The future lies in Europe, and we're helping shape it

Europe is at a turning point

AI is reshaping labour markets faster than most organisations can adapt. Climate change demands urgent and costly action. And competition from the United States and Asia is intensifying; in technology, in research, and in attracting the best talent. Europe has the ambition to hold its own. What it needs is the infrastructure to back that up.

That starts with education. The professionals who will navigate this landscape need more than technical skills. They need creativity, cultural awareness, and the ability to collaborate across borders and disciplines. Producing that kind of graduate – at scale, consistently – requires universities to work differently. Not nationally, but together.

A partnership built on the right foundations

KreativEU is an Erasmus+-funded European University Alliance of eleven institutions, spanning Portugal, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Poland, Sweden, Romania, Czechia, Slovakia, Bulgaria and Turkey. Its focus is the intersection of creativity, cultural heritage and sustainability, with AI integrated across all activities.

For BUas, joining was not a given. As Jorrit Snijder, President of the Executive Board, describes it, finding the right European partners was 'a large-scale dating process'. KreativEU turned out to be the right match, because its themes align directly with what BUas does best, and because its members share the same values: excellent applied education, meaningful research, and a genuine desire to make a difference.

What this produces in practice

BUas leads the KreativEU work package on AI and sustainability, bringing together students, researchers and professionals from across Europe to explore how AI can support creativity, cultural heritage and sustainable development. International hackathons have already produced concrete ideas: apps that bring historical stories to life and tools helping heritage sites adapt to climate change.

It is genuinely a two-way exchange. While BUas shares applied AI expertise – in high demand across the alliance – it gains fresh perspectives from partners in cultural heritage, archaeology and creative industries. That cross-pollination speeds up development for everyone and gives students real international experience before they graduate.

Looking ahead

Short-term, the focus is on getting more students into mobility initiatives and European collaborative projects. Medium-term, joint master's degrees and microcredentials are in development. The longer-term vision is a dynamic European campus, either physical or virtual, where learning, research and industry collaboration feed each other continuously.

For organisations, KreativEU represents a direct connection to a broader European talent pipeline and a growing applied research network. If you are interested in exploring what that could mean for your organisation, we welcome the conversation.

Find out more at kreativeu.org or contact the BUas KreativEU team via [email protected].