HEIDI · Higher Education Informal Diplomacy: the case of the European Universities Initiative (EUI)

Higher Education Informal Diplomacy: the case of the European Universities Initiative (EUI)

Higher education is undergoing a structural shift. Universities are no longer confined to teaching and research: through their “third mission” of engagement, they stimulate economies, strengthen international cooperation, and operate as trusted channels of soft power. Cross-border scientific collaboration is now indispensable to address climate change, health crises, and conflict. Yet, despite this growing importance, we know little about how higher education institutions (HEIs) combine political agency with knowledge production and act as informal diplomatic actors. EU science-diplomacy debates remain largely state-centric, despite the European Strategy for Universities and the EEAS’s increasing reliance on knowledge. HEIDI positions HEIs within a distinct form of power—knowledge power—that complements and expands the concepts of Market Power Europe and Normative Power Europe. It defines higher education informal diplomacy as unofficial diplomatic activity in which universities mobilise knowledge to cooperate, negotiate, and shape solutions to global challenges. The project addressed three fundamental gaps: how universities exert influence, which stakeholders matter most, and what forms their diplomatic action takes. The project examined these questions through the European Universities Initiative alliances (EUIA), launched in 2018 as a flagship EU policy. These alliances - 44 consortia with ~340 HEIs in 31 countries at proposal stage - serve as living laboratories of integration: joint degrees, mobility, governance, and partnerships with students, municipalities, NGOs, and business. Their scale and diversity make them the ideal setting to analyse universities as infrastructures of diplomacy. HEIDI pursued three interlinked objectives: Conceptualisation – define higher education informal diplomacy and situate it within existing frameworks (science, cultural diplomacy, soft power). Mapping – provide the first systematic overview of universities’ informal-diplomacy practices via a Europe-wide survey. Mechanisms in action – analyse through case studies and interviews how HEIs advance diplomacy, identify key actors, and draw policy implications. The pathway to impact connected theory, survey evidence, and qualitative analysis. It delivered: (a) a conceptual framework recognising knowledge power as a lever in EU external action; (b) the first systematic map of alliance-based diplomacy in European higher education; and (c) actionable insights for EU and national policymakers, alliances, and universities on how to leverage these networks as complementary diplomatic channels. Finally, HEIDI is SSH-driven and interdisciplinary, combining international relations, EU governance, and political economy with mixed methods (survey, 35 elite interviews, qualitative coding). Gender-sensitive design and open-science/FAIR practices ensured both academic and policy relevance.

Data: CORDIS, © European Union