Building the Plane While Flying It: How Projects Serve to Implement, Pilot and Co‐Create EU Policy

ABSTRACT This article theorizes how projectified governance enables bottom‐up policy shaping in the EU, using the European Universities Initiative (EUI) as a case study. It develops a framework that combines bottom‐up Europeanization with resource exchange theory to explain how project networks influence EU policymaking. As time‐bound, collaborative initiatives projects allow beneficiaries to exchange resources and gain influence. In this perspective, Europenization equips (sub)national actors with resources such as funding and access, while requiring them to mobilize knowledge and legitimacy. The EUI exemplifies three forms of projectification: implementation (institutional collaboration), piloting (policy experimentation, e.g., the European Degree), and co‐creation (community building via FOREU4ALL). By analysing how higher education institutions use EUI governance to sustain cooperation and shape policy, the study shifts focus from top‐down to bottom‐up dynamics. It contributes to understanding how projects serve as instruments of EU policy development and institutional agency.