With over 300,000 students across 8 European universities, the 4EU+ Alliance presents a unique opportunity to mobilize the student community around a common and ambitious goal, namely climate action.

Students are key actors within universities. They are in equal measures beneficiaries of academic knowledge and competencies acquired through specialized programs, contributors to lab research and campus life, and citizens concerned by present and future challenges—particularly on a global level. Their expectations, ideas, and actions are key elements for a lasting societal transformation in response to these major challenges.

They propose to create a structured student network in collaboration with the 4EU+ Student Council and its delegates that is not only a space for discussion, but a real incubator for concrete and sustainable initiatives. This network will help to identify potential actions from the local to European level, create a common strategy, and plan high impact projects ranging from petitions to innovative solutions and experiments on campus and for the general public. They hope to go beyond simply raising awareness within the university community and create effective, measurable, and inspiring engagement that shows the capacity of students to be major actors in fighting climate change.

Having the support of a strong and consolidated alliance of 8 European universities constitutes a further asset in that the network can benefit from the favorable and stimulating atmosphere created by one of the four major themes of the alliance, namely environmental transitions. This theme was developed within Flagship 4: Environmental transitions and is co-directed by Sorbonne University and the University of Geneva. Connecting the network with experts on environmental topics across 8 universities thus presents an exceptional opportunity to develop concrete and sustainable initiatives. With the support of 4EU+ during the design phase of the network, they will ultimately provide the alliance with a sustainable tool capable of creating a dynamic collective and producing concrete, visible, and reproducible results within the universities and beyond.

The project also strengthens student participation, reinforces the visibility of 4EU+ within our universities, and aims to reach a wide multidisciplinary audience.

The seed funding will be dedicated to the main goal of this project, i.e. the organization of a launch event in Geneva during the second semester of 2025. This event should allow students to create the network and provide it with a roadmap for the following months.

1. It is essential for us that the network be created collectively by and for students and with the support of the already existing student associations of the universities, especially those dedicated to sustainability or social and environmental responsibility. We have entrusted the coordination of the launch event to a PhD student, who is supported by the other students in the project, the professors active in Flagship 4 and 4EU+, as well as administrative staff from the University of Geneva. With an aim to boost campus life, contribute to the UN Sustainable Development Goals—in particular number 13 “Climate Action”—and strengthen our ties with Geneva’s international organizations, this project clearly places itself within the University of Geneva’s 2024-2034 strategic plan, especially under sections
2. “Living in today’s world” and
3. “Promoting a university open to the world”.

This project also aligns with the 2025-2035 4EU+ strategy—particularly the “Innovation” and “Global outreach” sections—by favoring interdisciplinary cooperation and supporting partnerships with international organizations and NGOs. Synergies can also be found with the 1CORE T4.5 project, the other Flagships (i.e. Flagship 2), and the META UN project.

Main activities and expected results

The project members envision 5 main activities and results:

1. Mapping of student associations: Identifying the 8 universities’ current student associations active on the topic of climate change.
2. Preparation of launch event: An event to spark the launch of the network is planned for the fall semester 2025. The preparatory work for this event will take place in spring and summer 2025.
3. Launch event: This event brings together student representatives and researchers for a discussion on climate change. The event will take place over three days – 4- 6 November – of which the first two are dedicated to research, discussion, and planning. The third day will open the doors to the city of Geneva and international organizations, allowing students to exchange ideas with various representatives.
4. Road map: The launch event should allow for the establishment of a road map to guide the development of the network and set priority actions to be implemented.
5. Platform: Finally, the project should allow for the creation of an online discussion platform serving as the base for communications within the future network. The exact structure and budgetary requirements of the platform will be determined during the launch event.

Potential future activities and collaborations resulting from the project

In terms of possible future activities and collaborations, we are considering 5 main areas:

1. mplementing the road map developed during the launch event, including determining a schedule of deliverables.
2. Creating an infrastructure within each university to connect the student community to the network and its actions.
3. Strengthening ties with international organizations and NGOs and their Youth Engagement programs within the UN’s guiding framework “Our Common Agenda”.
4. Exploring the needs of students regarding education on climate action.
5. Developing partnerships with other 4EU+ “youth engagement” initiatives.

Contact:

Tinka Stössel – tinka.stoessel@unige.ch

Julien Goy – julien.goy@unige.ch