Discrimination at university rarely announces itself. It hides in unconscious bias, in unexamined habits, in the small moments nobody thinks to question. So when a team at Lodz University of Technology set out to tackle it, they didn't start with a policy document. They made it a monster you could play against.
EQUNI, short for "Implementation of effective practices for the development of students' emotional intelligence with particular emphasis on anti-discrimination activities at European universities," has just been named EU Project of the Year at the Triple E Awards 2025. The awards are organised annually by ACEEU, the Accreditation Council for Entrepreneurial and Engaged Universities, and recognise universities worldwide for social engagement and their entrepreneurial approach, across 19 categories built around the third mission. The ceremony took place in September at the Lobkowicz Palace in Prague, where EQUNI won out over finalists from across Europe.
A game, a credential, a community
At the heart of the project is a board game set in a university haunted by the "Monster of Discrimination." Players take on the roles of students and staff and work together through challenges that teach them to recognise and counteract different forms of exclusion, with a companion mobile app that extends the experience and tracks progress.
The second pillar is quieter but arguably more radical. EQUNI built a micro-credentialing system that certifies participants' progress in social competences, particularly emotional intelligence and anti-discrimination, and it is among the first initiatives in Poland to use the EU's Europass platform to formally recognise soft skills gained outside traditional study programmes. Participants can add the credentials to their Europass profiles and CVs, and the project doubles as a testing ground for institution-wide micro-credentialing at the university.
The third strand is people. Over nearly three years, the project has run training, workshops and international summer schools for students and staff at TUL and its partner institutions, reaching more than 100 participants so far.
Looking inward, not just outward
The project is delivered by TUL's International Cooperation Centre, led by Prof. Dorota Piotrowska, in partnership with the University of Groningen in the Netherlands, the University of Algarve in Portugal, and the training companies SumFuo in France and Team Coaching in Poland.
For Prof. Piotrowska, the point is not only responding to inequality but learning to examine one's own emotions, prejudices and thought patterns, and, in her words, "creating space for dialogue, change, and growth."
For the ACE community, there's a satisfying symmetry here. The same International Cooperation Centre that runs EQUNI coordinates the ACE Alliance, and the award came from ACEEU, one of ACE's own founding partners. It's a working example of what the Alliance exists to promote: engagement treated as core university business, done rigorously, and recognised internationally.
Project outcomes are available at equni.eu.