The HEROES Alliance are nine Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) from nine European countries with a shared set of unique characteristics that contribute to the successful achievement of our purpose: smart regional resilience

Our heroes are students, lecturers, researchers, professional staff and local representatives that advance smart regional resilience where they study, work and live, and their accomplishments encourage and influence peers internationally to tackle shared challenges.
 

Local responsiveness and resilience to today’s challenges are crucial as effects of climate change, biodiversity loss, eroding social cohesion and technological disruption are strongly experienced at the grassroots level, and practical solutions for local use are urgently needed. HEROES advances regional resilience in a smart way. Digital technologies provide powerful tools to solve complex problems, if applied properly: HEROES focuses on human-centered, nature-positive and resilience-enhancing digital innovation.

Through transnational collaboration in education, research and innovation, and service to society, HEROES’ ultimate purpose is to deliver hero-like human capital, knowledge, skills and competencies that strengthen the ability of citizens, communities, businesses, and natural environments to withstand and cope with uncertainties, changes, or disturbances; bounce back better when these occur; and seize opportunities for healthier, more inclusive, and sustainable outcomes.

To achieve this purpose, HEROES focuses on:

• quality professional education,
• impactful practice-oriented scientific research
• and collaboration between like-minded partners.