The AMITY Project is One of the ENLIGHT 2025 Call Winners!

We are excited to announce that the AMITY Project, with a team from the UG in participation, has been selected as one of the 2025 ENLIGHT Call winners! This project aims to launch a challenge-based education program in environmental (bio)technologies, coordinated and led by early-career researchers. Find out more about AMITY and the people behind it below!

What is the main goal of the project? Who are your collaborative partners?

The AMITY network launches a challenge-based education program in environmental

(bio)technologies, coordinated and led by early-career researchers. Through the program, interdisciplinary student teams will address real-world sustainability challenges such as wastewater valorization, greenhouse gas emissions and resource recovery, in close collaboration with academic mentors and external stakeholders.

The program integrates applied research with science communication and entrepreneurship training, preparing students for careers at the intersection of microbiology, engineering, and environmental innovation. Each edition culminates in the AMITY Summit, a public-facing event where students present results to academic, industry, and policy audiences.

The network brings together 11 research groups from 10 European universities, including five ENLIGHT partners, with complementary expertise in microbial ecology, modelling, biotechnology, and process design. AMITY is grounded in inclusive, cross-generational collaboration, with early-career researchers coordinating activities and senior scholars contributing with guidance and institutional support.

AMITY also launches AMITY+, a long-term mentorship and alumni platform connecting students, researchers, and stakeholders. The initiative will be sustained through Erasmus+ mobility, in-kind institutional support, and stakeholder engagement, creating a durable, ENLIGHT-wide framework for student-led innovation in environmental microbial technologies.

What inspired this project idea?

The project idea was inspired by the iGEM competition on synthetic biology, which attracts thousands of enthusiastic students. We figured a similar competition on environmental biotechnology could inspire the next generation of young professionals to develop real-world solutions for pressing problems.

How did the collaboration come together?

Many of us know each other from the field, conferences, or have even studied together. These short lines make it very easy and fast to set up a collaboration.

What impact do you expect this project will have for the University of Groningen and the ENLIGHT network?

AMITY is a thematic network that advances (bio)technology across the ENLIGHT flagship domains of Energy & Circular Economy, Climate Change, and Health & Well-being. We aim to engage and educate the next generation of researchers (mostly MSc students) to place environmental technology at the centre of tomorrow’s society.

The ambition of AMITY is to create a biennial research-driven master-level challenge. The initiative rallies talent from across the ENLIGHT universities to design, prototype, and communicate environmental solutions for pressing issues, such as greenhouse gas mitigation, circular resource recovery, and waterborne health threats. In doing so, AMITY turns learning into tangible

results, enriches the European knowledge commons and forges the skilled professionals Europe demands: thinkers who innovate, doers who build, and communicators who engage society and accelerate the adoption of sustainable biotechnology. AMITY has three objectives:

1. Run a pilot challenge-based program that will continue as a biennial event, in which master students develop solutions to existing environmental challenges. They learn to do research, translate results into practice and communicate their findings in an understandable and attractive way.

2. Deliver an integrated training track in environmental biotechnology, entrepreneurship, and science communication, with credentials co-awarded by ENLIGHT partners. Students deepen their microbiology expertise, gain translational skills, and are inspired toward careers in life science and sustainability.

3. Generate deployable, creative technological proof of concepts that benefit communities and feed a pipeline of ideas to AMITY researchers and external stakeholders, ensuring that both society and the environment benefit from fresh perspectives on pressing concerns.

Does your project connect to other research, teaching or outreach activities you are involved in?

The knowledge we bring into the project connects to the research and teaching activities we already do. With this project, we can broaden the scope of some of the courses or make an online version of the course.

What's next?

By interacting with the other partners, we will certainly initiate future collaborations. Hopefully, the input of the students who participate in the challenge will lead to inspiring ideas that can be followed up on in the future.

The team at the UG:

• Prof. Gert-Jan Euverink, Professor of Biotechnology, ENTEG, Faculty of Science and Engineering
• Dr. Tom Sleutels, Associate Professor, ENTEG, Faculty of Science and Engineering

We are happy for the AMITY team and are excited for the outcomes of this project!