Launching a series of interviews with European university leaders, AfricaLive and Innovation Report speak with Prof. Gregor Majdic, Rector of the University of Ljubljana in Slovenia.
This series focuses on the work of The Guild of European Research-Intensive Universities and their approach to building ties with Africa. The Guild, a network of 25 prestigious European universities, aims to influence research and innovation policies while addressing global challenges.
Prof. Majdic, with the University of Ljubljana being a member of The Guild, offers his perspective on the potential for Africa-European collaboration between research universities. He emphasizes the importance of supporting Africa’s development on its own terms, particularly in establishing robust higher education and research systems.
We ask how European institutions can contribute to Africa’s growth while tackling shared global issues such as climate change, migration, and the North-South divide. The discussion explores ways to foster mutually beneficial partnerships between Europe and Africa that avoid brain drain and promote sustainable development across the African continent.
“One important issue for me is support and collaboration with Africa. I think it’s very important that Europe help Africa develop, because through this we will tackle a lot of global challenges, including the climate crisis, migration, demographic problems, and the gap between the Global North and South. But it should be done on terms suitable for Africa.”
Key Points:
- The University of Ljubljana, the oldest and largest university in Slovenia, is a comprehensive research-oriented institution with 26 schools/faculties covering a wide range of fields, from arts and humanities to engineering, medicine, and sport.
- The university is involved in over 600 European Horizon projects and is among the most successful Eastern European universities in securing research funding, despite lower grant amounts compared to Western European institutions.
- Slovenia faces challenges in its innovation ecosystem, with most private sector led projects focused on solving short-term problems rather than collaboration with academia on large-scale, impactful projects.
- Flagship projects at the University of Ljubljana include work in heritage science, mechanical engineering (green economy, batteries), microbiology and pharmacy (Alzheimer’s disease research, drug development), medicine (oncology, electroporation for gene and chemotherapeutic delivery), digital humanities and many others.
- The university is working to promote collaboration between different departments and faculties, bringing together humanities, engineering, and natural and medical sciences to address complex societal challenges.
Innovation Report: Please summarize the DNA and identity of the University of Ljubljana as an institution.
Prof. Gregor Majdic: We are the oldest and by far the largest university in Slovenia. We are 105 years old and a very large, comprehensive university with 26 schools or faculties/art academies, covering pretty much all fields – from three art academies to humanities, social sciences, engineering, natural sciences, medicine, veterinary medicine, sport and others. We are trying to promote ourselves as a research-oriented university with a lot of research going on. We are involved in over 600 European Horizon projects, making us quite successful and among the most successful Eastern European universities, although our grant amounts are lower compared to some Western European universities.
A very important development for us in the last two years was a change in legislation in Slovenia, which now directs a lot of research money that was previously distributed through the National Research Agency directly to the universities. We had to set up a whole system of research evaluation at the university, an internal system, and I’m quite happy that we’ve established a good, international, independent, quality-based evaluation system in line with current trends in science evaluation.
Innovation Report: What would you consider the University of Ljubljana’s flagship projects to be, particularly in areas of research? If you could pick two or three projects that excite you or have had an impact in Slovenia, what would you choose?
Prof. Gregor Majdic: It’s quite hard to pick specific projects, as a rector of a large university, it could always cause a problem as to why I mentioned this and not the other one. But one very successful area we work in is heritage science. We have a great scientists working in this field and we are now hoping to get a very big grant in the Horizon Europe twinning program. This is a great area because it showcases what modern science should be – it cooperates with several different faculties and departments, from humanities to chemistry, physics, and arts. They’re doing all sorts of things, from looking at the technology and chemistry of materials used in the past for different artworks and more.
Another strong area are mechanical and electrical engineering, where they are involved in a lot of international projects, developing batteries, working in the field of green economy, robotics, and collaborating with major players in the mobile and automotive industries. Very strong is physics with several prestigious grants and a female scientist, who is working from Slovenia on James Webb telescope, researching the birth of the galaxies. We have also some excellent groups and initiatives (and also two ERC grants) in humanities and social sciences. In biosciences, which are internationally renowned we have some very strong research groups. I collaborated with a group at the Faculty of Pharmacy. We’ve worked on neurodegenerative diseases, especially Alzheimer’s, with my group developing a canine model for Alzheimer’s disease characterization, and the pharmaceutical faculty group developing new drugs, including potential Alzheimer’s treatments.
In medicine, we have very good projects on things like prosthetic robotics and are very strong in genomics, diabetes, oncology and novel fields like using electroporation for gene and chemotherapeutic delivery directly into cancer cells. So there’s a lot of exciting work happening across the university.
Innovation Report: Collaboration with industry is crucial for universities to have real impact, but there is often a disconnect between academia and the private sector. What do you believe are the building blocks of a successful partnership, and what is your vision for developing Slovenia’s innovation ecosystem?
Prof. Gregor Majdic: Firstly, we cannot be, and it’s never our mission to be, a service for companies in the private sector. We should collaborate on equal terms, providing the knowledge we have for the benefit of society, but not acting as a paid task force that companies hire to solve small problems and then leave. Our mission is to help develop society by tackling the global and local problems we all face, and in doing so, help the private sector and companies develop new solutions for the future.
I think there’s a problem with the mindset in Slovenia, perhaps due to the transition we went through more than 30 years ago. For many companies, the main or only goal was to make more money without looking at the long-term future. I fear that many companies don’t have long-term goals for how to survive in the market. We have some very good small companies that are leaders in certain areas, like ultralight airplanes or exhaust pipes for motorcycles, we also have very innovative pharmaceutical industry, several successful start-up companies and internationally renowned industrial research centres by international companies, which are thriving (and currently expanding) in Slovenia largely due to excellent graduates from our University in biomedical field. However, a lot of large industry is not that innovative. They’re not looking far enough into the future, and that’s what we have to change.
The mindset is slowly changing in Slovenia. After the 2008 crisis, there was a big drop in research funding, which was a problem for universities and academic institutions. At that time, I was among the leaders of a movement called “Gathering for Science.” We organized a lot of public events and I think we changed the perception of the media about research a bit. Before that, researchers were often portrayed as people using public money without any goals, just for their own satisfaction. Now, we are talking a lot about the importance of investing in development.
The current Minister of Science in Slovenia, my predecessor and the former rector of the University of Ljubljana, understands this area well. He’s from an engineering background and is striving to establish special funds from the government for innovation policies and projects in addition to research funds. I think these are the way forward. One thing we are lacking in Slovenia compared to the US or some Western European countries is proper tax incentives for companies to invest in development or collaboration with academia. There could be some progress made in that area.
Innovation Report: As a member of The Guild of European Research-Intensive Universities, how can you work with partner institutions to influence European research and innovation policies and the overall culture around innovation and research?
Prof. Gregor Majdic: The Guild is a very active association of 25 universities, and we are trying to influence politics and policy. We write position papers and have an office in Brussels, through which we talk with politicians to explain what should be done to make Europe more innovative and competitive in the global market, while also looking at important issues like the climate crisis and demographic problems. We do this through communication, talking with politicians, and inviting them to meetings twice a year to listen to our ideas. But it always depends on whether politicians hear or do not hear what we are saying.
One important issue for me is support and collaboration with Africa. I think it’s very important that Europe help Africa develop, because through this we will tackle a lot of global challenges, including the climate crisis, migration, demographic problems, and the gap between the Global North and South. But it should be done on terms suitable for Africa. If we could put part of the aid Europe provides into helping establish their higher education and research systems, we could make a huge change. Africa faces a big problem in driving their own development, and I see a role for European universities, together with the European Union, in helping build this ecosystem.
Africa has a very low number of PhDs and wants to increase this, but they lack capacity in mentorship because they don’t have enough PhDs. What we should do is go there and help them build their own research and higher education ecosystem. We should go as friends, listen to what they want, and help them through collaboration. Student exchanges and online courses are not the solution, as the best students who come to Europe will likely stay here, causing brain drain. Providing online courses won’t make a difference – what will citizens of African countries do with a diploma from Ljubljana, Oxford, or Edinburgh? They need to set up a whole ecosystem that will be present in their countries, drive development, and help them tackle challenges.
Innovation Report: The world is undergoing a technological transformation driven by artificial intelligence and other areas of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. How is the University of Ljubljana adapting to this change, and what changes do you think education leaders need to make to prepare students for the future of work and the demands of the knowledge economy?
Prof. Gregor Majdic: This is quite a challenge because universities are very traditional, conservative environments, even though we are at the forefront of development internally. We are often very sceptical about changes in our own system. Through European funds from the Recovery and Resilience Facility, we are introducing changes into study programs aimed at teaching about climate change and improving digitalization, but there is some resistance to that. However, I think we’re getting there.
Within the University of Ljubljana we’re promoting collaboration between different departments, study programs, and faculties/art academies, as our university has traditionally been very decentralized. We’re now developing a special system with our internal research funds that will fund large projects tackling current challenges and important questions. We’ll make a list of strategic priorities and demand that these projects involve at least three faculties from different fields, like humanities, engineering, biosciences, art and others. We’ll try to bring these different areas together to work collaboratively.
I think COVID-19 also taught us that we definitely have to collaborate. In recent decades, a gap has developed between humanities, engineering, and natural and medical sciences. One mistake during the pandemic was that we separated sciences. It’s not enough to just develop a vaccine in the medical field; you have to convince people that vaccines are good, tell them why they’re good, and how to use them. This is part of the mission of the humanities and social sciences. With climate change skepticism, there’s also a huge role for social sciences and humanities to help people understand what’s happening and what’s wrong. We should become whole universities again and stop dividing different fields as strongly as we have been. This has been a general trend in Europe over the last several decades, but we’re slowly realizing it was the wrong direction. We are trying to bring different fields closer together, and I think this is one of the important challenges for the future, locally and globally, because we won’t solve problems alone.
Innovation Report: When you take a step back from your day-to-day work and look at the wider picture and situation around development in Europe, how confident are you feeling about the future?
Prof. Gregor Majdic: I have very mixed feelings and am quite worried at the moment with all the developments going on. Climate change is one big issue for me. What’s happening in the last several months is very worrying. In the last 10 or 20 years, there were increases in temperature in tenths degrees Celsius per year, but last year, the earth warmed in one year for 1.5 centigrades, and this year in Slovenia, February was 5 degrees warmer than the long-time average, and March was also very warm. I’m not a climate scientist, but I’m worried that we may have reached a breaking point where things will be going much worse, much faster. This is just my worry, my feeling, not a scientific statement.
And of course, the war in Europe is very worrying. Politicians are talking so openly about the possibility of war in Europe again. When Queen Elizabeth died, I read a statement that she was the last stateswomen who endured World War II, and once there are no living people to tell what happened during the war, we start to make the same mistakes. I think that’s what’s happening now. We are forgetting what a horrible thing World War II was, and people are much more easily talking about war again.
I see three scenarios for the future. One is the climate crisis, which I’ve already mentioned and is endangering our existence on our beautiful planet. The second is possibility of large war. The third, the only optimistic one, is a changed society with migrations that will change our world, with Africa developing, but Europe will become through demographic changes a much more diverse and tolerant society than it is at the moment. The positive scenario is that through migration and collaboration, we will solve the demographic problems we have and together we will be able to further develop our world and tackle global challenges like the climate crisis. I believe we have the potential and the chances to do that, but we will really have to put much more effort into it, especially politicians.
Innovation Report: Do you have a closing message regarding the topics we have discussed today and collaboration with Europe’s research universities?
Prof. Gregor Majdic: I firmly believe in the development and progress of humanity. Although sometimes people think otherwise, I still think we are going forward in a lot of areas. We have a lot of knowledge, but we should work together. We should forget our differences and work together globally to build a better world for our future, for our kids and grandchildren.
Some people say we will destroy the world through the climate crisis, but I always say we will not destroy the world, because nature will recover. We have seen in many cases how nature recovers, and in 100 years, when we disappear from the surface of this blue planet, nature will recover and there won’t be a sign of us. But we will destroy the world for our kids and grandchildren, and this is what we should worry about. This should always be a stronger message to politicians.
When discussing the climate crisis, for many people it’s something abstract – less snow in Ljubljana, a little warmer winter, things like that. But when you make it more personal, that maybe our grandchildren won’t be able to live on this beautiful blue planet any longer, it becomes a more powerful message. Through that, maybe we could get politicians to start embracing change more.
We all together have to build a knowledge-based society. We’ve been talking about it for decades, but at the moment, we are actually moving away from that – not just because of social media, which is an important part of it, but also because politics is not fully embracing science and academia and giving it the importance in society that it had throughout European development from the Renaissance to the present day. We see that there is less importance given to the development of new knowledge, and this is something we must change. More and more often, I am thinking that today, there is a need for new Renaissance, a new rise of appreciation of knowledge and the power of human mind. We need to learn how to respect the knowledge again, and restart to believe that science will help us shape the world also in the future. Without that, I fear that the future is bleak, despite all the means we have to solve the problems.
