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The seed fund is a new initiative of Unite! to stimulate and support bottom-up proposals by teachers, researchers and students for collaborative activities and help form sustainable academic and student communities across the nine Unite! universities.

Unite! wants to activate the co-creation of e.g. joint research projects, study offers, blended intensive programmes, long-term collaborations in teaching and/or research units as well as extra-curricular or intercultural activities by students.

In both 'Teaching & Learning' as well as 'Research & PhD' categories, Aalto was involved in eight applications, four of which (in both catogories) got funded. Aalto coordinates two of them. 

Accepted proposals where Aalto is involved

In the Teaching and Learning category:

1. Effectively enhancing teaching and learning of ‘Fluid Power and Systems’ in Higher Education
   Partners: Aalto, TU Darmstadt, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya · BarcelonaTech, Wrocław University of Science and Technology
   Contacts at Aalto: Petri Kuosmanen and Jyrki Kajaste, Department of Mechanical Engineering, School of Engineering
2. Crossroads of Speech and Language - Teaching 
   Partners: Aalto, Grenoble INP graduate school of engineering and management - University Grenoble Alpes, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Politecnico Di Torino, Graz University of Technology, TU Darmstadt, Universidade de Lisboa , WrocÅ‚aw University of Science and Technology
   Contact at Aalto: Tom Bäckström, Department of Information & Communications Engineering, School of Electrical Engineering
3. Joint Space Technology seminar Space Tech UNITE!
   Partners: Aalto, Grenoble INP graduate school of engineering and management - University Grenoble Alpes, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Politecnico Di Torino, Universidade de Lisboa, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya · BarcelonaTech
   Aalto is the coordinator, Contact: Jaan Praks, Department of Electronics and Nanoengineering, School of Electrical Engineering
4. Unite! OER courses- An initiative to develop competencies for Open Science within Unite!
   Partners:  Aalto, Grenoble INP graduate school of engineering and management - University Grenoble Alpes, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Politecnico Di Torino, Graz University of Technology, TU Darmstadt, Universidade de Lisboa, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya · BarcelonaTech, WrocÅ‚aw University of Science and Technology
   Contact at Aalto: Ruben Vicente-Saez, Department of Industrial Engineering and Management, School of Science

In the Research and PhD category: 

1. Fostering Innovation Ecosystems for a Green Mobility Transition
   Partners: Aalto, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Graz University of Technology
   Aalto: Esko Hakanen, Joel Wolff and Jani-Pekka Jokinen, Department of Industrial Engineering and Management, School of Science
2. Crossroads of Speech and Language – Research
   Partners: Aalto, Grenoble INP graduate school of engineering and management - University Grenoble Alpes, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Politecnico Di Torino, Graz University of Technology, TU Darmstadt, Universidade de Lisboa , WrocÅ‚aw University of Science and Technology
   Contact at Aalto: Tom Bäckström, Department of Information & Communications Engineering, School of Electrical Engineering
3. Selective molecular O2 reduction catalysts, from homogenous to heterogeneous systems Partners: Aalto, Grenoble INP graduate school of engineering and management - University Grenoble Alpes, TU Darmstadt
   Contact at Aalto: Tanja Kallio, Department Of Chemistry and Material Science, School of Chemical Engineering
4. Sustainable Land-Use and Mobility Policies and Practices in urban regions (SLUMP)
   Partners: Aalto, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Politecnico Di Torino, Universidade de Lisboa
   Aalto is the coordinator, contacts: Dominic Stead, Raine Mäntysalo, Department of Built Environment, School of Engineering

Next application round opens in March 2024

The next round of applications takes place in spring 2024. Applications for Teaching & Learning and Research & PhD seed fund

• must include at least three 
• up to 10 000 Euros for "exploration" activities like for establishing contacts and formulating collaboration ideas
• up to 80 000 Euros for development activities like building blended/joint courses or developing joint research proposals