Thanks to the generous hospitality of the hosts at the University of South-Eastern Norway (USN), from 17 to 19 March, YERUN members attended the YERUN Spring General Assembly in the cold north of Europe, in Kongsberg. Traditionally, the YERUN members were first welcomed by the host, USN Rector, Prof. Pia Cecilie Bing-Jonsson, PhD, who was joined by the student leader Ada Margrethe Seim and the mayor of Kongsberg municipality, Mrs. Line Spiten. The three-day gathering was also attended by the representatives of the University of Rijeka: Prof. Marina Šantić, PhD., Vice-rector for Science and Arts, and Nina Premuš, YERUN institutional coordinator.
Although USN has 8 campuses, the members of YERUN gathered on the Kongsberg campus, in the historic mining town located on the river Numedalslågen at the entrance to the valley of Numedal. Kongsberg has been a centre of silver mining, arms production, and forestry for centuries, and is the site of a high technology industry, including the headquarters of Norway’s largest defence contractor, Kongsberg Gruppen. During their stay in Kongsberg, YERUN members also visited the Silver mines, the Norwegian Silver Mining Museum, and the National Center for Optics and Vision Sciences.
The three-day meeting was attended by 52 representatives from all member universities. Rectors, presidents, vice-rectors, institutional coordinators, and members of the YERUN Brussels Office participated in presentations and workshops focusing on dual-use, i.e., the universities’ attitude towards products, technology, or services that can be useful for private and defense purposes. Consequently, the YERUN leaders discussed the growing role of dual-use, defence, and security considerations in shaping the future European research and innovation funding landscape. The workshop provided an overview of the evolving EU policy and funding context, including expected developments in the next Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF), the design of the future Research and Innovation Framework Programme (FP10), and the proposed European Competitiveness Fund (ECF), as well as the increasing policy focus on competitiveness, research security, preparedness, and dual-use technologies. Universities will now need to make strategic choices about whether and how to engage in dual-use research. While some institutions may see opportunities to contribute to emerging societal and security challenges and access growing funding streams, others may need to assess alignment with institutional missions and values or operate within national restrictions limiting engagement beyond civilian research.
During the GA, the 2024 and 2025 annual reports were briefly presented to the YERUN members, providing an insight into all activities thus far, achievements of working groups and projects of all members, as well as cooperation with other European research organizations. In view of the new YERUN Strategy 2026-2030, the structure of working groups and bodies within YERUN will also change. Instead of the previous smaller working groups, as many as 14 of them, which were initially created as ad hoc groups, only 4 permanent groups, with some occasional ones, will operate in the future: YERUN Coordinators Group, Policy Platform, Research Collaboration Group, and Communications Group.
Since last year’s autumn GA held in Cyprus, YERUN received a note of interest from yet another Spanish university: Universidad Pablo de Olavide (UPO), located in Seville. Given the positive recommendation of the Executive Board and the unanimous support of all members, the proposal to expand the network was accepted, and UPO will join YERUN as the 25th member in early July. The YERUN members also accepted the final financial report for 2025, discussed the revised plan for 2026, and gave their feedback on the financial plan for 2027, which was structured based on income from future 26 members.
YERUN members will meet again in October, when the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, Poland, will host the autumn GA.
