Provost Linda Doyle elected to Board of League of European Research Universities

A number of internationally leading academics were appointed to the board of directors of the university group following the resignation of the previous Chair of the Board

The League of European Research Universities (LERU) yesterday announced the appointment of Trinity’s Provost, Professor Linda Doyle, to its new Board of Directors following the stepping down of Professor Karen Maex, outgoing Chair of LERU.

Doyle is the 45th provost of Trinity, having assumed the role in 2021. In Trinity, she previously served as Dean and Vice President of Research from 2018 to 2020, as well as having previously been director of the Centre for Telecommunications Value Chain Research (CTVR).

Doyle was the founding director of CONNECT, the Science Foundation Ireland research centre for future communication networks.

LERU, which is composed of 23 research-led universities, advocates for “education on the basis of expanding the frontiers of human understanding” and promote high-quality teaching and research at an international level. Founded in 2002, LERU seeks to promote the value of research-intensive universities to leaders and policymakers, as well as the general public.

In addition to writing position papers on issues affecting research universities such as the importance of sustainable investment by universities in combating climate change, or the tightening of export controls on emerging technologies to ensure their use is for the benefit of society and the expansion of human knowledge. 

Joining Professor Doyle on the Board will be Professor Yves Flückiger as the Board’s new chair, currently serving as Rector of the University of Geneva, along with incumbent member Professor Bernhard Eitel, Rector of Heidelberg University in Germany.

Speaking on the announcement, Flückiger commented: “During the past two decades, LERU has done an excellent job in promoting the interests of frontier research, innovation and education in Europe, and has the firm intention to continue to do that, notwithstanding the many challenges within and beyond Europe at this point in time.”

Elaborating on this new direction of the Board, Professor Kurt Deketelaere, secretary general of LERU noted: “I am very much looking forward to continuing to work with Yves, and to push even harder, with a Swiss LERU Chair, for the association of Switzerland and the UK to Horizon Europe.”

Horizon Europe, of which LERU is a leading contributor and consultative member, is a project of the EU aimed at providing a key funding platform for research and innovation, estimated to comprise nearly €95.5bn in funding for projects complying with the UN’s sustainable development goals.

Adam Balchin

Adam Balchin is Deputy Online Editor for Trinity News, and a Senior Sophister Law student.