Innovative European Research Universities (iERU) is an alliance that brings together six young medium-sized European universities with a high potential and strong commitment to the sustainable development of their regions. Our members are:
- Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, Spain;
- Le Mans Université, France;
- Universität Paderborn, Germany;
- Mälardalens Högskola, Sweden;
- Università degli Studi della Campania Luigi Vanvitelli, Italy
- Uniwersytet Humanistyczno-Przyrodniczy im. Jana Długosza, Częstochowa, Poland
Each of the alliance members is a key player in their regional innovation environment and has excellent networks with partners from academia, industry, public bodies and society at large. Exceptionally strong regional ties generate a powerful multiplier effect and give iERU members a unique opportunity to create and share knowledge with stakeholders from surrounding semi urban areas. Every alliance member has their individual positive experiences of intense international partnerships. We have decided to capitalise on them and on our unique strengths and create an inter-university European iERU Campus. This will:
- make our educational offer more attractive
- create new research opportunities for students and faculties
- help us address the needs of our local job/economy markets
- strengthen European values and identity in our communities
- boost and interconnect our strong regional links
As a consortium of European universities, iERU addresses the need to increase the mobility of students, young academics, staff and researchers among partners and with other universities to create a more competitive European higher education area in a globalised world. To achieve this goal, we will channel our efforts towards assuring the full recognition of the credits and diploma supplements obtained within the alliance, measures that support the social dimension of mobility and quality assurance processes in training. Through joint interdisciplinary research and innovative pilot projects we will enhance entrepreneurship and technology transfer resulting in new employment opportunities, strengthen regional development, diversity and inclusion and increase the involvement of regional stakeholders and their positive impact on society. In addition, our consortium aims to promote European values, ethics, strengthen European identity, contribute to the European Education Area in line with the Council recommendation on common values, inclusive education and the European dimension of teaching and international competitiveness.
Following a step-by-step approach, our long-term vision is to transform the alliance into an inter-university campus. In doing so we will be focusing on five flagships which reflect the major societal challenges in our regions and in which our members have synergies. They will define the aims of the iERU alliance, namely
- promoting digitalisation and artificial intelligence,
- carrying out research with a connection to energy and environment,
- safeguarding sustainable heritage,
- supporting well-being and care technology,
- promoting sport, public health and a good quality of life
Our intention is to make these areas central to pedagogical, scientific and business initiatives carried out with our partners within and outside of the alliance. In doing so, we will share our experiences and our resources to achieve a high quality sustainable cooperation to propose a joint, integrated strategy, with long-term objectives. Our mission is to promote high quality education linked to research, innovation and the improvement of society. Based on the idea that universities are at the origin of knowledge creation, iERU will promote innovation and the transfer of this knowledge to society through the creation of European multidisciplinary research teams.
All alliance members are committed to assuring the sustainability of their cooperation. This will be additionally assured through funding from the individual alliance members, Erasmus Plus, Horizon Europe, ERDF, regional and governmental agencies, interested associate partners and universities, which in the long run may join the alliance as full partners.