At this year's conference delegations from all nine member universities gathered, as well as student representatives and associated partners, including the City of Vienna and Teach For Austria, who work closely with ENGAGE.EU universities.

A special guest was Sabine Sainte-Rose, who will take up the position of Secretary General of ENGAGE.EU on 1 January 2025.

A delegation from the University of St. Gallen (HSG) also attended the meeting as a new Associated Partner in the field of higher education. WU is pleased with this expansion and looks forward to working with this long-standing partner.

In addition to being welcomed by the host, WU Rector Sausgruber, the guests were also greeted by Moritz Fleischmann, the new ENGAGE.EU coordinator. He recently took over from Thomas Fetzer.

The meeting itself consisted of a variety of different sessions - on the one hand sessions of the different boards, committees and working groups (Governing Board, Associated Partners, Area Boards, Work Packages, Board of Learners) - on the other hand keynotes, panel discussions, thematic sessions on internationalization, impact and workload, an onboarding session for new ENGAGE.EU colleagues and many informal networking opportunities. In the panel discussion on the circular economy, an important topic for the Alliance, different perspectives were discussed: Tina Wakolbinger (Chair of the WU Senate and WU professor), Alexandra Kick (co-founder of Thinkubator and WU alumna), Bernadette Luger (Head of the Department for Resource Conservation and Sustainability in Construction of the City of Vienna) and Peter Windischhofer (founder of Refurbed and WU alumnus) contributed their expertise. The conference concluded with a keynote speech by Isabell Klaus, co-founder of Thinkers.ai and WU alumna. The City of Vienna sponsored a dinner, and the Austrian National Union of Students provided the get-together in the ENGAGE.EU Lounge After Dark.

The 2024 Annual Meeting focused on two main topics: The further development of ENGAGE.EU in its transition from a project to an institutionalized alliance and the associated and planned deepening of cooperation in all areas. And this, of course, in line with the individual, but also the overall institutional strategy development, which will continue to accompany and occupy us intensively in the coming months. The task now is to ensure that the different institutions, with their own cultures, legal frameworks and requirements, grow together to form a strong alliance.

About ENGAGE.EU

ENGAGE.EU is a consortium of nine leading European universities in business, economics, and the social sciences, which aims to provide European citizens the set of skills and competences needed to tackle major societal challenges.

If you are interested in the various activities and news in and around ENGAGE.EU, please visit the ENGAGE.EU homepage. If you have any questions about ENGAGE.EU, please contact the ENGAGE.EU office at WU!