The International Research Universities Network (IRUN) is a freshly started international consortium of broad-based research universities initiated by Radboud University Nijmegen and eight well known European universities located in Glasgow, Poitiers, Barcelona, Siena, Budapest, Krakow, Münster and Duisburg. IRUN was established to encourage the international mobility of students and teaching staff among its members. The network key ambitions are:

• to ensure that students can discover and position themselves in the international marketplace;
• to work towards mutual recognition of degree programmes, joint Ph.D. supervision and teacher exchanges;
• to further improve the quality of research and teaching at the universities involved;
• to serve as a platform for joint conferences, symposiums and seminars;
• to play a part in decision-making processes in and outside Europe when claiming entitlement to European subsidies.

The basic idea is to make it easier for students to spend time abroad, facilitating at the same time the exchange of researchers and lecturers. The network intends to engage in joint curriculum development and joint degree programmes for Master students and Ph.D. candidates at a later time.