Rádio Universitária do Algarve (RUA FM) is a founding member of the first European university media network, created last Sunday as part of the University Media Fest 2014, which took place from 26 to 28 September, in Perugia, Italy.
The Algarve radio and the Sul Informação, as RUA FM's partner in the news area, were the representatives of Portugal at this event, organized by the Italian Radiophonica.com, which brought together broadcasters from seven countries.
In addition to the creation of this network, a letter of intent was signed by the university radios and radio associations present, which already foresees collaborations at different levels.
«The letter of intent determines the creation of a network, to share content and formats, as well as good practices», according to the director of RUA FM Pedro Duarte, one of the Portuguese signatories of the letter, together with Sónia Rosa, also from Algarve radio. On the table was also “the question of training”, with exchanges between the different members of the network.
“This was the first meeting to create a network of European university radios. Let's start with the simplest, which is the sharing of national music through other radio stations. We hope that there will be a second meeting, in December, to deepen the collaboration», he revealed.
“The intention was for European university radios to come together. In this first meeting, there were only seven countries, but the intention is to expand. But, on the other hand, there were people who represented university radio associations from their countries: more than 20 Italians, 26 Spanish, more than 60 from the United Kingdom and almost 30 from France», added Pedro Duarte. In addition to Portugal, Italy, Spain, United Kingdom and France, Germany and Poland were also represented.
One of the next steps will be to extend the sharing of content to scientific dissemination, one of the central points in the discussion of university radio representatives who were in Perugia.
“Scientific dissemination is, from what we understand, a concern shared by almost all university radios. Even because some are even held by the Universities they represent, which use them as a means of disseminating the research they do. In this area, the issue of formats is very complicated, as communicating science is not always easy. One of the things we talked about was arranging formats that can be shared, to make known what is done in different countries and academies», according to the director of Rua FM.
The network created is open to FM radios, such as RUA and most Portuguese university radios (they exist in Coimbra, Minho and Trás-os-Montes), but also to web radios, a very common model in central Europe .
Now, RUA FM will try to transmit to its counterparts, at national level, what was discussed in Perugia, so that they can also integrate the network and give more strength to the project.
"We want there to be recognition of the role of university radios and their importance," he said.
Another issue that was discussed was the financing of this type of projects, which can also stand to gain from networking. «I think that funding opportunities for university radio stations may arise from this, through Community Funds, but this will only be possible once this network formally exists», illustrated Pedro Duarte.
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