Euskampus Bordeaux Eguna 2026 plays host to 300 people from the cross-border community in Irun to continue “knitting bridges” between universities, regions and society

The event, which will take place at FICOBA on October 15 and 16, will announce a new Laboratory for Trans-Border Cooperation and showcase cooperation projects in areas such as training, research, innovation, employability and the relationship between universities, companies and the local area

The FICOBA exhibition centre in Irun will host this year's Euskampus Bordeaux Eguna on October 15 and 16, the annual meeting of the Euskampus Bordeaux Cross-Border Campus community.

The event, which this year is being held under the tagline “Knitting bridges”, making a welcome return after a one-year break. The previous event took place in October 2024 at the University of Bordeaux, marking the tenth anniversary of the Cross-Border Campus.

Over two days, almost 300 people representing universities, research centres, companies, institutions and local actors from both sides of the border will meet up to share information about projects, forge new links and continue to strengthen a cross-border community where the Basque Country, Nouvelle-Aquitaine and the wider European area have been building relationships for more than fifteen years.

The event will be attended by Juan Ignacio Pérez Iglesias, Minister for Science, Universities and Innovation of the Basque Government (Eusko Jaurlaritza), Françoise Jeanson, Vice-President of the Regional Council of Nouvelle-Aquitaine, Dean Lewis, President of the University of Bordeaux (UB), Joxerra Bengoetxea, Rector of the University of the Basque Country/Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea (EHU), Ricardo Díez, General Manager of the Donostia International Physics Centre (DIPC), and Jesús Valero, CEO of Tecnalia.

“After a year’s hiatus, we are bringing the Euskampus Bordeaux community together again right on the border, because that is where what we do is best understood: turning the border into a meeting place. The cross-border campus is a dynamic network of people, laboratories and projects that has much to contribute to the Atlantic Macroregion and Europe”, said Joxerramon Bengoetxea, Rector of the University of the Basque Country (EHU).

Irun, a place to forge links

The choice of Irun as the venue for this year’s event also has a strong symbolic significance. The venue in Irun is located right on the border, near the Santiago Bridge over the River Bidasoa, a meeting point that links different regions.

From this perspective, “Knitting bridges” invites us to look at Euskampus in a way that goes beyond the metaphor: a cross-border campus is, first and foremost, a community that connects people, knowledge, disciplines, organisations, institutions, cultures and languages.

The Euskampus Bordeaux Cross-Border Campus was created in 2011 by the University of the Basque Country (EHU) and the University of Bordeaux, in partnership with Tecnalia and the DIPC. Today, it constitutes an ecosystem in which borders become opportunities to collaborate, create knowledge and make an impact.

The opening session will start with a welcome address by the Mayor of Irun, Cristina Laborda, and will provide an insight into the next steps for the Cross-Border Campus. One of the highlights will be the announcement of the new Laboratory for Trans-Border Cooperation (LTC) by Jean-René Cazalets, Vice-President for Research at the University of Bordeaux, and Gotzone Barandika, Vice-Rector for Knowledge Transfer and Internationalisation at the University of the Basque Country (EHU). Details of the new laboratory will be announced during the meeting and will be the subject of a separate announcement at a later date.

The event will continue with a session featuring 30 posters and videos, organised as an immersive journey divided into three sections — Care, Learn and Transform — which bring together projects in the fields of health, education and the energy transition, respectively.

The seven flagship projects for this year’s event are presented below, showcasing the diverse approaches that this cooperation can take.

They include ENLIGHT Thematic Network – ETN IMPULSE, which explores the potential of the European ENLIGHT partnership to strengthen cross-border collaboration, the Double Master in Polymer Science project, aimed at making progress towards obtaining an Erasmus Mundus Master’s degree, the cross-border initiative that revisits Wilhelm von Humboldt’s journey through the Basque Country in 1800 through a combination of art, education and history, and ECT+, the Erasmus Mundus Master of Science in Environmental Contamination and Toxicology, aimed at making progress towards obtaining the Joint European Degree Label. The programme also includes Urpekari, an initiative that links secondary and university education through a Euro-regional robotics challenge, the LTC CoMorPD, which came about from a jointly supervised doctoral thesis aimed at fostering international collaboration in neuroscience; and the LTC Incubator EkoSoziLab, which focuses on the social economy from an individual, organisational and Euroregional perspective.

A campus also shaped by languages and the region

The event will also highlight one of Euskampus’s key features: its diverse and multilingual nature. In a context where Basque, Spanish, French and English coexist as a lingua franca, the management of linguistic diversity and raising awareness about it are part of the identity of this collaboration. Languages are also tools for crossing borders, building trust and fostering a sense of community.

On the afternoon of October 15, the cultural tours will give participants the chance to explore different venues across the region, with events taking place at Château Observatoire Abbadia in Hendaye, Albaola Itsas Kultur Faktoria and MATER, the Ecoactive Museum Boat in Pasaia. It will be an opportunity to learn about the scientific, cultural and maritime heritage on both sides of the border.

MT173: eight projects, 173 seconds and new connections

The programme for October 16 will kick off with a meeting of the LTC community and bilateral thematic meetings, with the focus on the potential of cross-border cooperation to create concrete initiatives. One of the highlights of the closing plenary session will be MT173, a format in which eight cross-border projects will each have 173 seconds to summarise the challenges they are tackling, their proposals and the value of cooperation between regions, in just under three minutes.

The programme will also include a round table discussion on the contribution of universities to the Atlantic Macroregion, moderated by Jordi Campàs, deputy director of Euskampus Fundazioa, with contributions from Arola Urdangarin (Basque Government-Eusko Jaurlaritza), Mathieu Bergé (Nouvelle Aquitaine Regional Council), Marian Elorza (eAtlantic Foundation), Gotzone Barandika (University of the Basque Country-EHU) and Dominique Rebière (University of Bordeaux).

Following the official closing ceremony, VERDINI, a contemporary dance group from San Sebastián featuring performers with disabilities, will bring the event to a memorable close.

Euskampus Bordeaux Eguna 2026 calls on universities, regions and society on both sides of the border to continue knitting bridges.

Full event programme.