UNIC Seed Fund

Supporting Collaborative Engaged Research Project Development

The UNIC Seed Fund Mechanism

This UNIC Seed Fund Initiative aims to support collaborative "Engaged Research" initiatives across our partner universities, sparking new ideas for tackling societal challenges in post-industrial cities.


On this page, you can learn about what Engaged Research means, get inspired by projects supported through this seed fund mechanism, and (when applicable) how to apply for funding. You can find additional information in downloadable PDFs. If you have further questions regarding Engaged Research, please reach out to UNIC coordinator(s) in your host institution.


This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 101035801.

What is UNIC?

The European University of Post-Industrial cities (UNIC) is an alliance of ten universities impacting education, research, and community engagement to develop post-industrial cities. The UNIC Alliance is located in transitory economies and places that constitute a shared socio-economic environment of post-industrial transformations. Our universities are expected to play a key role in the transition of their cities to become centres of knowledge concerning transformations by engaging with research into the very processes and learning on resilience, adaptation, co-creation, etc.


UNIC researchers tackle societal challenges by involving and engaging citizens, civil society, public/city authorities, and private businesses in research and innovation activities. Engaged Research offers an interdisciplinary approach and method for systematic knowledge production not only for society but also together with society.


The Seed Fund Mechanism

In order to increase the amount of collaborative engaged research initiatives within the UNIC consortium and provide support to researchers to coordinate those initiatives, seed funds are allocated to the members of the Alliance.


Collaborative UNIC engaged research initiatives relates to the societal challenges of post-industrial cities in transition. Initiatives are recommended to touch upon a challenge defined by our UNIC Cities. These challenges are related to e.g., Diversity & Inclusion, Green Cities & Sustainability, Urban Resilience & Transformation, Health & Well-being, Aging Population, Digital Transition through engaged research and aims to co-create knowledge through engaged research.


Supporting Collaborative
ENGAGED RESEARCH INITIATIVES

“UNIC Seed Fund” offers small-scale support for engaged research project proposal development across all disciplines within the UNIC consortium and beyond. This can be a Horizon Europe, JPI Urban Europe, AMIF, Digital Europe, Interreg, or similar national or international project proposal based on or inspired by our UNIC Cities’ challenges and opportunities collected in the Local Engaged Research Roadmaps.



Collaborative UNIC engaged research initiatives relates to the societal challenges of post-industrial cities in transition. Initiatives are recommended to touch upon a challenge defined by our UNIC Cities. Challenges are related to e.g., Diversity & Inclusion, Green Cities & Sustainability, Urban Resilience & Transformation, Health & Well-being, Aging Population, Digital Transition through engaged research and aims to co-create knowledge through engaged research.

UNIC4ER and Engaged Research

The goal of UNIC4ER is to bring together different fields of research and development to work on projects involving cities as partners. This collaborative effort is guided by the UNIC4ER Meets the City framework, which outlines plans for research challenging our cities and closely connected to local communities. These plans lead to the initiation of collaborative projects known as UNIC Engaged Research projects. To better understand cities' needs, UNIC4ER has gathered information from partner cities through two key sources: Input provided by UNIC Cities in our UNIC Local Engaged Research Roadmaps and CityLabs initiatives.


These research challenges stem from the goals and difficulties faced by partner cities. However, it's crucial to note that these goals and challenges evolve over time. As new needs emerge and existing research needs are met, the focus of Engaged Research shifts. This is why UNIC4ER continuously develops Local Engaged Research Roadmaps, guiding research activities and adapting regularly to match the changing priorities of cities.

Engaged Research Projects Supported by UNIC:

UNIC Seed Fund

Development of Online Dementia Training Program for Informal Caregiver...

The project "Development of Online Dementia Training Program for Informal Caregivers" adopts a...

UNIC Seed Fund

Cultural interventions during post-industrial transition in cities

Our project aims to compare the post-industrial transformations of two UNIC cities; Istanbul a...

UNIC Seed Fund

Digitizing Urban Cultural Heritage for Engaged Research

We are living in a decade of unparalleled digitalisation. Human activities, vehicles, urban fu...

UNIC Seed Fund

Creating an interdisciplinary network for gender mainstreaming in medi...

Despite the feminization of the healthcare workforce in the last three decades, this was not r...

UNIC Seed Fund

Large carnivores monitoring in Eastern Türkiye

For more than 15 years, the NGO Kuzey Doğa has been dedicated to managing the conservation of ...

UNIC Seed Fund

Capacity Building with Traveller Peer-Researchers

With support from UNIC4ER seed funding for capacity building in engaged research with non-trad...

UNIC Seed Fund

Homes, neighbourhoods and the compact city

This project is engaging stakeholders to investigate from the ground up, the research question...

UNIC Seed Fund

Children and Young People’s Participation in Planning - Implementing C...

This UNIC4ER Seed Funded project is exploring the development of a UNIC network on best practi...

inclusion Inclusion Superdiversity UNIC Seed Fund

What access to university do migrants have in Belgium?

From findings to recommendations and best practice, this seminar sought to highlight the diffi...

UNIC Seed Fund

Critical Zones Project - Research Stay

A two-and-a-half-day seminar was held between 27 and 29 May 2024 on the Sart-Tilman campus (Un...

UNIC Seed Fund

Traveller Court Support Initiative

Co-designed & Community Based Supports for Traveller Litigants in the District Court.

UNIC Seed Fund

Systems Modeling to Determine the Societal Benefit of Multi-Cancer Ear...

Cancer still is a devastating disease for which increasing evidence exists that there are sign...

UNIC Seed Fund

Living Labs on degraded soils

Strategic meeting to establish a multi-stakeholder partnership and prepare a project submissio...

UNIC Seed Fund

Pediatric oncology nurse sustainable educational website and module de...

Developing a website for pediatric oncology nurse sustainable education, and assessing the fea...

UNIC Seed Fund

Displacement and emplacement of the highly skilled migrants including ...

Producing a general framework for studying the processes of displacement and emplacement of re...

UNIC Seed Fund

Oceanic Time - Exploring more-than-human temporalities through partici...

Exploring and mapping time-related dimensions of more-than-human actors around water: what is ...

UNIC Seed Fund

Developing a Platform for Collaboration and Knowledge Sharing to Suppo...

Modern cities face significant challenges related to energy consumption and CO2 emissions due ...

UNIC Seed Fund

Aging Well Together in Liège

This one-week summer school brought together academics, specialists and members of civil socie...

UNIC Seed Fund

Advancing EU Water Diplomacy in the South Caucasus

Investigating the grounds for the EU to engage in water diplomacy in the South Caucasus to pro...

UNIC Seed Fund

ENGAGENet – Network for Socially Engaged Research and Collaboration

Enhancing city collaboration by developing a research center for socially engaged research on ...

UNIC Seed Fund

Main challenges of climate change for tourism in post-industrial citi...

Exploring the main challenges of climate change regarding the tourism activity of post-industr...

UNIC Seed Fund

Policies in post-industrial cities based on a Society 4.0 approach: pr...

New policies in post-industrial cities based on a Society 4.0 approach, with a particular inte...

UNIC Seed Fund

Strengthening Gender Equality Plans in Post-Industrial Cities through ...

Promoting gender equality in academia within post-industrial cities universities and research ...

UNIC Seed Fund

Building Strategies for Health and Mental Well-being of Employees

The project CSwell aims to explore the what kind of stress customer success managers experienc...

UNIC Seed Fund

Understanding Territorial Servitization in post-industrial Regions

This project seeks to comprehend the differences and similarities between these regions. By co...

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