The Arqus European University Alliance brings together the universities of Bergen, Granada, Graz, Leipzig, Lyon, Minho, Padua, Vilnius and Wroclaw, nine longstanding comprehensive research universities who share extensive experience in joint projects and a common profile as internationalized institutions with deep regional engagement in medium-sized cities. The Arqus European University Alliance aspires to build on the member universities’ sound prior experience in cooperation in order to achieve a high level of integration in its members’ policies and action plans in order to: • enhance the education of critically engaged European and global citizens who are able and willing to contribute to a multicultural, multilingual and inclusive Europe which is open to the world; • increase and improve the joint research capacity of the partner universities; • better respond to the grand societal challenges of the 21st century in Europe and beyond. The Arqus European University Alliance aims to consolidate a joint governance structure to facilitate the development of consensual joint policies and action plans, to consolidate participative structures to facilitate cross-cutting integration at all levels of the partner institutions, and to share its experience with other groupings in order to communicate the added value to be found in its model of integration.