About
LITE is an Erasmus+ Cooperation Partnership in higher education running from 1 October 2025 to 30 September 2027, coordinated by Charles University with the University of Bologna, the University of Copenhagen and the Global Governance Institute.
LITE equips university leaders, academic managers, teaching staff and administrators with the tools and competences needed to institutionalise and reward teaching excellence. Through evidence-based mapping, tailored training, mentoring schemes and structured policy dialogue, the project strengthens leadership capacity and establishes a permanent European Network for Leadership and Institutionalisation of Teaching Excellence, ENLITE, to foster institutional change and support education policy reforms.
What the project addresses
LITE addresses two interconnected priorities that rarely receive systematic joint attention: strategic leadership, and the Centres for Teaching and Learning that carry out developmental work inside institutions. Where either is absent, or where the two do not speak to one another, reward systems remain symbolic and excellent teaching stays invisible in promotion and career decisions.
The project establishes that developing excellence in teaching is a leadership task, that teaching excellence should be supported by institutional frameworks such as CTLs, that it has both universal and particular expressions reflected in leadership and institutionalisation, and that its content and meaning are dynamic, requiring continuous development in both.
The needs the project responds to
The partnership identified these needs through two project meetings held in the run-up to the bid, drawing on insights from the E-NOTE project, input from the University of Bologna, and the Strategic Leads on Education Working Group of The Guild, which comprises vice-presidents and senior representatives with an institutional remit in teaching and learning.
At individual level, senior and junior faculty and professional staff need effective training in the competences for rewarding and stimulating teaching excellence: communication, effective career support for junior and senior staff, leadership for diversity and inclusion, leadership for supportive human resources and promotion practices, and leadership for building and mainstreaming the impact of Centres for Teaching and Learning.
At institutional level, more systematic knowledge is needed on how to create CTLs, how to use them for the benefit of teaching and professional support staff, and how to ensure their impact is recognised and rewarded in the career progression of teaching staff. Charles University is planning to set up CTLs from scratch; Copenhagen and Bologna have the concrete need for evidence-based transnational insights on how to reform and refine their existing centres.
At transnational level, there is a need for collaborative mapping and the identification of best practices at a scale that would be impossible for each partner acting alone, together with the co-creation of tools and courses.
At European level, the European Education Area requires evidence-based policy input, particularly in response to the European Commission's Proposal on Attractive and Sustainable Careers in Higher Education.
Who the project is for
The direct target groups include higher education leaders, among them vice-rectors, deans, department heads and CTL directors, who will develop strategic approaches to institutionalising teaching excellence. CTL staff benefit from a structured mentorship and leadership programme supporting their role in faculty development. Faculty and teaching staff engage in the training curricula and certification. Doctoral candidates and early-career academics access mentoring and leadership training to develop career pathways that integrate teaching excellence. Students and student associations create feedback loops to ensure teaching strategies align with learner needs.
The indirect target groups gain structured insights, tools and data to improve institutional policies and teaching strategies. European University Alliances, including 4EU+, EUniWell, UNA Europa and EUTOPIA, will use the findings to enhance their support to member universities. National ministries and quality assurance agencies benefit from the survey data and policy recommendations when refining accreditation standards, incentive structures and national policies. The European Commission and DG EAC gain practical insights from the publications and outreach events. External universities and networks will engage with the training resources and with ENLITE's strategic cooperation plan.
Building on E-NOTE
The European Network on Teaching Excellence was an Erasmus+ Strategic Partnership running from September 2020 to August 2023, recognised as a 'Good Practice' by the European Commission. Charles University, the University of Copenhagen and the Global Governance Institute were all partners, and GGI served as its Secretariat. Its outputs remain available in the results section of this site.