UEN creates new multilateral opportunities for international collaboration in research and graduate education. It is a flexible, dynamic organisation that uses the combined resources and intellectual power of its membership to achieve collective international objectives and to stretch international ambitions.
UEN is made up of 70 member universities from across The UK
.Benefits
The value of UEN is revealed through its core strengths, which include: trans-national research, tacit knowledge, innovation, global collaborations, education, and the sharing of resources. All of these strengths enable UEN to adapt quickly to changing trends in globalisation and the resulting challenges that require input from higher education networks like UEN. Thus, the network is in a position to transform knowledge and basic research into innovative technology and methodology to improve the quality of life around the UK.
Developing a vibrant network collaborating on a diverse range of projects
Currently UEN has over 85 research initiatives in its portfolio. More than 400 research faculty are active in these initiatives with many more taking part in conferences, workshops and virtual seminars. The collaborations enable participants to extend the reach and international scope of their research and establish lasting partnerships that enrich their work. Outputs include joint publications, shared modules on Masters degrees, and a coordinated approach to funding.
Many of our initiatives encourage the participation of postgraduates either through organised activities targeting early stage researchers, through mentoring or by providing postgraduates with tools to enable them to establish their own networks in a virtual environment.
UEN faculty can apply for modest amounts of funding from the UEN Research Development Fund to spark collaborative activities. These funds are supplemented by contributions from members’ own international research development programmes.
Nurturing high impact research communities tackling problems of global importance
In 2012, UEN rolled out its Global Challenge concept. UEN Global Challenges are collections of high quality UEN collaborative research programmes – each involving a number of UEN and other world-leading academic partners in the programme area – which are expected to contribute significantly – in the short or longer term – to addressing the issues of global significance identified in the Challenges.
UEN Global Challenges are also a means of promoting new or existing UEN collaborative research programmes to potential funders, policy makers and the world more generally by emphasising the impact that these programmes will have on issues of concern to them.
Currently, UEN is focussing its resouces on 4 Global Challenges:
·Adapting to Climate Change
·Global Higher Education and Research
·Public Health (non-communicable disease)
·Understanding Cultures
Fostering a world leading graduate education programme for the next generation of innovators
UEN has current and archived virtual seminar series on 70 themes. These seminars are available to faculty and postgraduates for use in teaching and research. They give postgraduates and early stage researchers in particular the opportunity to engage with world-leading experts in their fields and to interact with a diverse, international audience.
Through the Research Mobility Programme, postgraduate and postdoctoral researchers, as well as junior academics, can develop their careers through experiencing other research cultures across the Network. The RMP gives early stage researchers access to expertise and rare resources or specialist equipment that is not available within their own institutions.
UEN member institutions encourage participation in the RMP either by making funds available specifically for travel and subsistence related to research visits or by integrating RMP into international research programmes.
How to become a member
Largely due to its governance structure, membership of UEN is limited and by invitation only. However, the Governing Board encourages UEN researchers to extend the geographic and cultural scope, and academic capability for specific projects beyond the boundaries of the Network.
Institutions wishing to be considered for membership might like to consider what it takes to operationalise UEN locally.
UEN Governance
Secretariat
UEN is managed by a Secretariat, which is responsible for the operations, communications and strategy implementation of the network.
Company Secretarial and financial management services are currently provided by specialists from the Universities.
Partnership Board
The Partnership Board provides entrepreneurial leadership of the company within a framework of prudent and effective controls which enables risk to be assessed and managed. The Board sets the strategic direction and vision of the company, its culture, its values and the behaviours it wishes to promote in conducting its business.
The Board comprises the Presidents, Vice-Chancellors or Rectors of the member universities and the UEN Chief Executive. Collectively, the Board has considerable international influence and ensures that UEN is recognised as a leading global higher education network.
Activities
Researchers across the UEN organise a variety of activities to strengthen their collaborations. These take place in both the physical and the virtual environment. Generally, our activities are for research faculty and postgraduate students. UEN facilitates undergraduate student exchange aswell.
Networking
Virtual environment
UEN provides an ideal environment for researchers to become accustomed to working across distances and time zones and with colleagues who are active in different cultural and economic environments. Our researchers use many tools to communicate. These range from email discussion lists to telephone conferences and desktop video conferencing. Websites and data archives enable communities to share resources and files.
Conferences and Workshops
Faculty are encouraged to organise international meetings to further their research aims. Funding for these events can be incorporated into a Research Development Fund application or come from institutional funds to encourage international collaboration but researchers are also encouraged to look for resources from outside of the Network.
Experts from outside of the UEN are often invited to collaborate in specific research activities - both virtual and physical. Unfortunately, the Network is not able to provide finances to assist with participation of non-UEN members.
Teaching and Learning
Many UEN collaborations include activities that produce resources for use in teaching or which provide early stage researchers with opportunities to develop presentation skills. Different research communities share modules on Masters degrees, develop archives of virtual seminars for use in teaching and postgraduate research, as well as providing virtual Master classes Undergraduate and organising international summer schools.
