From 15 to 19 April 2024, students, teachers, and researchers from the eight RUN-EU member universities met at the Vorarlberg University of Applied Sciences (FHV), in Dornbirn, Austria for the first European Programmes Academy Exploratory Mission (EPA-Mission).

Under the theme ‘Education and Social Sciences’, this inaugural EPA-Mission generated ideas for joint learning opportunities.

Participants came from backgrounds including teacher education, art education, social care, social work, psychology, mathematics, and design, with a common focus on social innovation.

Working in heterogeneous small groups, participants analysed the common challenges in their RUN-EU regions and the skills needed to address them. Based on these findings, concrete proposals for joint learning opportunities in the areas of ‘Vital Regions and Future Perspectives’, ‘Well-being & Mental Health’, ‘Community & Sense of Belonging’, ‘Ethical Use of Artificial Intelligence’ and ‘Celebrating Diversity’ were developed.

All prototypes of the joint learning opportunities were presented to local/external stakeholders and further developed based on their feedback. We thank Theresa Bubik from CampusVäre, Konstanze Vetter from WISTO, Erika Geser-Engleitner from FHV, Klemens Thaler from FEB – Büro für Freiwilliges Engagement und Beteiligung Land Vorarlberg and Fabian Rebitzer from the Empirical Social Sciences Research Group at FHV for their valuable feedback. 

A supporting programme including a walk along the Dornbirner Ache River and an art-mapping workshop on homelessness, rounded off the EPA-Mission and allowed participants to get to know Dornbirn better. 

The EPA-Mission concept was developed under the RUN-EU strand ‘EPA-Missions and Joint Programmes (Degrees)’, led by Frauke Dobers and Lisa Wagner, both RUN-EU Managers at the FHV, and implemented with the support of other RUN-EU and FHV colleagues.

Over the next two years, RUN-EU students, teachers, and researchers will have the opportunity to participate in further EPA-Missions at RUN-EU member universities.