Széchenyi István University takes a leading role in the development of practice-oriented Master's and doctoral programmes at a European level. The RUN-EU+ project, whose opening international conference was held at SZE, involves universities from Ireland, Austria, the Netherlands, Portugal and Finland.

Széchenyi István University, as a member of the Regional University Network-European University (RUN-EU), successfully applied last year for the European Commission's European University Initiative. In addition to Győr, the winning consortium includes six other universities (the Polytechnics of Leiria and Cávado and Ave in Portugal, the Technical University of Shannon in Ireland, the University of Applied Sciences of NHL Stenden in the Netherlands, the University of Applied Sciences of HAMK in Finland and the University of Applied Sciences of Vorarlberg in Austria). In October this year, this "alliance" launched a new project called RUN-EU+, the first international conference of which was held at Széchenyi István University.

The online conference was attended not only by Hungarian participants, but also by participants from Ireland, Finland, the Netherlands, Austria and Portugal.

At the opening event, participants discussed practice-oriented scientific cooperation. Dr Siobhan Moane (The Technical University of Shannon) presented the objectives of RUN-EU and RUN-EU+. She explained that RUN-EU members have 76,000 students and eight thousand staff, including four and a half thousand teaching and research staff. By joining forces, they will be able to share and transfer knowledge in new ways, launch joint training and research programmes, encourage student and staff mobility and promote economic, environmental, social and cultural activities in each region. The RUN EU+ project will deliver accredited, internship-based, European-level research programmes and joint Masters and PhD programmes in cooperation with industry, business and social partners.

In this, Széchenyi István University, together with the Technological University of Shannon, is taking a leading role in developing practice-oriented Masters and PhD programmes across the European network and running pilot programmes. It also contributes to the development of human resources in science at partner institutions, to the design and development of open science practices to make scientific research more widely available, and to the exploration of research topics based on shared priories.

Speaking at the conference, Professor Lívia Mihályka-Ablonczy, President’s envoy for social relations at Széchenyi István University, said that higher education institutions need to work in an increasingly open way, in close cooperation with their environment, and partnerships with universities abroad are of utmost importance in this respect. She added that Széchenyi University plays a significant role in the economic development of Győr and the region. The institution offers all levels of education, from vocational training to doctoral studies, and in their experience there are a significant number of professionals in the corporate sector who are able to formulate research topics in their own working environment and complete a PhD programme with international level publications.

A representative of MediKlaszter and Audi Hungaria Zrt., associated partners of the University of Győr, gave a presentation at the event. Dr Krisztina Bárdos, Executive Director of MediKlaszter and the Association of Automotive Science, spoke about the impact of research activities in university-company collaborations. Dr Zoltán Dobra, currently working in China as Head of the Centre for Series and Pre-series Analysis within the Volkswagen Group, gave a presentation about PhD research based on practical research. The expert shared his own experiences with the audience, as he graduated from the unique English-language Doctoral Program in Business Administration Sciences at Széchenyi István University this spring.

Széchenyi University is constantly encouraging international research collaborations, which were greatly helped by the conference.