IARU Principles

IARU Members have agreed that the alliance should operate in accord with the following principles:

•The Alliance will be strategic, drawing together a select group of research-intensive universities that share similar values, a global vision and a commitment to educating future world leaders. Central to these values is the importance of academic diversity and international collaboration.

•The Alliance should add value by providing opportunities to students and staff that would not arise otherwise, allowing members to achieve things they would be unable to achieve on their own.

•The Alliance will offer the opportunity for substantially deeper and more wide-ranging associations than usual international university consortia or groupings.

•The Alliance will bring a new dimension to members' international activities, including new opportunities for international research, teaching and learning.

•The Alliance will not be representative in nature (i.e. it is not meant to include “representatives” from every region of the world).

•The Alliance initially invited participants to utilize the complementary research capability of members to address issues of central importance; these include global security, ageing and health, and development and environmental sustainability. IARU will not centrally fund such research activities but rather call on individual institutions to support their researchers' participation in projects across IARU partners and encourage funding applications through traditional funding sources and processes such as foundations with peer-reviewed applications.

•The Alliance will provide a framework within which a range of protocols and templates can be developed to promote collaboration and allow cooperative activities to be undertaken more easily.

•Each member will determine the extent of its involvement in each of the activities of the Alliance to suit its particular objectives and constraints – it is not expected that any member will participate in all activities.

•Alliance activities will build on and strengthen existing relationships.

•Members will give prominence to the Alliance in order to allow and encourage multilateral and bilateral cooperation between members.

•Membership of the Alliance will in no way preclude or limit activities with partners outside the Alliance.

•Decisions will be made through collaborative approaches – there will be no formal requirement for unanimity.

•Structures and processes will be as uncomplicated and non-prescriptive as possible.

•Those cooperative activities that can be undertaken immediately should be given effect as soon as possible. Difficulties in resolving more complicated issues should not be allowed to delay activity in more straightforward areas.

(Draft version: March 2009)