On 9 July, the international initiative Una.Futura coordinated by the Jagiellonian University in collaboration with partner institutions from Una Europa was brought to a close. The innovative project aimed to develop solutions for current challenges related to the digital revolution in the socio-economic environment was carried out with the help of more than one hundred students, PhD students, facilitators and experts from affiliated higher education institutions.
The Jagiellonian University was represented by students and PhD students – Morgana Bettega Gazabin, Nadia Gubernat, Dominika Lis, Dmytro Miedzianowski, Magdalena Sawczuk, Anna Strekalovskaya, Stanisław Szufa, Kinga Magdalena Walaszek and Milena Ślósarz – as well as facilitators: Dr Mateusz Lewandowski, Dr Magdalena Trzcionka, Dr Maksymilian Galon and Dr Marcin Jarząbek.
Additionally, the Jagiellonian University provided the following coordinators: Dr Mateusz Lewandowski, Łukasz Gacek, Hanna Gemza, Izabela Garibaldi, Marina Bąkiewicz, Joanna Buczek, Kinga Guzik and Jadwiga Winiarska. The project was supervised by Dr Paweł Ścigaj and Dr Marek Jakubiec.
Throughout June and July, Una Europa offered students a unique experience, tackling real-life challenges in cross-European teams. Set up as an open innovation design process, Una.Futura took students on a journey, developing solutions to real-life challenges arising from the digital revolution.
Teamed up with facilitators and experts, groups of students from across the Una universities worked on jointly finding solutions to six key challenges:
- Digital empowerment
- Digital citizenship
- Digital economy
- Augmented human
- Cyber threats
- Mental well-being and social relations in the digital world
Balancing benefits and risks of our future digital experience
Over the last decades, people all over the world have experienced an unprecedented and extensive growth of digital dimensions in all aspects of everyday life, be it in education, at work, in social interaction, communication, health and many others. This has brought many benefits, but also revealed risks.
Through Una.Futura, student groups developed outlines for a series of solutions. Here's a sneak preview:
For the challenge Digital Empowerment:
- GEO – global education online – higher education platform for online courses and joint diploma
- Una.talem – open spaces (offline) at Una unis to learn digital skills
For the challenge Digital citizenship:
- E-voting platforms (two projects): (1) e-voting platform and participation and interaction between citizens; (2) e-voting system at EU level
- Global hub – free educational platform for data about education and jobs
For the challenge Digital economy:
- Cross-border transfers - easy money transfers for family, no banks, virtual currency
- CC-101 - education platform about crypto currencies, explanations for dummies, games experts
For the challenge Augmented human:
- Multi-sensor solutions and innovative research algorithms for better art and information accessibility
For the challenge Cyber threats:
- Solutions for fun education and digital detection platforms
For the challenge Mental well-being and social relations:
- Digital platforms and apps that raise awareness of mental health challenges and that interconnect people
What is the Una.Futura concept? How does it work?
Each Una.Futura challenge was assigned to one or more international teams. Each team worked separately on a challenge, with some meetings being organized with other teams working on the same challenge to share insights and research material. Teams from across the different challenges met virtually at several instances – for a joint cross-European kick-off, for keynote meetings and for their final presentations.
More information on the concept behind Una.Futura can be found in our guidebook.
The initiative builds on UNA.TEN (Transform Emergency Now! 10 days for change), Una Europa’s cross-European student hackathon held in April/ May 2020 which addressed COVID19 post emergency challenges.
What's next?
The #UnaFutura discussions remain accessible on our social media channels:
A concept book and recorded videos will be made available shortly to facilitate further discussion and take-up of the proposed solutions.
We have also started planning the 2022 edition of the initiative.
This initiative is an element of 1Europe as well as the DIGITALIZED! project financed by the Polish National Agency for Academic Exchange as part of the Academic International Partnerships programme and the Excellence Initiative - Research University programme financed by the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education.
Source: Una Europa website
