European University for Well-Being

The European University of Well-Being – EUniWell – has come together in response to the Council of the European Union’s invitation for member states to pursue a horizontal, cross-sectoral, knowledge-based approach to advance the ‘Economy of Wellbeing’ (24 October 2019).

EUniWell unites 7 diverse universities and 102 associate partners drawn from 7 distinct regions of Europe. It presents an action-oriented response to well-being, grounded in research expertise, educational leadership and civic engagement to meet the challenge set out by the Council of the European Union and the OECD.

EUniWell will take an integrated system-thinking approach to deliver a meaningful and sustainable step-change to the well-being of our institutions, staff, students, and societies. In partnership with societal stakeholders, and working across the knowledge-education-innovation axis, EUniWell will play a critical, intermediary role in shaping research-based policy and pedagogy to inform decision-making, underpin skills development, and realize a measurable impact on European citizens’ quality of life.

Our mission is

• to empower cutting-edge research, education and training and interact closely with society to enhance global and regional well-being in social, environmental, economic, and cultural terms. This mission covers the traditional missions of universities but places them under the overarching framework of global well-being. It requires us to explicitly analyze and measure the multi-level impact of each action.
• to promote internal well-being for each student and member of staff, for each educational programme, for each disciplinary field and department, for each campus and for the university as a whole. This mission underlines the importance of ensuring that the way we work is aligned with our vision, that the vision we carry is also one we live on a daily basis.

This implies a change of frameworks, cultures and mindsets. To achieve this change, we

• focus on the way we interact both internally and externally: We aim to multiply synergies by breaking down boundaries, both internal and external, increasing the permeability of our structures, and shifting to more inclusive and holistic ways of driving change by evaluating what we do and how we do it.

Our core mission is to understand, improve, measure, and rebalance the well-being of individuals, our own community, and society as a whole based on our joint values – democratic, inclusive, diverse, research and challenge-based, inter- and transdisciplinary, entrepreneurial, and co-creational.