A conference hosted by University of the West of Scotland, bringing together guests from seven European countries, has been hailed as a fantastic success.

The CARPE Symposium, which was held between 24-26 May 2023 at the University’s Paisley and Lanarkshire campuses, saw members from within the CARPE network meet to continue to build on its cross-country collaboration and research impact.

The CARPE network is the European Consortium of Applied Research and Professional Education – a strategic alliance of universities from Scotland, Germany, Finland, Hungary, Spain, Portugal and the Netherlands, all dedicated to applied research, professional education and a focus on students’ future world of work.

The event included an engaging programme of activities, all designed to continue to strengthen collaboration as a network, discuss and share new ideas, spark innovation and – importantly – collectively address societal challenges and the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.

Professor James Miller FRSE, Principal and Vice Chancellor of UWS said:

“We were delighted to host members of the CARPE network at UWS for an exciting and energetic agenda of activities, designed to strengthen the fantastic collaboration between member universities. The shared goals of the network – which are importantly aligned to that of the UN SDGs – are inspiring. Events like this help to further advance partnership working, enabling us to make a real difference to society through purposeful research.”We were delighted to host members of the CARPE network at UWS for an exciting and energetic agenda of activities, designed to strengthen the fantastic collaboration between member universities. The shared goals of the network – which are importantly aligned to that of the UN SDGs – are inspiring. Events like this help to further advance partnership working, enabling us to make a real difference to society through purposeful research.”

Professor Milan Radosavljevic, Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research, Innovation & Engagement) at UWS said:

“The CARPE Symposium hosted by UWS has been a fantastic success. During the last few days, we have embarked on a remarkable journey of knowledge exchange collaboration and inspiration, together we have explored challenges and delved into critical issues, and forged connection that will undoubtedly shape the future of our respective fields. Throughout the Symposium we have witnessed a multitude of perspectives, shared innovative research and had passionate discussions. We finished our event full of hope and plans for future collaboration and I am excited to see the outputs from our Symposium develop over the coming months and years.”

The unique and practical event offered members from the nine CARPE Special Interest Groups (SIGs) the opportunity to interact and learn from each other. Each CARPE SIG worked on addressing a specific grand challenge during the Symposium proceedings, as part of an exciting hack-athon style SIGathon event. The network also heard from keynote speaker Professor Julie Fitzpatrick OBE, Chief Scientific Adviser (CSA) for the Scottish Government.

As part of the event, the network’s Rectors, Vice-Principals and Pro Vice-Chancellors – and their research support staff – had their own challenge to tackle. They were tasked with developing the CARPE research cultures action plan – a roadmap to promote positive research cultures across the network. The group developed future action plans, including the introduction of a CARPE Crucible, following the successful UWS Crucible model, which focuses on early and mid-career researcher development, as well as a CARPE Impact Accelerator.