EuroTech Alliance declares unanimous commitment to sustainability

During his mandate as EuroTech president, Éric Labaye has made the common commitment to sustainability a priority. Over the past year, the partner universities have reinforced their collaboration to establish a joint research agenda for sustainability, to further integrate sustainability into their teaching curricula, and to harness innovation for sustainable development. Each institution also pursues its plan to achieve a green campus.

On March 28th, 2023, the symposium "EuroTech Universities: An alliance working for global sustainability" brought together academic staff, students, operational directors, and the leadership of the six EuroTech partner universities at École Polytechnique. As a direct outcome of the meeting, the presidents of EuroTech’s member institutions now publish a seven-point “Declaration for Sustainability”, to drive the EuroTech universities’ shift towards sustainability.

For Eric Labaye, “With this declaration, we confirm our joint efforts to tackle the challenges faced by society, science, and technology and develop solutions to reach sustainable development. To succeed, we are increasing and intensifying our collaboration within EuroTech, in all our areas of activity: research, initial and life-long education, and innovation."

The EuroTech Universities of Science and Technology

1. are committed to sustainable development, embodied by the 17 sustainable development goals of the United Nations adopted in 2015 as the prime challenge for humanity today.
    
2. will integrate the challenges posed by sustainable development in initial education and life-long training as a principal responsibility to train students and professionals to understand and solve key scientific, technological, and societal challenges.
    
3. commit to advancing the frontiers of knowledge, technology, and innovation as essential tools for transformation towards absolute sustainability and will develop original technological solutions needed to address the world’s acute problems.
    
4. recognize that technological development and scale-up must be complemented by behavioral changes to ensure responsible consumption, to avoid strain on the environment, and to reach a circular economy.
    
5. are Living Labs committed to implementing sustainable solutions across their campuses, training, research, and innovation activities.
    
6. commit to mobilizing their entire community as drivers of transformation through a collaborative, participative, inclusive, and transparent approach.
    
7. will also activate their global partner network to reach societal well-being and global sustainability.
    

Within the EuroTech Alliance, six leading European universities of Science and Technology join their forces to elaborate ambitious joint research projects on a European scale in priority areas such as artificial intelligence, sustainable development, health, and bio-engineering. The six partner institutions are École Polytechnique, the Technical University of Denmark (DTU), École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), the Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e), the Technical University of Munich (TUM), and the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology.

The strategic alliance bundles the member universities’ expertise in research and education for the construction of a strong, sustainable, sovereign, and resilient Europe. Éric Labaye has been invested with the EuroTech Universities Alliance presidency in June 2022 for a one-year period. The presidency rotates among the partner institutions' presidents every twelve months.