Operationalising Grand Societal Challenges in European Education: A Comparative Analysis of the Governance and Implementation Capacity of Centres of Vocational Excellence and European Universities Alliances

In the current European policy landscape, grand societal challenges—such as the green and digital twin transitions—are prevalent means for governing the education and training field (Authors, forthcoming). This shift is particularly evident in the design of major EU initiatives, where funding calls between 2019 and 2024 have increasingly centred on the requirement for partnerships to address these large-scale societal issues. Within this framework, Transnational Strategic Partnerships (TSPs) have emerged as flagship instruments of European architecture, designed to manage the complexity and multi-level nature of these interconnected challenges. This paper investigates how two major policy initiatives—the Erasmus+ Centres for Vocational Excellence (CoVE) and the European Universities initiative (EUI)—function as TSPs to translate high-level European grand challenges into concrete organisational activities and policy outcomes. Drawing on institutional and organisational theory (Scott, 2008) and European policy research, we analyse the problem-solving capacity and implementation dynamics of these partnerships. Our analysis proceeds in two stages. First, we conduct a systematic analysis of organisational documents (e.g., mission statements, strategic plans, and work programmes) for 118 TSPs—comprising 53 CoVEs and 65 EUI alliances. This mapping identifies which specific grand challenges these partnerships prioritise and how they propose to operationalise them through intended activities and outcomes. Second, to understand the underlying governance processes, we conduct four in-depth case studies (2 CoVEs and 2 EUI alliances). Through interviews with TSP coordinators and key stakeholders, we examine how these challenges are selected, what activities take place on the ground, who holds the decision-making power, and how progress is monitored and measured. The paper aims to provide a nuanced understanding of the role of education and training in tackling grand societal challenges at the interface of European policy and institutional practice. By uncovering the organisational characteristics of these TSPs, the study explores how the governance and implementation of European-level policy are negotiated at both the alliance and institution levels. We seek to identify the distinct operational models employed by CoVEs and EUI alliances, and how these models facilitate or challenge the integration of societal goals within the evolving European education model. Ultimately, this research contributes to the broader debate on the design and evolution of the transnational governance framework, illustrating how TSPs function as sophisticated tools that operationalise the EU’s strategic ambitions in a rapidly changing global landscape.