EUROPE: New Secretary-General for research universities

The new Secretary-General for the League of European Research Universities, Professor Kurt Deketelaere, has urged European governments and industries to continue investing in university research and development, despite the current global economy.

Deketelaere said that continuous investment in innovation would boost the European economy by promoting job creation and sustainable development. When he takes up his new job in July, he plans to stress the importance of volume, effectiveness and efficiency of public and private investments in research within European universities.

He will replace the current Secretary-General, Dr David Livesey, who has served as head of the organisation for four years.

"I am delighted to take up this position and hope to meet the expectations of the LERU members! After five years in politics, this great European academic challenge feels like coming home," said Deketelaere at an LERU Rectors' Assembly, staged at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in Belgium on 17 May.

In the past, Deketelaere has worked for various ministries of the Flemish regional government in Belgium, including the Ministry for Public Works, Energy, Environment and Nature. He has also maintained full-time teaching positions at the University of Dundee in Scotland and the Katholieke Universiteit where he currently teaches.

Founded in 2002, LERU is an association of 20 European senior research universities. Its mission statement commits it to working for a dramatic improvement in the environment of research universities in Europe. It wants to restore the past pre-eminence of the continent's higher education in research terms.