Live My Life 2025

Live My Life is Una Europa’s joint format for blended job shadowing targeted at professional services staff at the alliance’s partner universities. The programme seeks to give professionals the opportunity to actively engage in the Una Europa community and get involved in peer-to-peer learning, providing an opportunity for mutual learning in a transnational context.

Live My Life is for professional services staff at Una Europa partner universities. Each edition is targeted towards specific professional families, selected in consultation with colleagues from our partner universities and grouped according to a priority criterion established for the 2025 edition.

Selection and prioritisation of professional families for Live My Life was carried out in consultation with the Una Europa Professional Staff Working Group and the Senior Local Leads of all 11 partner universities. This decision followed an analysis of the professional families that typically have less international exposure, as well as a review of previous editions of Live My Life (2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024).

'Professional services staff' refers to staff working in the administration of the university, either in the central or in the departmental/faculty units, with a management, technical or administrative role. Academic staff or staff covering academic roles such as teaching and research are not included and are therefor ineligible to participate in Live My Life.

Una Europa is committed to promoting equal opportunities, accessibility, inclusion, and fairness throughout the application and selection process of Live My Life. In line with the values of the alliance and the work of the Una Europa Diversity Council, as well as the priorities of the European Commission and the Erasmus+ Programme, all prospective participants are encouraged to apply, regardless of their background or level of international experience. The selection process will aim to ensure diversity, gender balance, and the inclusion of staff members who have had fewer opportunities for international exposure.

The 2025 edition of Live My Life will start in October 2025 with three online sessions, followed by in-person mobility visits of up to one week per person, which must take place between November 2025 and April 2026. The programme will close with a final online wrap-up and evaluation event, which will be organised at the end of the mobility visits.

The online sessions will be preparatory to the mobility visits. We will focus on:

• What is Una Europa and how does it work?

The aim of this online session is to share the purpose of Una Europa and its main results until now. What is Live My Life in the context of Una Europa? What should I expect as a participant? This session will be open to a wider audience of professional services staff at Una Europa partner universities.

• Building your intercultural and transversal skills

This session will give participants some tools to help you make the most of your mobility visit.

• Tandem and first exercises

Together with your Live My Life partner, you will start to plan your exchange by developing a “knowledge transfer template”.

These virtual sessions will be followed by a series of individual virtual meetings in tandems focusing on topics related each tandem’s work. Each tandem will choose the topics and will organise their individual sessions autonomously.

Following the general and individual virtual exchanges, participants are expected to spend a period of three to five days at the host university.

At the end of the programme, participants are expected to report to their home institution and colleagues in order to share insights and outcomes from their experience. They will also receive a certificate of participation to the programme from the Live my Life organising team at Alma Mater Studiorum - Università di Bologna.

1. Get familiar with the open positions

The first step for applicants is to get familiar with the open positions and suggested activities, which are described at the end of the call. This step is important to align expectations of the participants and to organise tandem of “peers” working on similar activities at alliance partner universities.

2. Submit your application

Apply online via our application form. You may apply as a tandem with a peer — already independently identified — from an Una Europa university, or individually:

• Applying as a tandem: If applying as a tandem, you must provide your peer's name and all required details in your application. A tandem application will only be confirmed once both individuals have submitted their applications, each referencing the other.
• Applying as individual: If you apply individually, the Live My Life organising team will match you with another candidate who has a compatible profile.

Please note: While the matching process aims to be as accurate as possible — pairing applicants working in the same professional fields — in the interest of maximum inclusivity, pairings may sometimes involve individuals with similar, not identical, job descriptions. Nevertheless, such pairings have proven highly valuable and effective for mutual exchange in previous years.

The online application form requires you to:

• Select one of the professional families of the Live My Life 2025 programme.
• Describe your current position and your main activities and responsibilities.
• Describe your motivations and expectations for the programme.
• When submitting a tandem application, you must also indicate the name of your peer, their job position and home institution.

The Live My Life organising team at Alma Mater Studiorum - Università di Bologna will receive all applications, review the tandem applications, and match individual candidates.

Selection will not be based on merit or CV evaluation, but rather on the compatibility of the pairings and the availability of funding at each institution. Compatibility will largely depend on the job description and the motivation provided by each applicant.

The list of the most feasible pairings will be shared with the institutions involved, grouped according to the priority areas indicated above, to enable a final decision on selection based on available funding.

Candidates or tandems who are not selected for funding will nevertheless be invited to participate in the online preparatory meetings, particularly the first session on 'What is Una Europa and how does it work?', and will be offered the opportunity either to host their peer or to follow the programme entirely online.

• Applications close on 16 June.
• Selected participants will be contacted by mid-July, together with their peer, asking to confirm their participation by the beginning of September 2025.
• The three online preparatory sessions will take place in October 2025.
• The in-person mobility visits will take place between November 2025 and April 2026.

To participate in Live My Life, you must meet the following criteria:

• You are a member of professional services staff at an Una Europa partner university:

1. Freie Universität Berlin
2. Alma Mater Studiorum - Università di Bologna
3. University College Dublin
4. University of Edinburgh
5. Helsingin yliopisto/Helsingfors universitet
6. Uniwersytet Jagielloński w Krakowie
7. Universiteit Leiden
8. KU Leuven
9. Universidad Complutense de Madrid
10. Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne
11. Universität Zürich

• You work in one of the professional families as outlined in this document:

Overview of professional families for Live My Life 2025

In line with the Una Europa Sustainability and Climate Protection Strategy, participants are encouraged to opt for sustainable and green travel options when planning their physical mobility. Whenever possible, and in accordance with their home institution’s internal regulations, staff are invited to consider environmentally friendly modes of transportation.