President Joel Seligman met today with representatives from the Worldwide Universities Network (WUN) to formally launch the University of Rochester into a new relationship with a group of research universities worldwide.

In an online statement, President Seligman said, “Our collaborations with the Worldwide Universities Network will open innumerable possibilities as the University engages with faculty and students across five continents. We expect the alliance to produce even more support for scholarly research and break the barriers that may keep people in different parts of the world from working toward common goals.”

WUN was created in 2000 with the goal of being “a leading international higher education network.” It hopes that the collaboration of resources and intellect from universities throughout the world will help achieve “collective international objectives.” The network is currently working on 30 research initiatives that involve hundreds of research faculty.

UR becomes the eighteenth member of WUN and the first private American university invited to join.