EU GREEN: How Peripheral Regional Universities Created a European Alliance Based in SDGs

The chapter delves into the genesis of the EU GREEN alliance, a pioneering network of peripheral regional universities united by a shared commitment to sustainability and the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The narrative begins with the historic speech by Emmanuel Macron in 2017, which sparked the European Universities Initiative, aiming to create transnational alliances that foster European values and innovation. The EU GREEN alliance, selected in the third call of the initiative, emerged from decades of collaboration among three southern European universities: Extremadura, Évora, and Parma. This core group expanded to include six more universities from across Europe, all sharing similar challenges and strengths. The chapter explores the political context that gave rise to the alliance, the collaborative efforts that have defined it, and its unique contributions to European higher education. A key highlight is the use of bibliometric analysis to identify the alliance's primary strengths and weaknesses, as well as its degree of specialization in various SDGs. This analysis served as the foundation for selecting research clusters and aligning the alliance's core missions—education, research, innovation, and societal engagement—with the SDGs. The chapter also discusses the alliance's impact on its respective territories, its role in addressing regional disparities, and its commitment to promoting sustainability and the European Green Deal. The narrative concludes with a reflection on the challenges and opportunities faced by the alliance, offering insights into the future of European higher education and the role of peripheral universities in driving regional development and sustainability.