Aug. 21 – During Tirol Day, Alpbach, in Austria, served as the backdrop for the recently signed cooperation agreement between the University of Trento, Bolzano and Innsbruck to enhance and build structured collaborations. The agreement ensures initiatives promoting new competitive networks able to intercept innovation and funding opportunities. The representatives from the three institutions declare themselves proud to have made this important step towards greater cooperation. Daria de Petris, dean of Trento University, Walter Lorenz and Konrad Bergmeister, dean and president of the Free University of Bolzano, and Tilmann Märk, dean at Innsbruck University, chose to focus the agreement on further research and hihg-level training by combining their institutions’ know-how and strengths to compete internationally. the negotiation process that led to the agreement began last May 5, in San Michele all’Adige, when a MoU framed the universities’ intentions to increase coordination and cooperation. At the time, the Ministers of Education in Itay and Austria, Francesco Profumo and Karlheinz Töchterle, had signed a statement in support of the agreement for the Tirol – Alto Adige/Südtirol – Trentino region. Upon this document was the first draft of the agreement written, defining its cornerstone policy of making the region a beacon of university research around the world. The specific measures that were included in the final draft cover exchanges for both professors and researchers and the possibility of dual degrees.