universities Initiative. This is precisely the aim of the topic “Acceleration Services in support of the institutional transformation of Higher Education Institutions” (HORIZON-WIDERA-2022-ERA-01-51), under which three Horizon Europe WIDERA projects, CATALISI, Accelerate Future HEI, and aUPaEU have been funded. Although diverse in their focus and implementation approaches, the three projects share the same ambition: to design, pilot and implement acceleration services and institutional transformation models that support HEIs in modernising their structures, processes and governance systems in line with ERA priorities. As the ERA marks its 25th anniversary, the adoption of the ERA Policy Agenda 2025–2027, together with ongoing consultations on the forthcoming ERA Act4, are a renewed political commitment to strengthening Europe’s research and innovation ecosystem and institutionalising the fifth freedom. The new Agenda reinforces the strategic role of HEIs across several Structural Policies, in particular Structural Policy 9 which aims at Improving the articulation between R&I and Higher Education within the ERA and unleashing the full potential of European R&I ecosystems. This includes the need to strengthen the integration of higher education’s four missions (education, research, innovation and service to society) by promoting interoperable, attractive and sustainable research careers, excellence and openness in research, a stronger education–research nexus, enhanced knowledge valorisation and societal engagement, and international, intersectoral and interdisciplinary cooperation5. European HEIs thus lie at the intersection of multiple ERA priorities. Achieving the ERA’s long-term objectives requires HEIs to undergo widespread structural, organisational and cultural transformation, that foster institutional openness, enable career interoperability, reinforce knowledge valorisation, and strengthen international and intersectoral collaboration. At the same time, cultural differences, fragmentation of infrastructures, the absence of common operational frameworks, and varying institutional capacities and capabilities for stakeholder engagement may undermine uniform progress across European HEIs and their ecosystems. In this evolving policy landscape, CATALISI, Accelerate Future HEI, and aUPaEU collectively contribute to ERA Action 13 and support the ERA Policy Agenda 2025–2027 by testing practical mechanisms and co-developing evidence-based recommendations to empower HEIs across Europe. Their shared insights form the basis of this joint policy brief, which aims to inform future ERA policy development and guide the next generation of HEI-focused acceleration initiatives.

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