Peace and Inclusion in Europe starts at Comillas

Representatives of the European alliance EUPeace met at the university to promote different initiatives

A large group of people posing together for a photo outside a building, wearing name tags and looking cheerful.

The Comillas Pontifical University hosted the autumn meeting of EU Peace.

30 September 2024

Comillas was the place chosen to bring together the four main decision-making bodies of the EUPeace alliance, the European programme that brings together several European universities that work for peace, justice and social inclusion, of which Comillas is a member. "This two-day meeting has served to promote specific initiatives and activities in teaching, research and social dialogue," says Mario López Areu, academic coordinator of EUPeace at Comillas. "From student associations to teacher training courses or research networks, there are initiatives for all members of the community to participate and benefit from EUPeace and the internationalisation that it brings to our university".

"Basically, it has been a meeting of various governing bodies of the EUPeace alliance: theGoverning Board, theSteering Committee, theEducation Board and the Senate, in which there are representatives from each university: students, doctoral students, junior researchers, teaching and research staff, and administrative and service staff," says Teresa Morales, coordinator of EUPeace at Comillas.

Comillas has been the place where EUPeace has made progress on one of the main objectives of the Alliance: the establishment of EUPeace as a research power, with the creation of four research centres focused on the most urgent global challenges (Security and conflict transformation; Climate science and just transition; Inclusive health; and Migration and human rights). Thus, laboratories and researchers from all over Europe will come together to collaborate on innovative projects that contribute directly to the pursuit of peace, justice and social inclusion.

The Comillas students involved are in the process of creating a student club to spread the activities and values of the alliance among their peers. In addition, students from across the alliance are working on a joint declaration of peace that will be officially signed next year, coinciding with the 30th anniversary of peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

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