Chalmers: Markides appointed head of CESAER

Chalmers President Karin Markides has been appointed to head CESAER, (the Conference of European Schools for Advanced Engineering Education and Research), an association of 60 of Europe’s leading technology universities.

CESAER is the voice of the universities of technology in Europe and the aim is to make that voice heard even more, says Markides. “One of the strengths is that the organisation includes both well-known universities from throughout Europe, as well as a number from outside Europe. The universities have a crucial role to play in the knowledge society as we are the only bodies that have all three key elements at our disposal - education, research and innovation.”

Much of CESAER’s work revolves around contributing knowledge to decision-making bodies, to drive decisions in a direction that benefits Europe as a whole. Another essential task is contact with the European Institute of Innovation and Technology, where CESAER will start off by producing a strategic innovation agenda for Europe.

“Following up and taking part in central projects and programmes within the EU, particularly Framework programmes, [university] ranking systems and international collaboration, is an important part of this work,” said Markides. She also believes that Göteborg and its region will benefit from Chalmers’ work within CESAER.

There is also a further opportunity in the fact that the Volvo chief executive, Leif Johansson, will be chairman of the European Round Table of Industrialists (ERT), an informal body made up of 50 or so leaders of multinational companies with European roots, for the same two year period that Markides will head CESAER.

ERT and the European University Association, an association of 800 European universities, are just two of the European organisations that are obvious partners for CESAER to collaborate with.

“The many contacts with people and organisations throughout Europe, as well as the links to other universities and companies generated by the chairmanship, could contribute to reinforcing our knowledge region. Among other things we will have an invaluable opportunity to establish links between areas of strength in the Västra Götaland region and their equivalents in Europe,” says Karin Markides.

CESAER operates principally on the president level, with the aim of collaborating on policy issues. This collaboration covers research as well as undergraduate and postgraduate education. CESAER has a Management Committee, which during this mandate period will comprise Karin Markides as Chair, as well as presidents from the universities of technology in Trondheim, Turin and Zürich.