YERUN is a network of 18 young European research universities. Our Vice-Chancellor, Professor Anthony Forster, played an integral role in the network’s establishment and spoke at its official launch event.
Read the full speech he gave at the event, held on 7 November at the European Parliament:
Professor Forster played an integral role in the establishment of the YERUN network.
This launch event has been a wonderful opportunity for us to showcase our YERUN network of 18 young research universities.
As Vice-Chancellor of the University of Essex I have had the privilege of being involved since the first exploratory discussions that resulted in the establishment of the YERUN network so I am delighted to be here today at the formal launch.
YERUN is a cross-European initiative and I am delighted to say that, as some of Europe’s best young research universities, we are already successfully cooperating and collaborating in a range of areas and making a positive impact.
YERUN is a network of really highly regarded universities, but I’m delighted that it is also a network of friends with shared values. Working with great scientists is rewarding. Working with great scientists who are friends is life enhancing.
The presentations today of the six research projects from Subhash, Paul, Jörg, Mónica, Tess and Renée, Iona and Artemis are a superb example of this collaboration. They really serve to demonstrate our interdisciplinary nature and the range of high quality European-funded research currently being undertaken by colleagues working across our network of universities.
It has been wonderful to see the enthusiasm and clear commitment of colleagues to undertaking research that really makes a difference to people’s everyday lives.
Professor Dom Micklewright, our Dean of Partnerships, also attended the YERUN launch.
And it highlights that:
As a group of young research universities, YERUN is:
- empowering early-career researchers;
- contributing to the design of the future research environment, and fostering an open science culture;
- working with civil society and industrial partners to ensure our education and research are aligned with labour market demands and contributing to addressing the needs of our societies; and
- ensuring that our graduates have the skills that will make them highly employable and able to succeed in building their futures.
Each of our 18 universities plays a crucial role in the development of local and regional economies and innovation eco-systems and, by working together, we are sharing knowledge and experience so that we can maximise both our individual and collective contributions to society.
By bringing a young research university perspective to European discussions, and working together on initiatives that positively impact on European students, staff and researchers, YERUN is already making a distinctive contribution to our competitive knowledge-based economy.
Future perspectives
The major changes that we all see taking place in European societies underline the importance of new and dynamic interdisciplinary and multi-disciplinary linkages and innovative research.
I am delighted that, two years on from our inaugural meeting and just one year after the opening of the Brussels office, YERUN is already firmly established as a network and well placed to build these linkages … to emphasize graduate employability and to play a role as the voice of young research universities in Europe.
As a network, our universities are already actively engaged in student and staff mobility, are collaborating on joint research on topics that really matter, and are sharing best practice.
I am delighted that in January the University of Essex will be hosting the first YERUN Research Workshop bringing together researchers from across the Network to collaborate on one of our strategic research priority themes: Big Data, Data Analytics and the Digital Economy. I look forward to welcoming colleagues to the University of Essex and to seeing the research collaborations that result from the workshop.
As a network we have expressed our support for the position of the Commission and EU stakeholders to establish an FP9 budget that matches the world-leading ambitions of the programme. We have presented our views and key requests for the next EU Framework Programme, FP9. We look forward to continuing to work with you and the EU institutions to deliver a FP9 that matches the world-leading ambitions of EU Research and Innovation.
And we look forward to continuing to build relationships and cooperation with the European Parliament and European Commission, permanent representatives, universities and research associations, and with all our European stakeholders.
Above all our YERUN network is about using the collective strength of our 18 universities to bring the young research universities’ perspective to policy debates and to make the World a better place. I can think of no better group of universities and friends to take on this challenge.
Thank you.
