Author Archives: EL

The IARU Librarians’ Group Exchange Scheme, which has been in the making since 2018/19, finally had its first exchange in May 2023 after facing many derails. The pandemic restricted travel for all the 12 applicants who were vying for the grant for a good couple of years, coupled with the war in Ukraine which diverted some flight paths. 

A staff member from the UCPH Libraries undertook a five-day visit to the University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley) Library focused on open science and licensing.

The visiting librarian had a keen interest in the structure for licensing, in particular the close working relationship between data and scholarly publishing and the fact that some staff members involved in this area at UC Berkley have a legal background. The second visit took place in early 2024 between the ANU Library and Yale University (Yale) Libraries. This visit was centred around archives, especially how Yale cultivates scholarly interest in its archive collections, enables access through online portals, and manages expectations around collections that are not easily discoverable. As a result of the visit, there were several approaches that the visiting archivist hoped might improve workflows and expand the reach of their archives.

The group hopes to facilitate a final visit between Peking University (PKU) Library and ETH Zurich Library in the near future. Overall, the visits to date have been a great success and the group looks forward to reviewing the pilot and considering the next steps soon. 

The launch of the IARU Early-Career Collaboration Grant Scheme in 2023 marked a significant opportunity for our emerging researchers. Eight grants were successfully awarded, empowering recipients to embark on global collaborative ventures across member universities.

Dr Sheena Ramazanu was one of the inaugural recipients of the IARU grant, enabling her visit from the Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health at the National University of Singapore to the College of Health and Medicine at the Australian National University (ANU).

In her reflections, she remarked: “The grant accelerated my career as an early-career research fellow by providing more opportunities to work with professionals with expertise in health economics, econometrics, and social determinants of health. It was also instrumental in my accomplishment of interdisciplinary collaboration to tackle the research problem from a diverse lens.”

At ANU, she collaborated with health economics experts to investigate challenges faced by Asian patients in accessing funding for novel drug therapies, such as cancer treatments. Here, the interdisciplinary collaboration with ANU professors enabled her to learn more about discrete-choice experiments, a future-focused method to quantify trade-offs and analyse how much more the public is willing to pay for innovative health therapies.

The result of this collaboration was a systematic mapping of economic policies and different financing mechanisms to invest in and prepare for reimbursement of novel therapies in Singapore and the region and the submission of one article to a peer-reviewed journal. Beyond work, Dr Ramazanu highlighted that she was also touched by the unique landscape of Canberra, where ANU is located, and was introduced to the indigenous Ngunnawal people, the traditional custodians of the region.

Lasting academic exchange
Other grant recipients are preparing for their journey later this year. Among them is Dr Kai Chen, Director of Research at the Yale Center on Climate Change and Health (YCCCH) based in Connecticut in the USA.

Examining the health impacts of climate change, his work has opened opportunities to collaborate with environmental epidemiologists from the University of Tokyo (UTokyo) including Professors Masahiro Hashizume and Yoonhee Kim. Dr Chen is looking forward to establishing an enriching academic exchange that can foster a lasting collaborative relationship between YCCCH and UTokyo in climate change and health.

He explains that “being awarded the grant ignited exchanges between himself and his UTokyo colleagues that have resulted in a recent research paper on the impact of population ageing on future temperature-related mortality at different global warming levels.” In UTokyo, he will finally meet Professors Hashizume and Kim and their team and get to experience the “wonderful” culture and scenery of Japan.

Investing more in collaboration
Recognising the value of this exchange, the presidents doubled the funding for research visits planned between 1 October 2023 and 1 October 2024. IARU recognises that in-person collaboration offers young researchers an invaluable experience and contributes to their academic careers in the making, especially when it comes to fostering interdisciplinary collaboration among researchers.

The IARU Cybersecurity Forum is now led by UCPH. The next annual Cybersecurity Forum meeting will be held in Copenhagen from 25 to 27 June 2024, and the programme for the annual Cybersecurity Forum meeting is currently being developed.

Questions regarding the Cybersecurity Forum and the annual meeting can be directed to iaru2024@ku.dk.

In early December, the IARU Cybersecurity Forum held an online discussion on best practices for the implementation of Software Defined Networks in a university setup. As a prelude to the meeting in June, one or two additional online meetings are being planned.


The Real Estate Working Group (REWG), on the other hand, had an in-person conference in 2023 that included collaboration with the IARU Campus Sustainability Initiative, headed up by Manfred Braune (University of Cape Town). The REWG AGM is scheduled to take place in Singapore, in May 2024.

The steering committee discussed the implementation of the secondment opportunity that would enable unique engagements and experiences, with host universities supporting the initiative on all fronts. New members have been included from UTokyo and CAM, which has promoted further engagement. The online engagements of May and October 2023 were fruitful. Three unique workstreams are prioritised for 2024, which include Real Estate Technology, Real Estate Strategy, and a combined effort from Space Optimisation and Staff Allocation against resources used.

We are delighted to announce that the University of Copenhagen will be hosting a five-day online course on ‘Sustainable Ageing’.

Population ageing is a major demographic trend across world regions and brings with it complex opportunities as well as challenges for individuals, the healthcare systems, societal resources, infrastructure, and resource allocations.

The course will be held 4 – 8 December 2023 and is open to Master’s students and PhD students in their first years of their PhD who are interested in ageing and interdisciplinarity. All scientific backgrounds are welcome.

Further details can be found on the IARU Courses pages.

We are delighted to announce that applications are now open for IARU’s Early-Career Collaboration Grants.

This new scheme has been created to increase opportunities for in-person global collaboration for early-career academics in the wake of the pandemic. Researchers within 10 years of submitting their PhD (excluding Postdocs), can apply for up to 5,000 USD to help meet the costs of a short-term research stay at another IARU university. 

We hope that the grants will provide valuable support to junior academics and will foster additional collaboration between the two universities in the future. 

Full details and the application form can be found on the Early-Career Collaboration Grants page.

The IARU Presidents met together on 14 & 15 January 2023 for their annual meeting, kindly hosted by the team at ETH Zürich. The group were delighted to welcome Professor Gong Qihuang (PKU), Professor Irene Tracey (Oxford) and Dr Anthony Freeling (Cambridge) to their first IARU meetings, with Dr Freeling also taking on the role of IARU Chair.

Discussing strategies for achieving net zero in universities, examining the rise in mental health challenges in student and staff communities, and exploring the complex issue of trust in higher education all provided excellent opportunities to compare approaches and share experience.

Future plans were made to encourage participation from IARU members in ETH’s CYBATHLON 2024 competition, an exciting project which brings together teams from all over the world to develop assistive technologies to help and support people with disabilities.

The Presidents were able to continue their conversations over dinner at Villa Hatt, which, due to its position high on the Zürichberg, afforded wonderful views over the city below.

Many of the attendees had planned a busy week of business travel and, following the Presidents’ Meeting, went on to join delegations at the World Economic Forum at Davos.

We are especially grateful to ETH Zürich for being such generous hosts and facilitating the meeting.

A summary of the meeting and its outcomes will be available to IARU members in due course via the website.

The Global Internship Program opportunities for 2023 have now been published. Take a look at the positions available at Australian National University, Berkeley and the University of Tokyo. 

We were delighted to learn that the Virtual Museum Tour film from the University of Copenhagen, ‘Letter to a Cycad‘, has gained new recognition as a finalist for the Best 360° Video at the 12th Lovie Awards.

This follows the film also winning the title of Official Honoree for Best 360° Video at the 26th Webby Awards and being highlighted as a Vimeo Staff Pick.

This immersive film is a visual homage to the historic Palmhouse in Copenhagen, and a reflection on the evolution of plants and our human impact on the planet. 

Last week we were delighted to welcome our IARU Senior Officers to Oxford for their annual meeting. In the beautiful surrounding of Christ Church, one of the historic colleges of the University of Oxford, the Senior Officers shared news and updates from their institutions, discussed the upcoming plans for IARU’s groups and initiatives and considered the role of universities in responding to international crises.

Dr Edward Brooks of the Oxford Character Project also presented a thought-provoking session on leadership development and the role of character, which stimulated many interesting discussions.

It was also a great opportunity to reconnect with old and new colleagues over dinners at the Trout Inn and St Peter’s College, as this was the first time Senior Officers had been able to meet in person since 2019.

A summary of the meeting and its outcomes will be available to IARU members in due course via the website. 

We are delighted to be welcoming the IARU Senior Officers to Oxford for the Senior Officers’ Meeting on 19-21 September. This will be the first in-person  meeting of the Senior Officers since 2019 and we are looking forward to a productive and enjoyable meeting.

Those attending can find all the meeting papers, Tome and practical information for visiting Oxford on the IARU website by logging in.