Charm-EU: 64 European Students Meet Professionals from the Thau Basin

MoxMo (Montpellier Cross-Thematic Mobility) is an Erasmus+ student mobility programme organised for students from the five member universities of the Charm-EU European alliance. From 15th to 26th April, 64 of them will gather in Montpellier and around the Thau Basin to tackle six environmental challenges directly linked to the area, in partnership with the Syndicat mixte du bassin de Thau (SMBT).

MoxMo in a nutshell

64 students from five universities belonging to the European Charm-EU alliance, including the University of Montpellier, will be travelling to Montpellier and Thau Basin to take part in the second MoxMo from 15th to 26th April. MoxMo is a vital part of their curriculum, focusing on learning by solving challenges, fostering international and interdisciplinary teamwork. Their goal is to address six challenges reflecting the region's concerns: fishing, sustainable tourism, and biodiversity protection.

They will spend the first week in the Thau Basin and the second in Montpellier, where they will collaborate with professionals involved in the challenges, including start-ups, farmers, fishermen, associations, as well as researchers, teachers, and specialists. This year, there is a collaboration with Icireward (UNESCO's water centre), allowing six foreign doctoral students to join the teams working on the challenges of this 2024 edition.

The six challenge themes:

• Installing shellfish tables equipped with solar collectors on the Thau Basin.
• Setting up AI-enabled water quality analysis stations on the Thau Basin.
• Creating an 80 km long pedestrian health trail around the Thau Basin.
• Developing a project supported by the Local Food Plan to coordinate local food production players.
• Encouraging local farmers and livestock breeders to adopt subsidised measures (MAEC).
• Establishing a large-scale aquaponics project in conjunction with the University of Montpellier's aquaponics training platform.

 Highlights of MoxMo 2024:

• 15th April, 3 pm to 5 pm: Students meet local representatives of the six challenges at the Théâtre de la Mer (Sète).
• 26th April, 9 am to 12 pm and 2 pm to 4 pm: Presentation of challenge resolutions to a panel of local teachers and professionals at the Triolet campus (Montpellier).

About CHARM-EU:

The Charm-EU alliance of European universities was initiated in 2019 by the University of Barcelona, aiming to respond to the first Erasmus+ call for projects from European Universities. In June 2019, Charm-EU project was one of the 17 winners, bringing together five partners: the University of Barcelona (Spain), University of Montpellier (France), Trinity College Dublin (Ireland), Utrecht Unviersity (The Netherlands) and Eötvös Loránd Budapest Unviersity (Hungary). The alliance has since expanded to include Åbo Akademi University (Finland), the University of Würzburg (Germany), the Ruhr-West University of Applied Sciences (Germany), and the University of Bergen (Norway).

The CHARM-EU alliance launched a joint master's degree titled "Global Challenges for Sustainability" in 2021, focusing on solving societal issues through transdisciplinary research. Additionally, the alliance has undertaken various projects, including a joint catalogue of international courses and the development of a team doctorate concept.

Practical information:

• Date: 15th to 26th April 2024
• Location: Montpellier / Thau Basin
• For more information on the "Global Challenges for Sustainability" master's course, visit this website.
• Read an article on the CHARM-EU joint master's programme here.
• Explore the CHARM-EU alliance online here.