The League of European Research Universities (LERU) is a network of 24 leading research-intensive universities based in 12 countries around Europe. LERU universities share the values of high-quality teaching within an environment of internationally competitive research and are committed to the advancement of knowledge and the promotion of research across a broad front. LERU is a prominent advocate for the promotion of basic research at European research universities. We strongly believe that basic research plays an essential role in the innovation process and significantly contributes to the progress of society. We aim at furthering politicians’, policy makers’ and opinion leaders’ understanding of the important role and activities of research-intensive universities. We do this through direct communication and discussions within the policy community, sound proposals for improvement and progress, and carefully considered publications on fundamental issues affecting Europe’s research universities. Furthermore, our 24 members bring together representatives to work on LERU policy development and collaborative issues in a number of areas such as academic careers, doctoral training, gender issues, research management, assessment and funding, open scholarship, social sciences and humanities, enterprise and innovation, e-learning and many more. The LERU members are: University of Amsterdam / Universitat de Barcelona / University of Cambridge / University of Copenhagen / Trinity College Dublin / University of Edinburgh / University of Freiburg / Université de Genève / Universität Heidelberg / University of Helsinki / Leiden University / KU Leuven / Imperial College London / University College London / Lund University / University of Milan / Ludwig Maximilians Universität München / University of Oxford / Sorbonne University / Université Paris-Saclay / University of Strasbourg / Utrecht University / ETH Zurich / University of Zurich