“The UNITAFRICA project is based on the 20-year experience of CUCS, the network of Italian universities for development cooperation.

CUCS plays a role as facilitator of aggregations between university partners for the development of projects based on a shared work logic. In 2007 was signed the first protocol of agreement of the CUCS network, which since 2020 has also been recognized by the Conference of Rectors of Italian Universities (CRUI).

Coordinated first by the Polimi (2007-2019), today by the University of Trento, involves 51 universities from North to South Italy, linked together through the signing of a free Memorandum of Understanding.

In 2022 was born the CUCS Early Career Scholars, a group of young researchers devoted development cooperation projects.