Introducing the 3rd Issue of the EUTOPIA Review
from November 17, 2025 to November 21, 2025
Published on October 3, 2025– Updated on November 12, 2025
Innovation Challenges for Students at Vrije Universiteit Brussel - November 2025
Do you want to test your innovative mindset together with other students from Europe? Join us for five transformative days in Brussels at Vrije Universiteit Brussel on 17-21 November 2025 for the Innovation Challenges for Students event placed under the theme “In a multilingual society, what separates people, and what creates cohesion?”. 80 students from across our alliance will unite to tackle challenges multilingualism poses in our contemporary societies.
Some challenges students will focus on during this week include:
- What challenges do highly multilingual societies face? Which innovations emerge in such diverse societies?
- How do multilingual societies cater to the communicative needs of their population?
- Which innovative approaches have been developed in multilingual societies to address the challenges of communicative diversity?
- How can language policy and planning remain manageable in a highly diversified linguistic setting?
- How do speakers themselves navigate their multilingual environment?
- How do multilingual societies stimulate innovative cultural production in e.g. literature, music, film?
- What challenges do artists face in multilingual societies? How do they find their public?
- How does cultural policy address multilingual realities?
- In a multilingual society, what separates people, and what creates cohesion?
The autumn school combines lectures and interactive seminars lead by academics from the EUTOPIA partner universities on the one hand, and discussion formats with stakeholders on the other.
What can you expect?
If you participate in this challenge, you will have the chance to be in contact with companies and media to give you real-life context experience and to work on an entrepreneurial project together with students from 10 different Universities from the EUTOPIA Alliance, aiming to solve real problems.
Target
8 students from each EUTOPIA University will be able to participate.
When?
17-21 November 2025
Where?
Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium
Programme
- Day 1
-
Location: Pleinlaan 5, 1050 Brussels
12:30 – 14:00
Registration, sandwich lunch
14:00-15:00
Welcome & icebreaking
15:00 – 17:00
Kim Wallmach (Stellenbosch University)
Storytelling: cohesion in a multilingual society - Day 2
-
Location: Usquare, Generaal Jacqueslaan 210, 1050 Brussels
09:00-10:30
Caitlin Vandertop (VUB)
“A World of Statues”: Un/writing the Colonial City
10:30
Coffee break
11:00-12:30
Töhötöm Arpad Szabo (UBB):
Ethnic groups, nationalities and nation building: lessons from Transylvania7
12:30-14:00
Lunch at VUB Resto
14:15-15:00
Guided reflection session (individual group work)
15:00 – 18:00
Interactive sessions 3 groups (alternating each hour):- Kim Wallmach (SU): Role of language in student’s journey
- Agnes Pisanski Peterlin (UL): ML, translation, English as lingua franca?
- Beatrijs Wille (VUB): Exploring Multi-lingualism with a Sign Language
- Day 3
-
Location: Usquare, Generaal Jacqueslaan 210, 1050 Brussels
9:00-10:0
Marcella Menegale (UNIVE)
Global challenges in language learning and teaching: multilingualism and beyond.
10:00-11:00
Claire Huguet (CY):
Code-switching and creativity
11:00
Coffee break
11:30-12:30
Agnes Pisanski Peterlin (UL)
Exploring self-translation in multilingual settings
12:30-14:00
Lunch at VUB Resto
14:15-15:00
Guided reflection session (individual group work)
15:00 – 18:00
Interactive sessions 3 groups (alternating each hour):- Marcella Menegale (UNIVE): Raise awareness of multilingual identity in a multilingual world.
- Töhötöm Arpad Szabo (UBB): (Dis)advantages ethnic groups in a (nation) state
- Claire Huguet (CY): Code-switching and creativity
- Day 4
-
Location: KBR, Concertzaal,Mont des Arts 28, 1000 Brussel. Meeting at horse/king statute
10:00-11:00
Esther De Soomer (Klarafestival):
Literary presentation 'Terra Nova – Sprachfragment' (bilingual German-English parallel edition)
Multilingual writing and being11:00
Coffee break
11:15-12:45
Panel discussion Addressing challenges of multilingualism in the cultural sector and beyond
Panel: Magdalena Van den Broeck Liskova (Bozar), Esther De Soomer (Klarafestival), Dries Debackere (De Taalsector)
12:45-14:30
Lunch at KBR
14:30-15:30
Multilingual CityWalk including landmarks linked to challenges of multilingualism
15:30-17:00
Guided tour House of European History/
EU Parlamentarium - Day 5
-
Location: Pleinlaan 5, 1050 Brussels
9:00-11:00
Jo Angouri (UW):
Multilingualism Research: Future Directions
11:00
Coffee break
11:30-12:30
Interactive session
Jo Angouri (UW):
Multilingualism Research: Future Directions
12:30–13.45
Lunch at VUB Resto
14:00-16:00
Student presentations
16:00
Farewell
Download the complete programme here.
Applications have been closed
Don’t miss the chance to have an international experience!
Curious to know what the experience looks like?
Here are testimonials from students who have attended recent Innovation Challenges for Students:
