This will be the first in-person review of activities on such a large scale within the Across European University, 20 months after its launch on 1 January 2025. Bialystok University of Technology will welcome delegations from all the universities in the alliance, from Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Romania, Bulgaria, Slovenia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina. The largest delegations will come from the University of Perpignan Via Domitia (34 people), the University of Girona (31 people) and the alliance leader, Chemnitz University of Technology (15 people). A team of more than 50 people will represent Bialystok University of Technology in the discussions and workshops.
BUT at the heart of European integration
The packed programme of the Across Annual Meeting at Bialystok University of Technology includes discussions, workshops and strategic panels. The event aims not only to review the Across University’s activities and achievements to date, but above all to develop coherent mechanisms for the coming years – from expanding student and staff mobility to joint education programmes addressing regional and cross-border challenges.
Entrusting Bialystok University of Technology with the organisation of such a prestigious meeting clearly signals the university’s growing position on Europe’s academic map.
– This is a great honour for us, but also a considerable organisational challenge – emphasises Prof. Dorota Anna Krawczyk, DSc, PhD, Eng., BUT’s Vice-Rector for International Cooperation. – The Across European University initiative is a far-reaching vision. We are combining the potential of academic centres from different parts of the continent to create a lasting, coherent offering for students and researchers. From the outset, we assumed that this would be a long-term undertaking that we would develop over decades. We are currently halfway through the project’s four-year funding period, which serves to enable us, the alliance members, to lay the foundations for this cooperation.
The Vice-Rector points out that the key to the success of the entire Across alliance is interpersonal relationships, which cannot be built solely through computer screens. Yet this is largely how the international teams focused on delivering specific tasks of the University currently work.
– Online meetings allow us to carry out ongoing tasks efficiently, but leave little room for building deeper trust. That is why direct conversations during coffee breaks or shared dinners will be an important part of the meeting’s value in Białystok. These informal circumstances give us a chance to discover how much we have in common. They also create space for ideas and new areas of cooperation in research and teaching – adds Prof. Dorota Anna Krawczyk.
A varied programme: experts, exchange of experience and debate
The official opening of the Across Annual Meeting at Bialystok University of Technology will take place on 13 October at 9:00 in the Main Lecture Hall of the BUT Faculty of Electrical Engineering (45D Wiejska Street, participant registration from 8:00). The event will feature speeches by university leaders and representatives of local government, including the Marshal of the Podlaskie Voivodeship and the Mayor of Białystok. Music will be provided by the Bialystok University of Technology Choir.
The programme includes collaborative meetings, during which representatives of the individual tasks from all the universities will be able to coordinate their work.
A key part of the proceedings will be a panel discussion with invited experts from the Polish and European markets. The debate will include:
- Katarzyna Aleksy – Director of the Higher Education Programmes Office at the Foundation for the Development of the Education System (FRSE), which is the National Agency for the Erasmus+ Programme and the European Solidarity Corps,
- Prof. Mariusz Głąbowski, DSc, PhD, Eng., Vice-Rector for International Cooperation at Poznan University of Technology, representing the EUNICE European University project,
- Assoc. Prof. Marcin Sosnowski, DSc, PhD, Eng., Vice-Rector for Cooperation and Internationalisation at Jan Dlugosz University in Czestochowa, representing the COLOURS European University,
- Agata Mannino, PhD – lead coordinator of the Across European University project.
Art and artificial intelligence – attractions for guests
For guests of the Across Annual Meeting, Bialystok University of Technology has prepared a distinctive cultural and artistic programme combining art, design and the latest technologies.
On 13 October, an exhibition of works by talented students and staff of the Faculty of Architecture will open. The event starts at 17:15 in the foyer of the BUT Centre for Modern Education (6 Zwierzyniecka Street). The exhibition will be accompanied by a presentation of the results of international design and art workshops held under the Erasmus+ BIP programme. During those workshops, young designers from Bialystok University of Technology, LUCA School of Arts in Belgium and TH OWL University of Applied Sciences and Arts in Germany created a unique collection of hybrid lighting objects.
On 14 October, participants in the Across meeting will watch the interdisciplinary performance ‘impAKT’ (Artificial Intelligence + Theatre + Music) in the Main Lecture Hall of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering. It starts at 15:30. This remarkable performance combines physical theatre, live electronic music and computer visuals generated in real time by artificial intelligence (AI).
The project involves artists from the Extended Reality Laboratory at the BUT Faculty of Architecture (Maciej Popławski, MA – AI prompts; Szymon Andrejczuk – music) and young actors from the Białystok Branch of the Aleksander Zelwerowicz National Academy of Dramatic Art in Warsaw. The performance will conclude the consortium’s two days of discussions.
Guests of the Across Annual Meeting at Bialystok University of Technology can also look forward to themed sightseeing trips, sports activities and visits to the Mirosław Bujanowski, Eng., History Centre of Bialystok University of Technology.
Strategic Partner: Marshal’s Office of the Podlaskie Voivodeship
Partner: Bialystok City Hall
About the Across alliance
The Across European University project formally began in January 2025. The Across alliance comprises universities based in medium-sized cities in border regions, along with an associated partner: Ivan Franko National University in Ukraine.
Across partner universities:
- Chemnitz University of Technology (Germany – leader),
- Bialystok University of Technology (Poland),
- University of Banja Luka (Bosnia and Herzegovina),
- Angel Kanchev University of Ruse (Bulgaria),
- University of Perpignan Via Domitia (France),
- University of Girona (Spain),
- University of Craiova (Romania),
- University of Nova Gorica (Slovenia),
- University of Udine (Italy).
In the 2025/2026 academic year, Bialystok University of Technology arranged more than 90 staff and student visits to partner universities and hosted more than 100 people from Across universities at its faculties.
Prepared by Monika Rokicka
The ‘Across European University for Cross-Border Knowledge Sharing’ project is co-funded by the European Union. Project number 101177485 – Across – ERASMUS-EDU-2024-EUR-UNIV.
The ‘Together towards excellence – Bialystok University of Technology in the activities of the Across alliance – PBAcross’ project is financed with European Union funds from the European Funds for Social Development 2021–2027 (FERS), under the NAWA project ‘Support for European University alliances’, number FERS.01.05-IP.08-0219/23.
