In addition to UPB, the alliance includes the following universities:

• Le Mans University (France)
• University of Castilla-La Mancha (Spain)
• University of Ferrara (Italy)
• Kristianstad University (Sweden)
• Jan Dlugosz University (Poland)
• Josip Jurai Strossmayer University Osijek (Croatia)
• University St Kliment Ohridski Bitola (North Macedonia)
• Ventspils University of Applied Sciences (Latvia)

Together the alliance members represent more than 126,000 students and almost 12,300 employees.

The partners aim to strengthen their European network, increase their international visibility, and promote mobility within Europe. They also work to develop a multidisciplinary approach to jointly address current societal challenges.

All COLOURS partners are deeply rooted in their regional, socio-political, and economic environment. Therefore, their approach also focuses on strengthening cooperation between the respective regions and regional actors.

With a "challenge-based approach" in teaching, research, and knowledge and technology transfer, the partners want to use synergy effects by intensifying their cooperation at all levels. For example, the alliance plans to develop new attractive offers for virtual and physical mobility and to create joint study and teaching activities in the long run. Students will be strongly involved in designing these measures.

The COLOURS team at Paderborn University consists of the COLOURS Coordination and Support Office and the COLOURS Implementation Office. 

The Coordination and Support Office is responsible for the coordination of the entire COLOURS Alliance, consisting of 9 universities in 9 countries. Central contact: cso.colours@upb.de 

The Implementation Office is responsible for the coordination and implementation of COLOURS measures at UPB. This includes the implementation of CoLabs, double degree programmes, BIPS, summer schools, internships, microcredentials and much more.  Central contact: implementation.colours@upb.de

As part of the CoLabs, researchers from the COLOURS partner universities and stakeholders from the participating European regions work together on current social challenges. The aim is to bring together people from research and education, economy and industry, public administration, politics and civil society in order to incorporate a wide range of perspectives.

The Alliance has identified the areas of health and well-being, food production, green transition, IT and digitalisation as overarching topics. The individual CoLab events will jointly develop viable solutions for these current topics.

Further information on current CoLabs can be found here.

If you are interested in organising a CoLab, please contact us: cospace.colours@uni-paderborn.de

The COLOURS Alliance kick-off event took place at Paderborn University on 18 and 19 March. Further information can be found here.

During the "Virtual Journey Week" from 18 to 22 November, students and employees of Paderborn University and the COLOURS partner universities can get to know nine countries digitally over the course of five days. Language cafés, taster courses, quizzes, video clips and much more invite participants to discover the various universities, countries and languages of the Alliance in a playful way - in a relaxed atmosphere and simply at their own desks. The events offer the opportunity to discuss interesting topics with other students or colleagues in English. Representatives of the student body answer questions and Erasmus students report on their experiences. The "Bloomhub", which was specially developed for European University Alliances, serves as a digital platform to which university members have direct link to. External interested parties can register for the free event until 10 November at zfs@upb.de.

Paderborn University coordinates the COLOURS university alliance, which is funded by the European Commission with around 14 million euros. The aim is to strengthen cooperation in research, teaching and transfer in the long term, increase international visibility and promote the mobility of students and sponsors within Europe. COLOURS stands for "COLlaborative innOvative sUstainable Regional univerSities". The name says it all: the core themes of "open innovation", "challenge-based teaching", "challenge-based learning" and "impact-driven research" are combined with regional "smart specialisation goals". In this way, the initiative aims to get social and technological innovations rolling for citizens throughout Europe and drive them forward through strategic cooperation.

In addition to Paderborn University as the coordinating institution, the alliance includes the University of Le Mans (France), the University of Castilla-La Mancha (Spain), the University of Ferrara (Italy), the University of Kristianstad (Sweden), the Jan Długosz University in Częstochowa (Poland), the Josip Juraj Strossmayer University in Osijek (Croatia), the Ventspils University of Applied Sciences (Latvia) and the University of St Kliment Ohridski Bitola (North Macedonia). Lesya Ukrainka Volyn National University (Ukraine) is an associated partner of the alliance.

Further information can be found here.

COLOURS Café is a vibrant, monthly gathering at UPB where students, staff, and faculty interested in creativity, collaboration, and innovation come together in an informal setting. It’s a place to connect, share ideas, and help shape the future of student-led initiatives at our university