RUOA benchmark project - the identification of interuniversity cooperation structures in Europe

The Network of Universities of the Western Atlantic (RUOA), a French non-profit organisation of 10 universities, has recently launched a project called “EU benchmark of interuniversity cooperation structures”, which will run from February 2012 to December 2013.
The project aims to identify interuniversity cooperation structures, and to assess the added value and limits of their governance and processes in order to draw lessons for the future of the RUOA network.
RUOA underlined that the project would also be an opportunity to build partnerships with other interuniversity cooperation networks and “to contribute to a clearer territorial strategy in higher education and research”. For more information, visit this website.
Created in 2001, the Network of Universities of the Western Atlantic (RUOA) is a center of inter-university cooperation involving 10 universities in these four regions of Brittany, Limousin, Pays de la Loire and Poitou-Charentes.
The network is dedicated to:
- coordinating scientific politics and educational institutions, and cooperation on projects on European level,
- linking up member universities among territories,
- developing research by pooling resources and expertises,
- fostering the emergence of an European identity.
It offers a showcase for the public higher education and research, to promote the development of the reel identity of Western Universities, the guarantee of a dynamic in favor of the common interest.
Common declaration of the 9 presidents of the Network
"Nowadays, great stakes are not defined on an insulated universities scale. While preserving the autonomy and the identity of each one, which are contributing to the unit richness, it is advisable to found new cooperations around common projects, which will give a national and European recognition. The coordination of policies and strategic choices is a key element for the development of higher education and research in the areas of Brittany, Pays de la Loire and Poitou-Charentes. Thus, by synergies which it can impel, the Network must widely contribute to the consolidation of the Grand Ouest European anchorage ."
A new visibility
To give an interregional identity to the offer of higher education and to develop courses of excellence which associate several universities. To allow the poles of research to reach the necessary critic size for important scientific investments and to contribute to the technological development of the ‘Grand Ouest' companies. To place the 10 universities from Atlantic West in a configuration with European dimension and to constitute a choices showcase for a great area with international ambitions.  
A cooperation of projects
A shared will to implement joint projects, based on 3 axis of work:
- To equip the universities with a new capacity of communication and cooperation, in the name of scientific and technical development, by the reinforcement of high flow connections and the constitution of a network coordinated at the regional level.
- To develop the e-learning offer, while coordinating and harmonizing the initiatives of ‘e-universities', on a regional scale.
- To work out joint projects which associate several universities of the network, financed by the European community in the perspective of the European regional policy (Interreg III) and the European research policy (6th framework program).
See also Les effets de la VAE sur les parcours professionnels.