The “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University of Iași is a founding member of the “European Campus of City-Universities (EC2U)” Alliance, alongside six other institutions with a long tradition in education and research – the Universities of Coimbra (Portugal), Jena (Germany), Pavia (Italy), Poitiers (project coordinator, France), Salamanca (Spain), and Turku (Finland).

The EC2U Alliance was formally established in 2020 through the approval of the “European Campus of City-Universities” project within the European Union’s “European Universities” Program. The approval of the project was the result of the joint efforts of the 7 founding universities, which began in 2017. This multicultural and multilingual consortium aimed to develop an innovative academic space allowing intense exchanges between the seven universities and their cities, contributing to the realization of a more united and stronger Europe. In the pilot phase of the project, carried out between 2020-2023, numerous education innovation activities were implemented through 3 joint master’s programs and interdisciplinary education, research, and innovation activities within the 3 Virtual Research Institutes, including summer schools, workshops, online training modules/webinars, research internships, and traveling conferences dedicated to the academic community and the general public.

In 2023, the EC2U Alliance secured new funding of over 14 million euros in the call for proposals for European universities launched by the European Commission, an event that marked the end of the pilot phase and the beginning of the project’s consolidation phase. On this occasion, the Johannes Kepler University of Linz (Austria) joined the Alliance. In 2025, Umeå University (Sweden) also became a full member. Currently, EC2U brings together a community of over 200,000 students, more than 25,000 academic staff, and reaches over 2,000,000 citizens. By welcoming two new members and doubling its number of associated partners, the Alliance continues to respond to societal challenges through strengthened collaboration with European stakeholders.

Within the EC2U project, the “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University of Iași has coordinated, since the pilot phase, the Alliance’s Work Package 4, which manages the Virtual Institute for Good Health and Well-being (GLADE) and the interdisciplinary master’s program “LIFELINE – Lifelong well-being and Healthy Ageing”. Within GLADE, through the H2020 RI4C2 project – Research and Innovation for Citizens and Cities – and following the InMOTION Living LAB model coordinated by the University of Poitiers, the GLADE Living Lab: Healthy (home) Office Habits was created, in accordance with the theme of the virtual institutes.

Summary co-financing report