Jean-Pierre Sauvage, emeritus professor of the University of Strasbourg (a LERU university) and member of the Académie des Science has been awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry 2016. He shares this Prize with the Scot James Fraser Stoddart (Northwestern University) and the Dutch Bernard Feringa (Rijksuniversiteit Groningen).
“We proudly received these great news. The honour we share with the CNRS will have a positive effect on our whole site”, expressed Michel Deneken, interim president of the University of Strasbourg. This distinction rewards the pioneer work on the design and synthesis of molecular machines. These compilations of tiny scale are capable to actuate movement in a controlled manner as response to diverse signals as UV light. More...

LERU welcomes the Council conclusions on “measures to support early stage researchers, raise the attractiveness of scientific careers and foster investment in human potential in research and development”.
Europe is the single biggest labour market for research. Ensuring that research careers remain an attractive and viable option for future generations of Europe’s (post-)doctoral and other early stage researchers (ESRs), many of whom are trained at LERU universities, is an important topic for LERU. More...

Today, representatives of the public research sector in Europe (LERU, CESAER, EUA, LIBER and Science Europe) call with a united voice on European legislators to remove the barriers to research and innovation that exist in the current proposal for copyright. EU policymakers should take the lead in developing legislative frameworks that allow fair dissemination, access to, sharing and use of available knowledge. More...

Interdisciplinary research and education area hotly debated topic at universities. Although knowledge exchange between disciplines has always been part of the scientific enterprise– with breakthroughs often happening at the borders of academic disciplines-, in recent decades interdisciplinarity has rapidly developed in many areas of science and has become a science policy priority, despite strong structural obstacles that still persist today. More...

Today, one day ahead of the scientific conference that the European Commission (EC) will hold as part of its response to the European Citizens Initiative “Stop Vivisection”, LERU publicly reiterates its support to the Directive and presents its contribution to its reviewing process. More...

A new LERU position paper, ‘Excellent education in research-rich universities’, analyses the characteristics of excellent education. Considering the different ways in which education and research are connected in research-intensive universities, it illustrates some of the diverse ways in which LERU universities are changing their approach towards education, for the benefit of both students and wider society. More...

LERU has submitted its response to the European Commission´s public consultation on the Interim Evaluation of the EIT. A good opportunity to take stock of the crucial role that EIT plays in the European innovation landscape and to provide some thoughts on the way forward for the EIT. More...