Universities have traditionally been presented as spaces for training and knowledge production, but today they have become operational actors in contemporary diplomacy. Their alliances, joint programs, and research networks function as infrastructures of relationship between countries, with cumulative effects that go beyond the specific academic exchange.
This change is supported by the transformation of their own function. Today, universities participate in the application of knowledge, connecting scientific research, technological development, and the needs of businesses. In this way, training, research, and economic activity, areas that previously tended to act separately, are now coordinated and function in an integrated manner.
In this context, cooperation between universities has shifted from being organized around specific exchanges to being structured through programs designed and managed jointly. This evolution requires reconciling academic systems and maintaining ongoing relationships, which facilitates joint projects, shared access to funding, and greater international projection.
A clear example of this logic is the European doctoral networks funded through the Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions. These programs structure international consortia in which universities, research centers, and companies from different countries participate. Beyond training researchers, the goal is to integrate them from the beginning into shared work environments and projects that combine academic research and industrial application.
The doctoral candidate thus joins an organized network in which mobility, collaboration, and access to different research environments are part of the program’s own design. This structure facilitates the circulation of knowledge between countries and its transfer to the productive fabric, while generating stable relationships between institutions that tend to persist beyond each specific project and reinforce the European system’s capacity to generate and apply knowledge.
Despite this capacity, Europe still faces difficulties in retaining the talent it trains. In a context of global competition, where systems like the United States or China offer particularly attractive conditions in terms of funding, research careers, and scientific infrastructures, some of these researchers continue their careers outside of Europe.
Nevertheless, the circulation of talent and the networks it generates remain central to academic diplomacy. These networks connect institutions, scientific systems, and productive sectors, and keep channels of collaboration open even when researchers move. But they also pose a clear challenge: to transform that capacity for training and mobility into scientific, industrial, and economic activity within the European system itself. It is in that step —from generated talent to its translation into activity— where a significant part of Europe’s position in global competition is at stake.
Sources: European Commission, documentation on Horizon Europe and the European Research Area (ERA); Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions (MSCA); institutional literature on university internationalization and transnational scientific cooperation.