Recent meetings
| Date | Commissioner / Cabinet | Topic | File |
|---|---|---|---|
| 14 Nov 2025 | Ekaterina Zaharieva Commissioner | Exchange on AURORA Network contributions to European R&I | — |
| 14 Nov 2025 | Ekaterina Zaharieva Commissioner | Exchange on AURORA Network contributions to European R&I | SRC |
Mission & Goals
Aurora is a network of research-intensive universities, united by their commitment to match academic excellence with societal relevance and impact in education, research and service to society. We are a high-trust community in which university leaders, academics, support staff and students meet to learn from and with each other how to become better at achieving our shared mission at local, regional, national, European and global level. We know and want to show that the assumed tension between academic excellence and societal relevance is an assumption - not a reality. We see the SDGs as overarching narrative for our network and its members. We have identified four priorities: - diversity and inclusion - societal relevance and impact of research - student engagement, and - innovation of teaching and learning. Students play a key role in our network, including through their Aurora Student Council and through their membership in the Aurora General Council.
EU Legislative Interests
European Education Area European Higher Eduation Area European Research Area Erasmus+ EU framework programmes incl. Horizon Europe Widening Access Citizen engagement European cohesion International Partnerships Global Approach
Communication Activities
Aurora Biannuals: October 2016 Amsterdam April 2017: Reykjavik November 2017: Norwich April 2018: Essen November 2018: Antwerp May 2019: Grenoble October 2019: Amsterdam May 2020: Virtual November 2020: Virtual May 2021: Virtual Fall 2021: Tarragona May 2022: Innsbruck November 2022: Virtual UDE May 2023: Virtual UEA October 2023: Palacky University Olomouc May 2024: University of Naples Federico II November 2024: Virtual May 2025: Université Paris-Est Créteil November 2025: Aurora universities presidents meeting (Brussels), including with EU commissioner Zaharieva
Interests Represented
Does not represent commercial interests
Member Of
Aurora is member of the International Association of Universities (IAU), the European Universities Association (EUA), the Association of International Education Administrators (AIEA), and the Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment (CoARA).
Organisation Members
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam University of Iceland University Duisburg-Essen University Rovira i Virgili University of Innsbruck University of Napels Federico II Palacky University University of Paris Est-Creteil Simon Fraser University (Vancouver) With university beneficiary partner in the European University Alliance Aurora Alliance, Aurora RI and Aurora 2030: Copenhagen Business School
Additional Information
Personnel costs of the Aurora office are shared between the members and not part of the Aurora Budget. The Erasmus+ funded Aurora 2030 budget is being managed by the lead university and are not part of the Aurora budget.