The Gheorghe Asachi Technical University of Iași (TUIASI) was represented at the meeting of the INGENIUM Alliance Council, held at the University of Rouen-Normandy, together with the other nine partner universities of the INGENIUM Alliance.
The meeting took place during the French university’s 60th anniversary and was chaired by Prof. Ignacio Villaverde, President of the INGENIUM Alliance Council and Rector of the University of Oviedo.
The delegation of TUIASI – Prof. Maria-Carmen Loghin, Vice-Rector for Resource Management and Institutional Development, Prof. Irina Lungu, Vice-Rector for International Relations, and Assoc. Prof. Nicolae Lucanu, Work Package 10 Coordinator, took part on 16 June 2026 in the event which served both as a review of the alliance’s first funding phase and as a planning exercise for what follows.
Educational first Joint Programme coordinated by TUIASI within the Alliance
During the discussions, the Alliance’s milestone achievement was highlighted: the Joint Master’s Programme in Chemical and Biochemical Process Technologies (CBPT), coordinated by the Gheorghe Asachi Technical University of Iași and developed together with the University of Rouen-Normandy and the University of Oviedo. CBPT is the first programme within the Alliance to receive accreditation under the European Approach for Quality Assurance of Joint Programmes, granted by the Romanian agency ARACIS.
A second joint Master’s programme, developed in INGENIUM, in the field of Sustainable Maritime Management and Coastal Conservation, is at an advanced stage of accreditation, alongside further programmes at Bachelor’s and doctoral level.
The educational offer extends beyond degree programmes, through 14 micro-credentials currently in the accreditation process; 13 Pathway programmes, which combine courses offered by partners, blended intensive programmes and a guaranteed long-term mobility within a single study itinerary; blended intensive programmes; joint doctoral programmes; the Education Labs and research groups that connect teaching and research across the partnership.
Directions for the future
During this meeting of the Alliance Council, the Director of the Alliance, Juan Rayón, set out the shift the alliance is working through, from a logic of funded projects towards a more permanent structure of collaboration between universities. Prof Villaverde put the same idea to the Council in plainer terms: “the momentum we have created must continue regardless of the outcome of any individual funding call.”
There is so much potential in our collaboration that we cannot depend solely on external European Union funding. We must also sustain it with our own resources to make the most of its reach.
Prof. Ignacio Villaverde, President of the INGENIUM Alliance Council and Rector of the University of Oviedo
TUIASI, as a member of the INGENIUM Alliance, supports, together with the other partners, the idea of shared responsibility for the Alliance’s future among all member universities. The common core of the cooperation remains collaborative, partnership-based education, oriented towards progression to the European Degree.
A legal entity for the continuity of the Alliance
INGENIUM is in the process of being established as a European Grouping of Territorial Cooperation, as its future legal entity, headquartered at the South-Eastern Finland University of Applied Sciences (Xamk).
Partners agreed the first-year priorities for the entity and a funding approach that keeps it lean from the outset, concentrating its early work on three functions: securing external funding for the alliance’s priorities, representing INGENIUM before European institutions and the wider community of alliances, and coordinating the annual education cycle.
On resources, the Council favoured an approach that lets the entity begin without significant additional outlay in its first phase, drawing on member contributions and on the funding it generates as it builds a track record.
