Author Archives: EL

The International Alliance of Research Universities launches a new responsive website with a completely new graphic design and content organisation.

The new site biggest change consists in its main menu, organized around IARU target groups to ease access to the information.

Through its new site, IARU looks forward to improving the experience of its visitors. In the first place by ensuring that IARU students and staff interested in taking part to IARU activities are able to obtain the information they need. Secondly by allowing all visitors to find useful information and make new connections.

The website has a new design, so-called responsive design, which means it looks good on any device: a mobile phone, a tablet or a desktop computer.

If it looks like something is not working properly, please let us know by sending an email to iaru-secretariat@adm.ku.dk.

IARU developed two working tools aimed at facilitating research collaboration among institutions: the Marie Curie template agreement and the IARU Lexicon of research terms.

IARU is now presenting a model collaboration agreement that can be used for research collaboration between the IARU partners. The model is developed by the IARU Research Administrators’ Network and is designed for Marie Curie fellowships, but can used for any other collaborations and is accepted among all IARU universities. Find the model contract here.

What does it mean?

Different terminology in research collaboration often is a major barrier and causes misunderstanding and confusion. The Research Administrators’ Network have compiled a dictionary of often used terms in research collaboration that can be a tool to improve understanding and make research collaboration more effective and error-free. Find the dictionary here. 

An opportunity for selected IARU students to travel and spend a working period with sustainability professionals at a IARU partner university.

Every year selected IARU students spend a six week internship period working closely with professionals at the host IARU university to support the development and implementation of campus sustainability projects. Satowa Kinoshita, from the University of Cambridge, worked with the Office of Environmental Sustainability at the National University of Singapore identifying and recommending measures to reduce the energy consumption of the University’s Central Library.

I gained project management skills and communication by working with a range of people. I also gained first-hand experience of the issues that facilities management face and the operations of a building.

Satowa Kinoshita, Cambridge

IARU Sustainability Fellowships are announced at home university’s internship or career office or sustainability website. Applications at Oxford, National University of Singapore and ANU are now open. Read more about the Sustainability Fellowships.

The IARU GSP program expands to 2 new exciting courses at the University of Cape Town: UCT1 Sustainable Water Management in Africa and UCT2 Organized Crime and Violence in Africa.

UCT1: Sustainable Water Management in Africa This course adopts an interdisciplinary approach to examine the current water crises, trends and conditions in developing countries. Further, it addresses the need to derive maximum benefit from each water resource used while incurring minimum burden and the need to secure “new taps” in a water sensitive urban design context.

UCT2: Organized Crime and Violence in Africa This course will take an interdisciplinary approach to interrogating the nature of organized crime in Africa, as well as the means and conditions through which it contributes to violence. Further to this the course will explore possible strategies and mechanisms to reduce such violence.

Applications to the IARU GSP are open until 7 March, with earlier deadlines for UTokyo and NUS students.

Read more about IARU Global Summer Program.

The University of Tokyo offers three global internship programs to students willing to acquire research skills in natural and social sciences and looking to experience academic research processes in order to assess their career goals.

The programs open for applications are:

1. Internship with the International Core Research Center for NanoBio (C2CNB)

2. University of Tokyo Research Internship Program (UTRIP)

3. Summer Internship Program in Kashiwa (UTSIP Kashiwa)

For further information on each program and how to apply please visit the Global Internship Program.

From January 2016 the International Alliance of Research Universities will welcome the University of Cape Town (UCT) as its 11th partner.

University of Cape Town will be the first African university to join this strategic partnership and the first new member since the formation of the alliance 10 years ago.

The University of Cape Town is widely regarded as the best university in Africa, with a growing research performance, high profile education and a dynamic institutional character. The participation of the University of Cape Town to IARU opens up a new exciting mix of opportunities to IARU students, staff and faculty.

Besides being a valuable collaboration network, IARU represents an important platform for exchange and reflection on issues that higher education institutions face in an increasingly global environment.

“The University of Cape Town will bring a new African perspective to the table – says IARU Chairman Ralf Hemmingsen, Rector of the University of Copenhagen – which will greatly enrich IARU’s dialogue among the members from different corners of the world”.

“Universities are operating in an increasingly complex, global and challenging environment,” says University of Cape Town Vice-Chancellor Dr Max Price. “It is vital that we learn from one another and that we ensure that African-specific perspectives are part of the conversation. The University of Cape Town very much looks forward to sharing its knowledge and resources in this global forum.”

IARU was established in 2006 by ten research-intensive universities as a strategic alliance to expand and deepen their collaboration. IARU universities share similar values, a global vision and a commitment to educating future world leaders. Central to these values is the importance of academic diversity and international collaboration.

Students from the ten IARU universities can now apply for 22 exciting courses offered by the IARU Global Summer Program 2016.The courses run between June and September 2016.

Closing dates for applications is 22 February 2016 for NUS students, Mid-February for UTokyo students and 7 March 2017 for students from the other 8 IARU universities (ANU, ETH Zurich, PKU, UC Berkeley, Cambridge, UCPH, Oxford and Yale).

Thanks to IARU’s partnership with Banco Santander, scholarships are avilable to students of all ten universities.

More information: Global Summer Program

The IARU Global University Climate Forum was successfully held in Paris last Saturday 5 December. 27 international teams presented concrete projects on how to make a lasting impact on campus.

While implementing their projects during the next year, students will remain in touch via an online platform continuing the exchange and feedback started in Paris. Get an impression of the event here.

The IARU GUCF2015 hosted by Sorbonne Universités will take place on 5 December, during the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change negotiations (COP21). 100 students from over 30 universities from across the world will gather in Paris, the workshop will be a unique opportunity to share and learn about brilliant projects for sustainability on campus.

Students’ project ideas span disciplines and methods: from app-based systems over reduced food waste in campus canteens to behavior-changing campaigns and retrofitting plans. Continuing with innovative financial solutions for greening students’ and universities’ investments before moving on to experiencing a sustainable lifestyle during 3 weeks. More about the projects will be disclosed in Paris in December – and with ample opportunity for networking and getting inspired.

Barthélémy Jobert, President of Paris-Sorbonne University, and Frances Beinecke, Associate Research Scholar at Yale University and former Director of the Natural Resources Defense Council, will open the event followed by presentation of the student teams’ projects.

The projects will be reviewed by peers and commentators including: Professor Daniel Kammen from University of California Berkeley, Maria Ivanova from the Center for Governance and Sustainability at UMass Boston and Zena Harris from the International Sustainable Campus Network.

After the workshop, work will continue on campus while the network will move online and keep in touch for the sake of addressing climate change.

Follow the event online with the hashtag #GUCF2015.

IARU Senior Officers met in Copenhagen on 22 and 23 October to discuss the further developments of IARU. Senior Officers addressed Global Transformation in IARU members’ strategies and agreed to develop a joint online course to be offered to IARU students. Senior Officers also exchanged about cyber threats and security in open institutions, such as universities.