UNIMED – Mediterranean Universities Union

UNIMED was funded by Prof. Franco Rizzi, former Secretary General, who dedicated his life to research, to books and to the dialogue among universities in the Euro-Mediterranean region.
As a historian, he always tried to read and explain the problems and issues of the present, while feeling the urgency to pass on his knowledge to the young generations, to the students of the University of Rome La Sapienza, and then of the University of Roma Tre, where he was a full professor of History of Europe and the Mediterranean.
UNIMED has therefore given life to the vision of its founder. The idea of a network that would bring together the universities of the Mediterranean countries in the aftermath of the fall of the Berlin Wall, a monumental change that would have repercussions not only in Europe but also in the countries of the southern shore. That idea, the result of great foresight, was conceived by the founder well before the Barcelona Conference, which would inaugurate the Euro-Mediterranean partnership in 1995, and which translated into the possibility of offering universities on both shores of our Sea an area of cooperation at an academic, cultural, social and political level, in support of the progress of the region

Mission

UNIMED, the Mediterranean Universities Union, is an association of Universities from the countries of the Mediterranean basin. It counts more than 100 Universities coming from more than 20 countries of both shores of Mediterranean.
UNIMED acts in different scientific fields and its aim is to develop research and education in the Euro-Mediterranean area in order to contribute to scientific, cultural, social and economic cooperation. The image that better represents our association is a University Without Walls.

Geographic Focus

Euro-mediterranean region. It counts members from more than 20 countries from both shores of the Mediterranean.

Programme Areas

UNIMED carries out a number of projects aimed to:
– enhance higher education governance and functioning,
– inform pedagogical innovation,
– improve curriculums,
– develop inclusive institutions,
– strengthen intercultural engagement among students and staff,
– have the capacity to influence the future of education in its broadest sense.

Many of UNIMED projects also form Euro-Mediterranean collaborations which help to deliver solutions to the region’s most demanding needs, and to advance towards a cohesive Mediterranean Generation and shared prosperity. Funds mostly come from the following programmes: Erasmus+, Horizon 2020 on Research, Asylum and Migration Integration Fund (AMIF), INTERREG MED programme.
Moreover, during the last few years, UNIMED has encouraged the establishment of second-level networks focused on specific fields: the so-called SubNetworks. Purpose of the SubNetworks is to bring together research centres, university departments, faculties, academics and researchers that work in the selected fields, in order to favour scientific cooperation, the exchange of experiences and information, the strengthening of existing partnerships and the establishment of new collaborations.
Furthermore, UNIMED has signed several agreements with leading actors in the international cooperation world.