Lecturer sets up Italian summer school with Una Europa seed funding
Una Europa, an alliance of 11 top European universities, provides annual seed funding for new research and teaching projects. Assistant Professor Carmen van den Bergh applied for funding with her Flemish and Italian counterparts. Thanks to this funding and the support of Erasmus+, students can now take part in an annual summer school in Bologna on modern Italian literature.
The seed funding aims to help applicants start research, teaching or outreach projects with other partner universities within the Una Europa alliance. It is capital to plant a seed that may ultimately attract external funding. So Una Europa seed funding can be the start of something bigger.
Hi Carmen, what seed did you plant with the grant?
‘Together with nine other European universities, we developed a plan for a summer school in Bologna on modern Italian literature. There are five places per institution, which results in a big class of 50 students from cities like Leiden, Madrid, Paris and Stockholm. That diversity makes it extra special because students spend a whole week in an international classroom and get credits for it too. It’s a kind of masterclass for our most motivated, excellent students – a great addition to our programme.’
Why would this have been difficult to achieve without seed funding?
‘We teaching staff always have plenty of bright ideas but it helps to have the budget to realise them. This funding helps enormously with arranging the first meetings so you can make plans together. You reach an agreement with your partners and set to work together. Our main applicant from Bologna collected all the ideas and then applied for external funding through Erasmus+. We can now hold the summer school every year.’
What problems did the grant solve for you?
‘We are a relatively small, specialised programme and a trip was not a permanent fixture of our programme. If we planned something, we had to do that alone, without funding. That makes organising projects rather complicated. You obviously do your work as a lecturer but you’d prefer to choose a project that lots of people will work on and money is available for. We can now offer our students an extra specialised course within the curriculum. It’s great to have this option, particularly with the cuts looming.’
Are there other benefits?
‘Excellence courses like these are also a fun challenge for lecturers because you can connect your research and teaching at a very high and specialised level. Your network grows quickly too. Before you know it, you’re involved in other projects. The course also encourages students to do a PhD. They get the chance to immerse themselves in the material for a week, and in a fun, international environment too. The summer school has already encouraged former participants to continue in academia.
Do you have any other advice for colleagues wanting to apply for seed funding?
‘You don’t do research alone. And you can find colleagues not just in Leiden but all round the world. It’s a question of just starting and approaching people. You might already know a counterpart in Berlin, Paris or Leuven. And if you don’t, be brave and approach them. People are often enthusiastic if you want to involve them in a great project. And Una Europa is a nice alliance with only excellent research universities. They are great partner institutions to work with.’
Apply for Una Europa seed funding too
Do you have a good idea for a research, teaching or outreach project that you can start together with European colleagues? Apply for seed funding from Una Europa by 18 June 2025.
More informationPictures: Filippo Milani & Carmen Van den Bergh