The partnership agreement focuses on deepening the existing cooperation in research and teaching. Among other things, the two universities agreed to further promote visiting professorships and the exchange of researchers and staff. The partnership will also enhance teaching opportunities for EUI doctoral students and facilitate the joint exchange of publications of scientific and instructional material, scientific journals and documentation on joint research projects.

The agreement now signed extends the existing agreement from 2019 for another five years. Professor Bruno Staffelbach, Rector of the University of Lucerne, is pleased with the extension: "The collaboration with the EUI has been very successful. With regard to future research in the field of blockchain, further promising opportunities are opening up.''

Successful projects

Since 2019, 20 members of the EUI have already given lectures in Lucerne as part of the collaboration. In terms of research, the two institutions are working together on projects in the field of democracy and Europe, such as the online voting advice application "euandi" or a project on cross-border voting. The former project helped voters find suitable candidates for the 2019 European Parliament elections. An updated version of the online voting advice application was also available for this year's European elections. Professor Alexander Trechsel from the Department of Political Science at the University of Lucerne is co-project leader of “euandi”.

European institution

The EUI is a European research institute based in Florence. It was founded in 1972 by the then six member states of the European Community and is now supported by 23 EU member states. The EUI offers programmes for doctoral students and postdocs in the fields of economics and social sciences, history, political science and law.