PIONEER Alliance - The European University Alliance for Future Cities

TH Köln is a member of the PIONEER Alliance – a transnational network of ten European universities committed to the collaborative design of inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable cities.

With over 130,000 students and 17,000 staff from ten European countries, the PIONEER Alliance stands for partnership-based and forward-looking higher education. It is an important part of the European Higher Education Initiative of the Erasmus+ programme, which strengthens and further develops cooperation within the European higher education landscape.

Focus and vision of the PIONEER Alliance

The aim of the alliance is to promote future-oriented, versatile skills that enable people to actively participate in an increasingly complex and dynamic world.

To meet this goal, PIONEER focuses on challenge-based learning, socially relevant research and innovative cooperation with local authorities, businesses and civil society. This approach generates practical solutions for inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable cities – in line with UN Sustainable Development Goal 11, ‘Sustainable Cities and Communities’.

In addition, this commitment is creating sustainable ecosystems around universities in which knowledge is shared, new ideas are developed and sustainable solutions are jointly promoted.

Networking all partner universities and their respective ecosystems with each other is a key success factor for implementing the alliance's goals. Mobility between the participating institutions and organisations promotes regular exchange and joint learning, thus contributing significantly to innovation-oriented cooperation.

Partner Institutions

PIONEER Alliance Partners (Image: Universität Zilina)

Coordinator: Université Gustave-Eiffel (France)
AVANS University of Applied Sciences (Netherlands)
Bern University of Applied Sciences (Switzerland)
University of Huelva (Spain)
ISCTE University Institute of Lisbon (Portugal)
IUAV-Università IUAV di Venezia (Italy)
LAUREA University of Applied Sciences (Finland)
UTB-Tomas Bata University (Czech Republic)
University of Žilina (Slovakia)

Participate

+ Researchers and teaching staff

The PIONEER Alliance offers educators and researchers the opportunity to network and collaborate with committed partners at the PIONEER partner universities in education and research projects. In particular, the alliance addresses topics in the context of Sustainable Development Goal 11 - Sustainable Cities and Communities:

Questioning urban transitions
Nature in the city
Energy in the city
Vulnerability, integration and health in the city
Mobility
Digital change
Sustainable and resilient cities

Cooperation in research and teaching can include joint research proposals within European funding lines or the development of joint, international teaching formats, such as a blended intensive programme (BIP) or an international summer school.

Through the initiative PIONEERing COIL (Collaborative Online International Learning), the Center for Academic Development (ZLE) assists in fostering virtual, cross-border collaboration between students and faculty across the alliance’s institutions.

Contact: ture.petersenn@th-koeln.de

+ Students

Contact us and discover the opportunities to study at one of the nine partner universities of the PIONEER Alliance or to participate in one of the international education programmes of the PIONEER Alliance.

Contact: outgoings@th-koeln.de

+ Non-academic staff

Employees supporting research and education have the opportunity to engage in an individual staff mobility to one of the nine PIONEER partner universities. Such mobilities can be financially supported through the Erasmus+ staff mobility program.

PIONEER partners regularly invite non-academic staff to participate in their international staff weeks with special workshops and networking opportunities.

Contact: martina.bruederle@th-koeln.de

+ Stakeholders from the private sector, public authorities and civil society

The PIONEER Alliance consists of impact-orientated universities. Their approach is to create knowledge together with relevant stakeholders from business, public institutions and civil society, in order to contribute to a more sustainable cities and a more sustainable world. PIONEER thus acts as an interface between universities and society in order to promote their interaction and cooperation, particularly with regard to the creation of solutions for the topics of UN Sustainable Development Goal 11.

Interested businesses, public entities, NGOs and associations are welcome to participate in this mission. Contact us with your interests and project ideas, or to find out more about the PIONEER Alliance.

Contact: ture.petersenn@th-koeln.de

First PIONEER Festival: Info Fair, Mobilities, Workshops on COIL and Challenge-Based Education

At the premiere of the PIONEER Festival from October 28 to November 6, 2025, at TH Köln, students, faculty, and staff engaged with partner universities to learn more about Erasmus mobilities. Several events took place, including a LEGO® Serious Play session focusing on the teaching formats Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) and Challenge-Based Education (CBE). More

Final InCTIES Project Meeting at the University of Zilina: Visions for the Future

The five InCITIES partner institutions TH Köln, ISCTE, Gustave Eiffel, Laurea and UNIZA met for the last time at the University of Zilina (Slovakia) from 8 - 9 April 2025. The purpose of the meeting was to present and discuss achievements to date and to look ahead to the approach to be taken in the remaining six months of the project term in order to achieve the project objectives.More

Project lead