With 17 partners in 13 countries, GALA is a truly global network. Established in 2014 by Bath Spa University in the UK, it is managed by a team at Bath Spa University led by Professor Ian Gadd and Professor Rebecca McGuire-Snieckus. Membership is currently by invitation only.
GALA’s Mission
As an international community of diverse, innovative, and socially responsible universities and colleges, GALA transforms lives and enhances global understanding through interdisciplinary collaboration in teaching and research.
GALA’s Values
GALA is:
- A deep network, with meaningful and trusting partnerships that can encompass all aspects of a partner’s activities and ambitions, including its own local cultural and commercial partnerships
- A diverse network, celebrating, leveraging, and reflecting different institutional characters, experiences, and perspectives
- A decentered network involving genuine, equitable collaboration between partners that align with individual institutional priorities
- A devolved network, offering flexible benefits and obligations depending on a partner’s needs and resources
- A dynamic network that is responsive and agile in the face of changing opportunities and challenges
- A distinctive network that has developed new, sustainable, and effective pathways for international collaboration
GALA’s Principles of Membership
- The GALA partners will, wherever possible, seek to preserve the network’s distinctive qualities.
- There is no ‘typical’ or ‘standard’ GALA partner, and all partners have equal status.
- Each GALA partner will explore ways of connecting their own local community and partner organisation with the network.
- Each GALA partner commits to an active relationship with the network, by entering into an ongoing negotiation about its level of commitment, capacity, and expectations.
- Each GALA partner commits to embedding GALA within its own institutional or faculty strategic planning.
- Each partner will identify a GALA ‘Delegate’ and ‘Ambassador’ to work directly with the GALA management team and other partners.
- A coherent, shared vision for the GALA network should be meaningful and ambitious but also flexible and adaptable enough to accommodate the diversity of partners.
- The GALA partners agree to clear principles and procedures for administration, governance, and communication.
- The GALA network adopts a ‘decentered’ model in which administration and financing is shared by the partners.
- The GALA partners commit to both bilateral and multilateral collaborations across the network.
- Each GALA partner agrees to monitor, evaluate, and report on its collaborative activity.
How is GALA different?
- We’re global with 17 partners in 13 countries, with a third from the ‘Global South’—and we’re aiming to make that 50% by 2024
- We’re diverse, allowing us to facilitate collaborations between institutions that would otherwise not encounter each other and to draw on a wide range of institutional perspectives, experiences, and strengths
- We’re faculty-led, not top-down
- We’re responsive, working with each partner to develop the collaborations that are of most value to them
- We’re broad in scope, supporting all kinds of collaboration
- We’re becoming fully self-sustainable
What does GALA do?
We provide
- Access to teaching and research expertise
- Institutional knowledge, perspective, and scale
- Mobility and collaborative opportunities for students, faculty, and staff
- Cooperation on societal challenges
- Access to international funding opportunities
We do this by:
- Meeting annually (Bath, Beijing, Mexico City, Parma, Montreal, Los Angeles, online)
- Promoting partner activities and opportunities
- Facilitating and organising network activities and events
- Co-ordinating research bids
- Brokering collaborations across the network
GALA’s Objectives
GALA has two sets of interrelated objectives: focused partner objectives set by each individual partner in negotiation with the GALA Management Team, and broader network objectives agreed by the partners as a whole.
GALA’s current network objectives for 2022–24
GALA’s Management Team
GALA is managed by a team at Bath Spa University:
- Academic Director: Professor Ian Gadd
- Associate Academic Director: Professor Rebecca McGuire-Snieckus
- Administrator: Gin Darcy
GALA’s Delegates
GALA is governed by a board of ‘Delegates’, each representing a specific partner. Their names are given below.
- Addis Ababa University: Tadesse Fetahi
- Bath Spa University: John Strachan
- Catholic University of Eastern Africa: Samuel Nyanchoga
- Columbia College Chicago: Steven H. Corey
- Claremont Graduate University: Joshua Goode
- Concordia University: Patrick Leroux
- National Institute of Design: Praveen Nahar
- SWPS University: Monika Janicka
- Universidade Federal de Pelotas: Leandro Ernesto Maia
- University College Roosevelt: Bert dan den Brink
- University College Utrecht: Susan Te Pas
- University of Adelaide: Mark Harris
- University of Namibia: Jairos Kangira
- University of Parma: Diego Saglia
- University of Udine: Antonella Riem
- University of the Witwatersrand: Ruksana Osman
- Utrecht University: Janneke van Dis
Contact us
You can contact us at gala@bathspa.ac.uk
