LERU

LERU, the League of European Research Universities, is an association of twenty research-intensive universities sharing the values of high-quality teaching within an environment of internationally competitive research.

Its web site is http://www.leru.org/

The mission of LERU

The League of European Research Universities was established in 2002 to promote fundamental research. Its mission statement reads:

The League is a group of European research-intensive universities committed to the values of high quality teaching within an environment of internationally competitive research.

It is committed to:

• education through an awareness of the frontiers of human understanding;
• the creation of new knowledge through basic research, which is the ultimate source of innovation in society;
• the promotion of research across a broad front, which creates a unique capacity to re-configure activities in response to new opportunities and problems.

The purpose of the League is to advocate these values, to influence policy in Europe and to develop best practice through mutual exchange of experience.

Activities of LERU

LERU’s policy development activities are undertaken at the request of the Rectors’ Assembly. Committees, Working Groups and Communities, consisting of LERU Rectors or their deputies, are established as needed to help elaborate LERU policy positions.

• LERU Committees: The Membership Committee is a standing committee that periodically evaluates potential new, and existing, members against a broad set of quantitative and qualitative criteria. It also discusses policy issues related to membership. The Research Policy Committee deals with various aspects of research policy matters of importance to Europe’s research-intensive universities and elucidates the role universities play in the knowledge economy.

• LERU Working Groups are set up to help develop policy. Currently there is one Working Group established, on Research Career Development.

• LERU Communities are created as a forum in which representatives from all member universities are brought together to discuss policy or collaborative issues in certain domains. The LERU Communities are: Directors of Public Affairs and Communications, Deans of Medicine, Doctoral Studies, Senior Officers' Network, Social and Behavioural Sciences, Technology Transfer Officers, Vice-Rectors for Education, Vice-Rectors for Research.

Every year the Bright Students' Conference is organised at one of the LERU member universities. The aim of the Conference is to bring the brightest students from LERU universities together, to discuss a topic of mutual interest and to share ideas, get to know each other and the host university better.

History of LERU

LERU was founded in 2002 as an association of twelve research-intensive universities. In 2006, membership was extended to twenty institutions.

The LERU Office

The LERU Office is located in Leuven, Belgium, colocated with Katholieke Universiteit Leuven.

Members

Membership in LERU, which is by invitation, is periodically evaluated against a broad set of quantitative and qualitative criteria, such as research volume, impact and funding, strengths in PhD training, size and disciplinary breadth, and peer-recognised academic excellence.

Current members are:

• Universiteit van Amsterdam - the Netherlands
• University of Cambridge - United Kingdom
• University of Edinburgh - United Kingdom
• Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg - Germany
• Université de Genève - Switzerland
• Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg - Germany
• Helsingin yliopisto (University of Helsinki) - Finland
• Universiteit Leiden - the Netherlands
• Katholieke Universiteit Leuven - Belgium
• University College London - United Kingdom
• Lunds Universitet - Sweden
• Università degli Studi di Milano - Italy
• Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München - Germany
• University of Oxford - United Kingdom
• Université Pierret et Marie Curie - France
• Université Paris-Sud - France
• Karolinska Institutet - Sweden
• Université de Strasbourg - France
• Universiteit Utrecht - the Netherlands
• Universität Zürich - Switzerland

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