International Alliance of Research Universities

The International Alliance of Research Universities (IARU) was launched on 14 January 2006 as a co-operative network of 10 leading, international research-intensive universities who share similar visions for higher education, in particular the education of future leaders. The IARU Chair is elected from among the IARU Presidents for a period of 2 years. Past IARU Chairpersons: At the launch the presidents elected Professor Ian Chubb, 2005 - 2008 (Australian National University); Professor Tan Chorh Chuan, 2009 - 2012 (National University of Singapore); Professor Ralph Eichler, 2013 - 2014 (ETH Zurich); Professor Ralf Hemmingsen, 2015 - 2016 (University of Copenhagen); Professor Nicholas Dirks, 2017 (University of California, Berkeley); Chancellor Carol Christ, 2017 - 2018 (University of California, Berkeley); The current chairperson of IARU is Dr. Makoto Gonokami, the President of the University of Tokyo.

In January 2016, the University of Cape Town joined as the 11th member.

Its Presidents meet annually at a host university venue to discuss joint initiatives under the following categories:

• Global education initiatives, which includes the flagship Global Summer Program;
• Institutional joint networking;
• Grand Challenge, and most notably its Campus Sustainability; and,
• Research initiatives.