Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (LMU) is recognized as one of Europe's premier academic and research institutions with more than 4.000 academic members.   It has a long tradition as a top-level European research university, clearly demonstrated in its international character and its areas of academic cooperation from research to teaching and student exchange. LMU is the academic home of almost 7,000 international students from 125 countries, the largest number at any German university. The university was a founder member of the League of European Research Universities (LERU), Venice International University (VIU), the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) and the Bavarian International Academic Centers. Within the European Union, LMU takes part in ERASMUS student and lecturer exchange programs, Erasmus Mundus programs and EU third-country projects.   LMU also cooperates closely with numerous partner universities outside of EU programs. In total, LMU maintains faculty-based cooperation agreements with well over 400 partner universities worldwide. In addition, selected strategic research collaborations offer the opportunity for close contacts between institutions and for the establishment of new forms of cooperation. These are funded by the institutional strategy LMU excellent and serve to underpin LMU Munich’s status at national and international level.