Universities – Actors in Cross-border Cooperation Building. Study Case: Romania-Ukraine Border

The purpose of this paper is to explore different expressions of the universities' involvement in cross-border cooperation across the European countries or international, as a way to strengthen the role in the extended community for the ones near a border. Moreover, it aims to identify specific actions and networks, as good practices where universities are the leading players in building cross-border cooperation. The first part of the research is based on several cases illustrated in scientific literature or promoted directly by different universities in Europe or around the world. At the same time, the second part also uses the official data on cross-border projects, official statements and documents, and the partial results of field research that we did in the cross-border area Romania-Ukraine. Therefore, we found that, in the pursuit of a sustainable path, universities found various ways to anchor in networks among themselves or with community actors. The ones near the border used the incentives offered by the cross-border programmes to build long-term partnerships and good practices in the benefit of the academia and also of the community.