UNITA financial sustainability

 Missing Sections & Actions:1. INPUTS/RESOURCES (OK).

 2. ACTIVITIES/SUB-TASKS (OK), 3. OUTPUTS (OK), 4. OUTCOMES (OK), 5. IMPACT (OK), 6. INDICATORS DATA SHEET (OK), 7. DATA COLLECTION (OK), 8. INDICATORS CONFIRMATION (OK).

Task number	5.2
Name	UNITA financial sustainability
Strategic Axes	Quality, Impact and Sustainability, Governance
Workpackage	Impact and dissemination

Objectives

• This Task is focused on identifying and/or developing tools for ensuring the financial sustainability of the alliance, as well as increasing the success rate in third-party funding through systemic cooperation on complementary project proposals.
• Aim of the task: Ensure the financial sustainability of the alliance by identifying the UNITA activities and initiatives that generate potencial income and valorising multiple sources of financing, and implementing a new economic model for the alliance:
  • UNITA Project Engine Office:
  • Connected to various support departments of members
  • All sources of income considered:
  • Including microcredentials and lifelong training
  • New sustainability plan

Inputs & Resources

Source documentation:

• UNITA Tasks_Team_List_20231120
• UNITA Budget documents

Resources

• Human Resources: List of staff on the task, roles and position:
• Financial: Budget allocated to the task:
• Materials: Type of materials required (computers, software, scientific tools):
• Intangible: Type of intangible materials (communication tools, data bases,…):

Activities & Actions

Source documentation: In each WP folder, document entitled “WPx_full_description)

• Task Description – T4.4 description
• GANTT – WP4 GANTT

List of Activities	Activity Title	Actions	Deadline
1	Update the UNITA Sustainability Plan.	The new partners of the alliance will be introduced to the UNITA Sustainability Plan developed in the pilot phase. The existing fundraising strategies of partners, existing calls in other countries and potential synergies and areas of collaboration will be pooled as well.	(M1-M6)
2	Define the economic model and common financial methodology.	An economic model will be co-created and further embraced in the UNITA legal entity used as a tool to channel and manage third-party funding. This economic model will guide the development of a common financial methodology correlated with the European policies. In the case of applications to common projects, clear procedures and requirements will be defined to be considered a part of the "UNITA Constellation" . Other lighter cooperation paths, including projects participated by UNITA members, agreements, consultancy, and any other financial source will be also defined. Particular attention will be paid to the UNITA micro-credentials and other educational activities and training for lifelong learners (Task 3.2), as well as to the opportunities and needs detected in the interaction with the local ecosystems ( Task 4.1)	(M1-M10)
3	Set up and run the UNITA Project Engine Office.	To strengthen the UNITA economic model, a joint structure, UNITA Project Engine Office, will be created within the Legal Entity, as a new common structure among member universities for systemic cooperation. Its effort will be focused on consultancy, on identifying alternative funding sources, on finding and classifying different calls (project scouting) and on the development of fundraising campaigns. This will include consultancy services by UNITA experts in various fields; partner searching to streamline consortium building using suitable databases (e. g. cartography of research, Task 4.2, or local ecosystem layouts, Task 4.1); connecting external financing opportunities with the education, research and innovation within UNITA; and identifying the needs for lifelong learners and the update of the UNITA micro-credentials offer (Task 3.2). The opportunities created by companies or institutions interested in supporting the innovative solutions provided by the partner universities will be made available to our community. Also, stimulating the Alumni communities to contribute to maintaining the level of excellence of the UNITA European University is another focus of this activity. In the first months of operation, the UNITA Project Engine Office will be supported by a consulting/training service provided by a highly qualified expert in the field of Higher Education strategic fundraising opportunities, selected as sub-contractor following public procurement procedures.	(M11-M48)
4	Implement the UNITA Sustainability Plan and refine the common financial methodology.	Each activity, output and profit-generating initiative will be monitored from a financial perspective, providing feedback for the improvement of the Sustainability Plan and for the refinement of the common financial methodology.	(M13-M30)

Indicators

These indicators have been gathered from the different source (list below) and have been gathered from interviews driven by Task 5.4 UNITA impact observatory.

Source documentation: In each WP folder, document entitled “WPx_full_description)

• Task Description – T5.2 description
• GANTT – WP5 GANTT
• List of Indicators – UNITA indicators

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Primary IndicatorsSecondary IndicatorsSub-Indicators

These indicators have been chosen and agree during the Phase 2 proposal made to the European Commission.

Indicator	Indicator Description	Unit of Measurement	Data Source	Frequency	Baseline	Target	Type
a	Number of submitted UNITA multi-partner projects	Numerical	Project Engine Office	6 months	8	40	Output

These indicators have been chosen and agree during the Phase 2 proposal made to the European Commission.

Indicator Description	Unit of Measurement	Data Source	Frequency	Baseline	Target	Type
Amount of money awarded in UNITA multi-partner projects run by the PEO	Monetary	Project Engine Office	6 months			Output
Number of researchers involved in UNITA multi-partner projects run by the PEO	Numerical	Project Engine Office	6 months			Output
Number of submitted UNITA multi-partner projects run by the PEO (proposals)	Numerical	Project Engine Office	6 months			Output
Number of awarded UNITA multi-partner projects run by the PEO	Numerical	Project Engine Office	6 months			Output

These indicators have been chosen and agree during the Phase 2 proposal made to the European Commission.

Impact

Source documentation:

• Task and WP long-term objectives Task Description – T4.1 description - WP5 Objectives
• UNITA Mission Statement (from Grant Agreement)

	Users / Beneficiaries Intern to UNITA	End-Users / Beneficiaries extern to UNITA
1) Who are the stakeholders benefiting of the task’s actions?	Partners of UNITA	To check with the T5.1 list To be defined in interview
2) To what extent has the local/international society changed as a result of outcomes compared to before UNITA? What are the long term results for them?	1. Lifelong Learning activities & microcredentials 2. Common infrastructure 3. Common “official” academic services 4. Joint research projects 5. Other joint projects 6. Other activities suitable for being jointly developed 7. Curriculum internationalization 8. Student and staff mobility 9. Romance languages and intercomprehension 10. PhD cotutelles 11. Joint quality/impact assessment 12. Joint communication, dissemination and marketing activities 13. Joint promotion of European citizenship 14. Joint promotion of sustainable human resources policies 15. Joint promotion of green sustainability in UNITA campuses	To be defined in interview

Task Progress Overview

As part of our ongoing Open Project tracking, we’re surfacing here every activity, action, deliverable, milestone and risk grouped under the task UNITA financial sustainability.

Subject	Start Date	Due Date	Type	Priority	Status	Assignee	Description
5.2.4. Implement the UNITA Sustainability Plan and refine the common financial methodology	29 April 2025	28 May 2025	Activity	Normal	In Progress	Laura Corazza
5.2.1. Update the UNITA Sustainability Plan			Activity	Normal	Done	IOSU GARCIA FERNANDEZ
5.2.2. Define the economic model and common financial methodology			Activity	Normal	Done	Laura Corazza
5.2.3. Set up and run the UNITA Project Engine Office	24 March 2025	26 May 2025	Activity	Normal	In Progress	IOSU GARCIA FERNANDEZ
D5.2 UNITA financial sustainability plan			Deliverable	Normal	Done	TL5.2	Electronic format. In English with summary in each partmer's national language. ± 40 pages. The financial sustainability plan will provide the methodologies and rules to channel and manage third-party funding, and in particular the activity of the UNITA Project Engine Office UPNA, UTBV SEN Validated by MC and GB
MS08 The Project Engine Office implemented			Milestone	Normal	Done	TL5.2	Approval of the Project Engine Office by the Conseil de Gérance of the Legal Entity
R5.2.1 The financial sustainability of UNITA is sub-optimal			Risk	Normal	In Progress	unita.geie @gmail.com	Resolution or mitigation action based on the risk response strategy: The UNITA legal entity will establish a team of project writers to identify interesting calls and support the writing and managing of constellation projects. Moreover, the legal entity will build a business model for all UNITA microcredentials to be offered outside the alliance.