The Young European Research 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ Network (YERUN) is made up of 18 institutions under 50 years old, all of which are included in one of THE¡¯s rankings or have been featured in the past five years.

Vice-chancellors and representatives from 12 of the universities met yesterday to launch the network at Times Higher Education¡¯s Young Universities Summit and to discuss the ¡°big issues¡± affecting their future. They hope to meet at least three times a year.

Brian MacCraith, president at Dublin City 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ, one of the institutions in the group and the host of this year¡¯s THE Young Universities Summit, said the network established four main characteristics of the universities: a focus on research, internationalisation, teaching quality and graduate employability.

During his keynote speech at yesterday¡¯s conference he said: ¡°We planned our future, planned the sort of influence we can exert on, for example, research policies in Europe, and planned programmes where we can share academic modules, training for staff and research strengths of infrastructure.

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¡°It¡¯s about that common bond [among] young universities and recognising that there is strength in coming together. We¡¯re hoping our place in the rankings will give us leverage.¡±

He added that one of the advantages of young universities is they ¡°don¡¯t have that complacency or that arrogance of having arrived¡±.

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¡°We¡¯re continuing to strive to improve. We¡¯re trying to be agile, we¡¯re trying to be responsive, we¡¯re trying to be engaged with the big issues,¡± he said.

The YERUN network¡¯s members are: the 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ of Konstanz, the 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ of Ulm and the 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ of Bremen (Germany); the 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ of Antwerp (Belgium); the 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ of Southern Denmark (Denmark); the Autonomous 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ of Barcelona, the Autonomous 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ of Madrid, Charles III 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ of Madrid and Pompeu Fabra (Spain); the 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ of Eastern Finland (Finland); Paris Dauphine 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ ¨C Paris 9 (France); Dublin City 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ (Ireland); 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ of Rome II ¨C Tor Vergata (Italy); Maastricht 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ (Netherlands); the New 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ of Lisbon (Portugal); Brunel 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ London and the 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ of Essex (UK); and Link?ping 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ (Sweden).

ellie.bothwell@tesglobal.com