The Arqus European University Alliance is a long-term initiative that brings together the universities of Granada, Graz, Leipzig, Lyon 1, Maynooth, Minho, Padua, Vilnius and Wrocław, nine prestigious comprehensive research universities that share the conviction that European cooperation is essential to the global future of their institutions. Arqus, being a people-centred Alliance, aims to promote a multilingual, international, entrepreneurial and innovative approach in the provision of education, research and innovation. Together, Arqus universities work in the creation of a forward-looking, open, integrated and research-driven European University, building transformative excellence with and for all. Arqus aspires to transform European higher education, research and innovation through deep cooperation and progressive integration, in pursuit of an equitable and sustainable future by together: educating critical and socially engaged European citizens, equipped for lifelong learning, leaving no-one behind; generating excellent, open, challenge-driven, innovative, and reflective knowledge; acting as a committed multi-level societal and global player. Bringing down barriers to effective cooperation. The principal ambition of the Arqus Alliance is to act jointly as a laboratory for institutional learning from which to move forward in the design, testing and implementation of an innovative model for deep inter-university cooperation. The Arqus Alliance aims to centre its efforts on enabling people: enabling a widely diverse student body and enhancing their learning experience; enabling a similarly diverse staff community and promoting their individual and collective professional development; enabling society at large by opening our doors and fully responding to the mission it has entrusted us.