Leaders from 13 universities across the Americas gathered at Unicamp, Brazil, to define joint strategies in sustainability, AI, public health, inclusion, and innovation.
The State University of Campinas (Unicamp), Brazil, hosted the 2025 General Assembly of the Hemispheric University Consortium (HUC), a meeting that brought together presidents and representatives of leading higher education institutions from 12 countries in the region. During the event, participants reviewed the consortium’s progress and outlined new initiatives for academic collaboration, research, and community engagement, with the aim of addressing global challenges collectively.
Unicamp’s rector, Paulo Cesar Montagner, emphasized the importance of participating in the consortium. “Unicamp has been actively involved in major consortia like this one because of the challenges we face, such as preserving democracy and addressing climate and economic issues. These are key areas to help us think about the future, which is our great mission,” he noted.
At this year’s Assembly, efforts focused on drafting a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to establish guidelines and frameworks for collaboration among the different institutions. Clear criteria were also set for the inclusion of new members, requiring evidence of academic collaboration and institutional commitment. In addition, the Assembly highlighted the importance of coordinated work on topics such as artificial intelligence, climate change, public health, bioeconomy, social inclusion, innovation, and the fight against corruption.
In this regard, the current president of the consortium and rector of Universidad Austral of Argentina, Julián Rodríguez, underlined that the consortium’s focus is on collaboration, both academically and in research. “The HUC Consortium is quite unique, as it brings together a small group of high-quality universities from across the Americas -from Canada to Argentina- to work on issues that affect us all. We are grateful to have gathered for the first time in Campinas,” he said.
For his part, the president of Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Juan Carlos de la Llera, highlighted that “participating in the HUC Consortium allows us to project UC Chile’s commitment to major global challenges. From academia, we have the responsibility to generate knowledge, train leaders, and build networks that contribute to sustainability, equity, and the development of our societies. This hemispheric network is a concrete platform to advance that mission.
Achievements and Future Outlook
The consortium has demonstrated its capacity for implementation through multiple ongoing initiatives. In education, virtual student dialogues have been organized, addressing critical issues such as climate change and sustainability. The launch of the Global Competence Quiz is also expected soon.
This year, ten collaborative research projects were funded through the HUC Seed Fund, spanning strategic areas such as artificial intelligence, sustainability, and public health, among others. Looking ahead, the consortium plans to relaunch its virtual research internship program.
The integrated library system has processed numerous academic requests, facilitating the exchange of bibliographic resources across member institutions. In terms of community engagement, the consortium has connected hundreds of students with startups through the Global Ideas Challenges, with plans to significantly expand this participation by the last quarter of the year.
These concrete achievements reflect HUC’s growth and consolidation as an indispensable hemispheric network driving the internationalization of higher education. The diversity of ongoing projects demonstrates the consortium’s ability to transform academic collaboration into tangible actions that benefit both university communities and society at large.
