General Assembly TETHYS 2024: Feedback on the Euro-Mediterranean universities gathering
This year's General Assembly was organized at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid and attended by around one hundred representatives from thirty universities and eight Mediterranean countries (Algeria, France, Italy, Lebanon, North Macedonia, Morocco, Spain, and Tunisia). At the same time, the network organized a doctoral workshop that brought together over 40 doctoral students from various consortium member universities. They worked together on the following topic: “What can universities in the Mediterranean do about Climate Change?”
The two-day assembly provided an opportunity to take stock of the network's activities and projects and to discuss future collaborations.
The first day, at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, offered an opportunity to present the network's operations and activities. The network then voted unanimously to integrate six universities from four countries (Algeria, France, North Macedonia, and Spain). This was followed by a round-table discussion on Euro-Mediterranean cooperation in higher education, which led to several enriching debates on the functioning of university networks within the Euro-Mediterranean area.
The second day, at Casa Árabe, was organized around two workshops. The first, on the French-speaking world of science, in partnership with the AUF, enabled participants to work in groups on building European projects. This workshop resulted in the design of four potential projects that could be submitted to various funding organizations such as the European Union. The second workshop revolved around two expert roundtables on the subject of climate change. Afterwards, participants attended a keynote address by Wolfgang Cramer, a member of ITEM's Board of Directors and winner of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize, on the role of universities in tackling climate change. The day concluded with an oral presentation of the policy paper developed by doctoral students during the doctoral workshop.
The Téthys team would like to thank the President of the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Ms. Amaya Mendikoetxea, and the Vice-President of International Relations, Ms. Irene Martín Cortés, as well as their teams, for their welcome, support, and dedication to the success of this event.
