Helping the scientific community, both present and future, find solutions to health problems related to neuroscience and neurotechnology is the objective of NeurotechEU, the European University of Brain and Technology, of which the Miguel Hernández University of Elche (UMH) is a member. The UMH, led by its rector, Juan José Ruiz, participated in the Seventh NeurotechEU Board of Rectors meeting, held this time at Reykjavik University in Iceland.

Accompanying the rector at its work meetings included Vice Rector for Internationalization and Cooperation, Vicente Micol; Rector Delegate for Digital Transformation, Federico Botella; Deputy Vice Rector for Institutional Position & Rankings, José Manuel Blanes; and the Director of the Service of International Relations, Development Cooperation and Volunteerism, Inmaculada Blaya.

After implementing Phase 2 of NeurotechEU in December 2023, this event served to mark and approve the following steps in this project. The objective of this pan-European university is to create an interuniversity campus that links education with research, innovation, and society.

NeurotechEU represents an alliance of eight European universities with a focus on neurotechnology. Among them, they bring together human capital of more than 220,000 students and 42,000 people dedicated to higher education and research. By building a trans-European network of excellence in research and technologies of the brain, NeurotechEU enhances competitiveness of education, research, the economies thereof, and European society. The board of this alliance is made up of the leaders of the eight university members. The UMH is the lone Spanish participant, and this alliance meets regularly to discuss progress of the project and to guide its next steps.

Other UMH participants at these work sessions to reinforce the alliance included the leader of the project and UMH Professor of Physiology, Juana Gallar; researcher at the UMH-CSIC Institute of Neurosciences, Silvia de Santis; researcher at the Engineering Research Institute of Elche – I3E and Professor, José María Azorín; journalist from the Service of Communication, Marketing and Student Services, Ángeles Gallar; expert in quality and project manager, María José Such; plus doctoral candidates, Cristina Polo and Paula Soriano.

During the meeting on the campus of Reykjavik University, the member partners received information about the progress of the alliance and the upcoming steps to follow to reinforce mobility of students and collaboration by teaching, research, and management personnel. The objective is to help them address, with specialized education and scientific research, the challenges of an aging population and increased prevalence of neurodegenerative diseases, among others, in upcoming decades.

NeurotechEU is an initiative that receives funding by the Erasmus+ program of the European Union and additionally by the Ministry of Science, Innovation, and Universities of the Spanish Government. It is a consortium formed by the UMH, Radboud University (The Netherlands), Karolinska Institutet (Sweden), University of Bonn (Germany), Boğaziçi University (Turkey), Iuliu Haţieganu University of Medicine and Pharmacy Cluj-Napoca (Romania), University of Lille (France), and Reykjavik University (Iceland). The objective of the European University of Brain and Technology is to create an interuniversity campus of higher education, a flexible space shared by the eight universities to link education, research, innovation, and society.

Source of image: UMH.