League of European Research Universities (LERU)

LERU was established in 2002 as a forum for research-intensive universities in Europe to exchange experiences, develop best practices and to influence research policy within Europe.

Membership is by invitation only and there are currently 21 members spread across ten European countries - UCL has been a member of LERU since January 2006.

LERU aims to further the understanding and knowledge of politicians, policy makers and opinion leaders about the role and activities of research-intensive universities and, as such, is a prominent advocate for the promotion of basic research at European research universities. LERU maintains a dialogue and co-operates with EU-related organisations (European Commission and Parliament, European Research Council etc) active in the higher education and research arena on topics such as Horizon 2020, Erasmus+ and the European Research Area.

There are a number of LERU committees, 'communities', expert and working groups which were established with representation across the 21 members to provide specialist knowledge to help formulate LERU policy and enhance collaboration covering a wide range of fundamental issues within a shared interest of the member institutions. UCL has representation on the majority of the LERU groupings and those representatives are very active in their respective communities.

Further information about LERU is available on its website at www.leru.org. For information regarding UCL's membership of LERU committees and working groups contact Andrew Cooper, Director of Research Evaluation, OVPR and UCL's representative on the LERU Senior Officer Network (leru-son@ucl.ac.uk).

Karen Wishart, Research Evaluation Support Officer, Office of the Vice-Provost (Research)