Looking back at the 2024 EHU Euskampus Bordeaux Eguna

Each year, the EHU Euskampus Bordeaux Eguna provides an opportunity to share, highlight and promote all the projects and collaborations developed as part of the strategic alliance between the University of Bordeaux, the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), the Donostia International Physics Center (DIPC), TECNALIA Research & Innovation and Euskampus Fundazioa, as well as their associated partners.

This emblematic annual meeting brings together students ( Bachelor, Master, PhD) and representatives of non-university organisations from the Basque Country and New-Aquitaine involved in cross-border dynamics. It offers the Euskampus community a space for reflection and shared work, promoting social, multicultural, multilingual and transdisciplinary cohesion.

The first day was an opportunity to (re)discover the numerous collaborations between the institutions, in terms of research, education, territorial commitment and internationalisation. The unveiling of a new joint cross-border laboratory (LTC) in neuroscience, CannaMETHd, led by Susana Mato from the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU) and Giovanni Marsicano (University of Bordeaux), was a highlight of the opening ceremony. This new LTC will focus on deciphering the mechanisms by which CB₁ cannabinoid receptors modulate astrocyte and oligodendrocyte metabolism and their potential implications in multiple sclerosis, autism and glioblastoma.

It joins the seven existing LTCs, as well as the sixteen (including five new ones in 2024) LTC incubator projects that make up the LTC Sarea network, supported by the Basque Government since 2021. These LTCs and LTC incubators cover a wide range of subjects, including nanoscale physics and chemistry, applied mathematics, advanced sustainable manufacturing, high-performance cementitious materials, neurodegenerative diseases and their co-morbidities, photonics and marine pollution.

The event also highlighted the importance of the joint initiatives undertaken by the University of Bordeaux and the UPV/EHU to enhance the employability and entrepreneurship of their students in the cross-border area. This is one of the priorities for Euskampus and will be the subject of a joint roadmap.

Finally, an interactive retrospective of the last ten years illustrated the richness of cross-border cooperation. Some emblematic projects were presented by former rectors or presidents Iñaki Gorizelaia, Nekane Balluerka and Manuel Tuñon de Lara.

Tuesday 15^th October was punctuated by project presentations as part of the "My crossing aboard the Euskampus Bordeaux campus in 173 seconds MT173". In 173 seconds (the distance between Bordeaux and Bilbao in nautical miles), the selected participants had to present the project or initiative they were developing as part of their Euskampus collaboration.

Two initiatives, on either side of the border, illustrated the fruitfulness of the links between university and territory: Basque Quantum - BasQ in the Basque Country and, in France, the Naquidis innovation centre in Nouvelle-Aquitaine. The latter supports the development of high-level quantum technology research projects, innovative applications and technological solutions in the fields of quantum sensors, quantum communication and computing, and the quantum supply chain. It is the result of a vast consortium including the University of Bordeaux, the Institut d'Optique Graduate School, the University of Limoges (XLIM and IRCER), the CNRS, the ALPHA - Route des Lasers & des Hyperfréquences competitiveness cluster and the Nouvelle-Aquitaine Region. A scientific committee, chaired by Nobel Prize-winning physicist Alain Aspect and made up of internationally renowned figures, is responsible for the scientific management of the project.