The annual Directors’ meeting of the European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI) is currently taking place in Cordoba, Spain. This is a city with an extraordinarily rich history of connectivity and diversity between people and places, and of the articulation of progressive values. This could not be a more apt location for a coming-together of institutions seeking to address the key global challenges of our time. Engaging with partners around the world, we are working towards achieving social justice, sustainability, peace and greater solidarity. Collectively, we are engaged in dynamic and fruitful exchanges of ideas, practices and experiences, towards promoting shared values and genuine positive change. It is ironic that this powerful demonstration of trans-European connectivity is taking place at the same time as the UK’s negotiations around leaving the EU are reaching a critical moment. British Development Studies institutions including the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) Sussex, the Global Development Institute (GDI) Manchester, and the School of Development Studies at the University of East Anglia are founding members of EADI, actively engaged since its establishment in 1975. This Brexit moment illuminates even more brightly the importance and salience of such European networks. British EADI member institutions and colleagues are committed more than ever to reaffirming these European engagements and connections. At the opening of today’s meeting, the EADI President, Henning Melber, spoke powerfully and eloquently of the central contributions of UK Development Studies institutions, and the vital importance of their continued interactions with European partners in addressing contemporary global challenges. Irrespective of Britain’s formal relationship with the rest of the European Union, we are determined that these interactions will not only continue but flourish.