Twelve European university alliances came together for the first Agora Stakeholder Forum, hosted by the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT).  Fifteen representatives from international higher education alliances shared their experiences of using the Agora platform, reported on challenges and success stories, and provided feedback and suggestions for improvement to aUPaEU’s Agora platform.

Opening the event, Klaus Rümmele, Head of International Affairs at KIT welcomed participants, and looking back at aUPaEU’s journey, since its kick-off meeting over three years ago, expressed his pleasure at seeing how far aUPaEU has developed and matured into Agora development.

The Stakeholder Forum focused on the exchange of experiences and listening, among digital campus coordinators, IT specialists, institutional coordinators, chairs of FOREU4ALL communities and project members – helping chart the Agora platform’s future direction.

Agora Today

Before jumping into the open discussions of the world café, we talked about the current state of Agora platforms.

Having secured more than 30 agreements, we have delivered 23 Agoras to university alliances, and they are at varying levels of maturity.

Jesus Alcober - aUPaEU Project Coordinator - shared three main messages that guide our work at the moment: first, that all institutions - regardless of whether they are part of a "widening" country or not - have an equal right to the same tools, and we have the tools thanks to Agora. Second, alliances should not be framed into either research or education alone: we have to deal with the whole of European university space, which is multidimensional. Third, alliances are diverse, but they all need the same things: digital sovereignty – to keep them safe.

Interoperability, Services, and Openness

We then turned to the technical and policy work lying behind Agora's growth.

The presentation by Antonia Bobeva and Stephanie Nastasi - Analysis and methodology Leads at aUPaEU- explored how Agora enables closer collaboration, easier access to shared resources, and greater interoperability. They presented the current status of Agora's services catalogue, which is organised into five distinct service "families."

We then turned to a different dimension of the project's mission - in relation to external stakeholders, such as industry and civil society: openness. University alliances are already testimony of institutions trying to be open: sharing knowledge, providing mutual access to services, and collaborative initiatives. Michael Anger - Open science and transfer Lead at aUPaEU - described how openness has different layers of dimensions, which are enshrined in the ERA policy agenda. Agora has the potential to be a platform for boosting openness across several fronts, from acting as an Open Science hub and supporting the implementation of CoARA, to opening engagement with external stakeholders.

The leitmotiv is “As open as possible, as close as necessary”.

Alliances in the Room

The forum brought together representatives from twelve European university alliances, including Unite!, Epicur, Civis, EU Green Alliance, Heroes, EUniWell, Uninovis, Charm-EU, and EU-CONEXUS, ENLIGHT, EUNIS, among others.

Participants spanned a wide range of roles: digital campus coordinators working directly with Agora, digital infrastructure coordinators such as Chief Digital Officers, IT staff, and institutional coordinators. The forum was also joined by chairs, co-chairs, and vice-chairs of FOREU4ALL communities - reflecting Agora’s growing relevance beyond the project itself.

World Café: Listening to Alliances

The second part of the Forum centred on a World Café format, with participants rotating through three thematic tables:

• Opening Agora: access levels, engagement with external stakeholders, and Open Science
• Integrating resources via Agora: experiences and promising practices
• Communicating Agora: building Agora awareness and governance involvement & support

The discussions were productive: alliances exchanged experiences on approaching and using Agora, while the aUPaEU team gathered valuable feedback to guide the platform's continued development. We focused on listening to the needs, challenges and practices of stakeholders.

What's Next

We plan to present the format again, hoping this forum will be the first of many, to bring the Agora community together again.

The results deriving from the world café will be elaborated and shared soon.

Find the slides here: Agora Stakeholder Forum | Zenodo