Social Science Campaign: New ways for knowledge-sharing

On December 4th, 2017, UNIMED has launched the so-called Manifesto for a new Mediterranean of knowledge, to foster the sustainable development of the Mediterranean basin through the endorsement of Social Science, Humanities, and Arts. According to its official Manifesto, the organisation aims to achieve three primary outcomes:

  • overcoming the growing mistrust between bordering populations to unlock the Mediterranean knowledge and human capital;
  • identifying possible mitigation strategies by developing analysis tools (we’ll see the main reason right away, since it is directly related to the next point);
  • improving youth’s transversal skills.

UNIMED is the Mediterranean Universities Union which counts 103 associated Universities coming from 23 countries of both shores of Mediterranean. The main objective of UNIMED is to develop university research and education in the Euro-Mediterranean area, acting in different fields, namely cultural heritage, economics, energy, and environment.

The 2015 annual report of the Erasmus+ programme, provided in detail by the European Commission on January 26th, 2017, has outlined great result.

In 2015, more than 680.000 Europeans have been able to study, to train, and to work thanks to the Erasmus+ programme, with an investment of over 2-billion EUR. And the numbers are even set to grow, with expectations of about 4-billion people involved in the programme by 2020.

Therefore, youth education and the endorsement of mutual understanding are the very foundation we must invest in: as the Manifesto states, “Mutual understanding is much more than teaching foreign languages, it is about making students discover somebody else’s cultural and religious traditions, political and social systems as well as artistic and intellectual productions.”

In line with the belief of Gianluca Coppola, president of the European Digital Learning Network, the process of digitalisation vastly contributes to the spread of democratisation within the Mediterranean countries. Furthermore, digitalisation greatly facilitates social growth through the access to free information and knowledge.

For those reasons, DLEARN strongly supports the UNIMED campaign on Social Science, Humanities, and Arts, giving primary importance to the wide spread of knowledge and to the significant enhancement of the educational system. The goals of our network are aligned with the UNIMED’s requests highlighted by the Manifesto, namely including Social Sciences and Humanities in the EU Research and Innovation and Education strategies addressed to the Mediterranean region.

If you want to support the campaign, stay tuned and listen to further news!