The European university alliance, the European University of Brain and Technology – NeurotechEU – organises two General Assemblies per year with the aim of tracking the work strategy, as well as strengthening ties between the member universities of the alliance. The NeurotechEU management team at the Miguel Hernández University of Elche (UMH) organised the biennial meeting of the alliance’s General Assembly and its Rectors’ Council from November 4th to 6th, 2025. The General Assembly is a meeting that brings together teaching and research staff, administrative personnel, and students from the partner universities.

The meeting was chaired by the Rector of the UMH, Juan José Ruiz, and the Vice-Rector for Internationalisation and Cooperation, Vicente Micol; and included the members of the NeurotechEU Governing Board representing the UMH: Juana Gallar, Director of the Institute of Neurosciences (UMH-CSIC), and Inmaculada Blaya, Director of the International Relations Service. Also in attendance were Federico Botella, the Rector’s Delegate for Digital Transformation and an active member of the working group for NeurotechEU’s Campus+ educational platform; the Vice-Rector for Studies, Susana Fernandez de Ávila; several UMH professors involved in creating NeurotechEU teaching content, including the Director of the Translational Research Centre in Physiotherapy, María del Carmen Lillo, the Professor of Physiology, Víctor Meseguer, and the Ramón y Cajal researcher at the Institute of Neurosciences, Encarnación Marcos. Also participating were the Director of the UMH Mobility Area, África Martínez; the international mobility expert, Mónica Candela; the UMH studies managers, Antonio Guerrero and Remedio Naharro; the NeurotechEU project managers, María José Such, a quality management expert, and Sonia Martín; the training activities manager, Sandra Manzanero; and the communications manager, Júlia Santacreu. This meeting featured the active participation of the UMH representatives on the NeurotechEU Student Council, Jorge Maldonado and Bárbara Corral, as well as the attendance of doctoral student, Jesica Martínez Godfrey.

During the General Assembly, the Rector of the UMH, Juan José Ruíz, together with the NeurotechEU Coordinator, Richard van Wezel, welcomed the Medical University of Innsbruck (Austria) to the alliance. Micol, spokesperson for the NeurotechEU Rectors’ Council, stated: “This new accession represents a powerful strategic boost; it means that the alliance is not only growing in number but is strengthening itself as an indispensable innovation ecosystem for defining the future of neurotechnology and higher education in Europe.”

(From left to right) Gert Meyer, Rector of MUI, and Patrizia Stoitzner, Executive Vice President of Research and International Relations at MUI; Juan José Ruíz, Rector of the UMH, and Richard van Wezel, NeurotechEU Coordinator.

Attendees from the eight allied universities of NeurotechEU gathered for three days to ensure good work continues and to strengthen relationships between the teams. The programme was divided into several General Assembly plenary sessions and multiple parallel meetings in which the alliance’s various governing bodies and work packages addressed crucial topics such as innovation in mobility and the expected impact of NeurotechEU. The text of the project’s mid-term monitoring report, scheduled for December, and the next steps to be taken were also studied.

NeurotechEU is a project co-funded by the European Commission which seeks to boost the education and training of future professionals and researchers in the field of neurotechnology, with the objective of solving health problems related to neuroscience and mental health through accessible technologies. In addition to the UMH, the NeurotechEU Alliance is formed by other European universities: Radboud University Nijmegen (Netherlands), the Karolinska Institutet (Sweden), the University of Bonn (Germany), Boğaziçi University (Turkey), Iuliu Haţieganu University of Medicine and Pharmacy (Romania), the University of Lille (France), and the University of Reykjavik (Iceland), to which the Medical University of Innsbruck (Austria) is now joining.