The nine FORTHEM universities aim to transform and shape the future of the European higher education and research area. The universities have therefore established a research, education, innovation and transfer intertwining, student-centred and inclusive European University with a strong regional anchoring;

FORTHEM is an alliance of nine public universities with a well-balanced geographical distribution in Europe. All universities are firmly rooted in the social and economic fabric of their respective European regions, some interlinked by political structures such as town twinnings and regional partnerships. The alliance represents a community of 225000 students and 30000 staff, in contact with more than two million citizens. FORTHEM is an alliance with a strong willingness to integrate everyone: working FOR THEM means to work for every student and for every staff member, involving all nine regions.

FORTHEM works diligently to implement the “knowledge square” in the respective regions,to enhance innovative, student-centred pedagogies in all nine universities, and to ensure that multidisciplinarity, multiculturality and multilingualism are substantial features of education, research and innovation. FORTHEM melds the unique assets of each partner university into a greater wholeto provide excellent transnational experiences for all students and staff. Co-creation with students, staff and the public and private sectors while educating is at the core of FORTHEM.

FORTHEM is a collaboration of members from each area of the universities: academics, administrative staff and students. Each member actively participates in the decision-making and monitoring of the alliance.

Effective coordination and management structures ensure progress towards joint objectives and transparent communication reaching all levels of alliance universities. The management structure includes a Steering committee, Coordination Commission, five Mission boards and Coordinating offices for the practical management.

FORTHEM leverages the transformative strength of institutional cooperation and the expertise gained from the Erasmus+ funding period 2019-2022 and the H2020 project FIT FORTHEM (2021-23). From 2023 on, FORTHEM will take a bottom-up approach that comprises five missions:

1. European Campus
2. Skills and Competences
3. Research, Innovation and Transfer
4. Labs and Co-creation
5. Service-to-Society

All five missions are closely interlinked and interdependent, and provide specific and complementary measures. Together, they promote knowledge generation, value creation and economic growth to provide a solid foundation for a European University.

EUROPEAN CAMPUS - International educational opportunities for all and sharing European values
The driving force behind the European Campus is transnational talent circulation. FORTHEM provides seamless mobility, online international opportunities and truly individualised learning paths. FORTHEM draws on past experiences and further deepensinternational cooperation structures including, but not limited to, the FORTHEM Digital Academy, FORTHEM student status, joint learning and teaching and micro-credentials. The European dimension becomes an everyday practice as FORTHEM systematically involves 50 % of all university members in physical, blended and virtual mobility. The FORTHEM European Campus is characterised by environmental sustainability, inclusion and multilingualism to cultivate truly European graduates.

SKILLS AND COMPETENCES - Fostering future-oriented personal and professional development
The driving force behind Skills and Competences is adaptability, social fairness and resilience. Future Skills enable citizens to tackle complex problems in unfamiliar contexts successfully and to act responsibly and purposefully. They encompass digital and green skills, critical and academic literacies, and the competence for continuous learning which leadsto increased employability and (European) economic prosperity. Innovative pedagogy is at the core-a student-centered mindset where the focus shifts from teaching to learning and acquiring future skills, building resilience, flexibility and adaptability.

RESEARCH, INNOVATION AND TRANSFER - Cross-sectoral cooperation and training for future top performers in R&I
The driving force behind the R&I&T Mission is the freecirculation of researchers, knowledge and technology. FORTHEM boosts transnational cooperation based on the key principles of responsible research and innovation, open innovation and Open Science. Joining forces and sharing resources gives scholars better access to infrastructure, support structures and international networks. Aspiring early-stage researchers benefit from multi-layer training programmes and are involved in paving the way for new role models related to research assessment in Europe. Policy and practice support collaboration between academic and non-academic stakeholders across regions. This makes FORTHEM a springboard providing appropriate training to young researchers and an accelerator for research projects targeting the most urgent European and global challenges.

LABS AND CO-CREATION Strategic - FORTHEM Labs as arenas of co-creation addressing transnational challenges
The driving force behind FORTHEM labs is the co-creation of tomorrow's solutions. Carrying out collaborative projects with researchers and students, industry, non-profits and the public sector, the labs integrate research, education and innovation activities. FORTHEM will continue to expand the labs' operations to meet the challenges and needs of our regions and Europe, and develop solutionsscaled to European or global dimensions. The following thematic labs are established and producing significant results: Diversity and Migration, Digital Transformation, Multilingualism in School and Higher Education, Experiencing Europe, Food Science, Climate and Resources, and Resilience, Life Quality and Demographic Change.

To get more information about FORTHEM, please contact your local FORTHEM Office:

• University of Mainz: forthem@uni-mainz.de
• University of Jyväskylä: forthem@jyu.fi
• University of Latvia: forthem@lu.lv
• University of Valencia: forthem@uv.es
• University of Bourgogne: forthem@u-bourgogne.fr
• University of Opole: forthem@uni.opole.pl
• University of Palermo: forthem.office@unipa.it
• University of Agder: Forthem@uia.no
• Univeristy of Sibiu: forthem@ulbsibiu.ro

The FORTHEM Digital Academy is a set of interconnected online platforms for virtual mobility, collaboration and networking for students and staff members of the alliance. It consists of ten e-learnign platforms: a central platform, which contains all the courses and activities developed for FORTHEM by several partner universities; nine local platforms, one for each partner university.

The FORTHEM Digital Academy offers extensive opportunities for online language learning, for completing subject-specific MOOCs & training modules and for virtual mobility of students and staff. FORTHEM members are sharing existing MOOCs and developing in collaboration new blended and virtual learning modules. Language-related student tutoring and tandem-learning options will be included by 2025.

Here's the list of the ten platforms of the FORTHEM Digital Academy:

• Digital Academy (Central Platform)
• University of Bourgogne
• University of Jyväskylä
• University of Latvia
• University of Mainz
• University of Opole
• University of Palermo
• University of Valencia
• University of Agder - WIP
• University of Sibiu - WIP

In order to get full access to the FORTHEM Digital Academy, you must make sure to access it from your local university's e-learning platform. Use this list to find the direct link to the Digital Academy in your university:

• University of Bourgogne
• University of Jyväskylä
• University of Latvia
• University of Mainz
• University of Opole
• University of Palermo
• University of Valencia
• University of Agder - WIP
• University of Sibiu - WIP

The FORTHEM Digital Academy contains several types of courses, shared and created by the seven partner universities. You can find asynchronous courses (MOOCs), synchronous courses, team-teaching activities (i.e., courses held jointly by several lecturers from different partner universities). Furthermore, partner universities can share other kind of resources, such as webinars, scientific papers, and so on. The full updated catalogue is available here.

No personal data is automatically collected within the FORTHEM Digital Academy. However, enrolling in external activities (i.e., activities shared by other partner universities) causes the transfer of some personal data (email address, first name, last name) from your local university to the destination university. You must explicitly agree with this transfer, and accept the destination university's privacy policy, in order to enrol into external activities.

Some activities may be restricted to limited groups of users, and the restrictions are enforced through email addresses; however, the addresses are never communicated outside your local Moodle platform.

To get access to FORTHEM courses and activities, you must make sure to access the Digital Academy in your local university's e-learning platform (see the question above to find yours).

Then, you can immediately see all the activities available to you, and you can use the provided filters to find the most suitable activities for you.

For each activity you want to enrol into, click on the corresponding card. A pop-up, containing more information on the activity, will appear and it will instruct you on how to enrol. In most cases, you will only need to accept the privacy policy of the destination university, and confirm your enrolment.

Please, keep in mind that you need to repeat these steps every time you want to access the same activity/course.

FORTHEM partner universities are still working to provide ECTS to students who attend FORTHEM courses and activities. Each university has its own rules when it comes to ECTS recognition, and each case has to be individually evaluated. Please, contact your local FORTHEM office to get more information on the incentives available for you.

Besides ECTS, the alliance is strongly investing on micro-credentials and open badges. For each course you pass, you will be granted an open badge. Badges are also issued when attending other FORTHEM activities and events (including workshops, seminars, meetings, and so on).

Unfortunately, you can't directly share your course in the Digital Academy. This operation can only be performed by FORTHEM Plugin Administrators, as they need to perform different checks on the courses.

If you are interested in opening your course to the FORTHEM Alliance, please get in touch with your local FORTHEM Office (see "Contacts" above).