The University of Bremen is a higher education institution with approximately 23,500 people from 115 countries who are studying, teaching, researching, and working in Bremen (Germany). The university was founded in 1971 and nowadays consists of 12 faculties in Sciences, Engineering, Social Sciences and the Humanities. It has become the science center of North West Germany and is one out of 11 "Universities of Excellence" in Germany.

Founded in 1991, the University of Cergy-Pontoise – UCP – is located in the Val-d’Oise district within a dynamic, pleasant city with its artistic and cultural events and numbers of theatres, museums, concert halls. It is one of the largest economic zones in France with two international airports nearby.

At the beginning of the nineties, the University of Lyon 1 developed Spiral, known today as Spiral Connect. Around the same time the UniversitéCatholique de Louvain created Claroline, which is globally distributed and supported by an international consortium composed of several international partners, the Claroline Consortium.