Eucor – The European Campus: Sticking together through the corona crisis

The corona epidemic has united us – and it has separated us. It has united us because we face the same threat from the novel virus in all our universities and we see outstanding cross-border cooperation developing between our hospitals. It has divided us because the national borders between us have largely been closed – out of necessity, of course – and personal, physical encounters across borders are no longer possible for the time being. We therefore declare together:

1) Together we will contribute to overcoming this crisis: We do so by consistently containing the danger of infection at our universities. We do so by making our contribution to medical research, especially within the framework of our priority area “Personalised Health – Precision Medicine.” We do this at the university hospitals in Basel, Freiburg and Strasbourg for the benefit of our patients. Our thoughts are above all with all those who are doing incredible feats in our clinics and other medical and nursing facilities and who are doing everything possible to ensure the best possible care in this crisis. Beyond that, we also welcome all the solidarity actions and donations of equipment in support of hospitals carried out by our universities and our teams. On behalf of our universities, we would like to thank you all for it.

2) We will maintain our cross-border cooperation. We call on all students, scientists and staff at our universities to continue their bi- and trinational cooperation in digital form. Make use of the possibilities of digital teaching! Meet on the phone and video conferences!

3) We will have to face new challenges in the future. The social and economic consequences of the epidemic will impact us for a long time to come. As a cross-border university network, we will assume our social responsibility and focus our teaching and research on overcoming the crisis and its consequences.

Together we stand for science and for the people in our trinational region.

The rectors and presidents of the member universities of Eucor – The European Campus.