About LERU
The League of European Research Universities (LERU) was founded in 2002 as an association of research-intensive universities sharing the values of high-quality teaching in an environment of internationally competitive research.
LERU is committed to:
- education through an awareness of the frontiers of human understanding;
- the creation of new knowledge through basic research, which is the ultimate source of innovation in society;
- the promotion of research across a broad front, which creates a unique capacity to reconfigure activities in response to new opportunities and problems.
The purpose of the League is to advocate these values, to influence policy in Europe and to develop best practice through mutual exchange of experience.
Facts & figures
Together LERU member universities account for more than:
- 550,000 students, including 50,000 PhD candidates.
- Each year about 55,000 master's degrees and 12,000 doctorates are awarded at LERU universities.
- The total research budget of LERU’s members exceeds €5 billion.
- More than €1 billion is granted by research councils, while over €1.25 billion comes from contract research.
- The total sum of research grants from EU projects to LERU universities is approximately €300 million.
- More than 20% of ERC grants have been awarded to researchers at LERU universities.
- Over 230 Nobel Prize and Field Medal winners have studied or worked at LERU universities.
- 55,000 academic staff and 55,000 non-academic staff work at the member institutions (hospital-only staff not included).
