Arqus Communities of Practice: People and collaboration at the center of the Alliance identity

Arqus centres its primary interest on people and on developing a joint identity and a sense of belonging to the Alliance through a culture of collaboration among its diverse university communities of students, academics and administrative staff.

An essential instrument for achieving this goal is the Arqus Communities of Practice (CoPs) defined as domain-based communities of professionals that come together for bench and peer learning in all areas of institutional activity, as well as to offer staff development opportunities across the nine partner universities. These formal (and informal) working groups constitute the basis for joint institutional learning and transformation within the Alliance.

The CoPs involve professionals and or academics from at least four of the nine full members of Arqus, and may also include members from associate partners. Each Community of Practice counts on the design of a staff development programme for the corresponding domain, to be implemented on a continuous basis jointly during the funding period and beyond.

Currently, there are 7 Communities of Practice already active in the Arqus Alliance in the following areas:

• “Artificial Intelligence and the Sustainable Future of Learning and Teaching in Higher Education” (AI&SFLTHE): This CoP is designed to bring together a transdisciplinary and multi-institutional group of people (professional staff, academics, researchers and students) who share a common interest in the design of learning and teaching to benefit from the potential of Artificial Intelligence, ensure the integrity and ethical standards of higher education and to support sustainability. The partner universities involved in this Community are Granada, Graz, Lyon 1, Maynooth, Minho, Leipzig, Wrocław and Vilnius.
• “Cultural Communities Network”: The main goal of this CoP is to create a space and opportunity for sharing the ideas, joint development and implementation of international cultural initiatives, events and projects. The Arqus members involved in this Community are the Universities of Leipzig, Lyon, Padua and Vilnius.
• “Arqus International Forum on Romance Studies” (AIFRS): The main goal of this CoP is to further deepen the scientific connections between the Arqus universities by organizing more and new scientific and staff development activities for the members of the AIFRS. The Arqus universities that belong to this Community are Granada, Graz, Leipzig, Minho, Padova, Vilnius and Wrocław.
• “Community of Practice for Discrimination, (Sexual) Harassment and Mobbing Prevention and Management at Universities”: The CoP has been created to share the good practice and collectively learn more about how to prevent and tackle discrimination, (sexual) harassment and mobbing at universities considering individual (specific cases) and institutional level (systematic change). The Arqus universities involved in this Community are Graz, Lyon 1, Minho and Vilnius.
• “Research Support Officers” (RSO): This CoP is aimed at fostering the cooperation and exchange of the research support staff, promoting that all Arqus partners can profit from each other and also opening up possibilities for future common strategies and projects. The members that take part in this Community are the Universities of Granada, Leipzig, Lyon 1, Maynooth, Minho, Padua, Vilnius and Wrocław.
• “Arqus Analytics”: This CoP is focused on gathering and reporting internal data for steering decisions. The Community aims to support each other and use the joint experience in order to set up informed decisions at the institutional level. Moreover, this CoP aims at supporting Arqus’ further strategic development. The nine Arqus members are part of this Community of Practice: Universities of Granada, Graz, Leipzig, Maynooth, Minho, Lyon 1, Padua, Vilnius and Wrocław.
• “Cultural Activities”: The main goal of this CoP is to foster the cultural cooperation of choirs, orchestras, theatres and other artist collectives of Arqus. The Arqus partners involved in this Community look for adding a new dimension to Arqus Alliance by building up cultural level cooperation to the already existing scientific one, strengthening internal and external communication about Arqus Alliance. The Universities of Granada, Graz, Lyon 1 and Wrocław are part of this CoP.

If you are an Arqus academic or professional staff interested in joining some of these CoPs, please get in contact with the corresponding person at your university. Read more.

If you are planning to constitute a CoP in a new topic or area, the call for expressions of interest is open on a permanent basis. The results of the submitted proposals are made public every four months, approximately. The results of the proposals received by 31^st October will be announced around mid-November 2023. More information about the open call may be found here.