Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Tables
- List of Abbreviations
- Acknowledgements
- Foreword
- Foreword
- Foreword
- Introduction
- 1 French Foreign Cultural Activities: A Tradition with a Long History
- 2 Cultural and Scientific Action since 1995: Soft Power or Hard Power?
- 3 The Protagonists of Cultural and Scientific Diplomacy; 2011: A New Start
- 4 Cultural Diplomacy and the Arts
- 5 Science and University Diplomacy
- 6 Linguistic and Educational Cooperation
- 7 The Organization and Implementation of French Cultural and Scientific Activities Abroad
- Conclusion
- Index
5 - Science and University Diplomacy
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Tables
- List of Abbreviations
- Acknowledgements
- Foreword
- Foreword
- Foreword
- Introduction
- 1 French Foreign Cultural Activities: A Tradition with a Long History
- 2 Cultural and Scientific Action since 1995: Soft Power or Hard Power?
- 3 The Protagonists of Cultural and Scientific Diplomacy; 2011: A New Start
- 4 Cultural Diplomacy and the Arts
- 5 Science and University Diplomacy
- 6 Linguistic and Educational Cooperation
- 7 The Organization and Implementation of French Cultural and Scientific Activities Abroad
- Conclusion
- Index
Summary
Research and innovation have played an essential role in the post-war reconstruction of France in areas such as transport, infrastructure, nuclear energy, space exploration and aeronautics. Research and innovation are also the best guarantees for French expertise abroad and offer the greatest potential for science and university cooperation.
Research and Innovation: A National Priority
Research and innovation are here considered as searches for solutions to current global problems, such as the state of the environment and the consequences of climate change and the ageing and explosion of world populations. To this end, digital technologies and nanotechnologies are the great opportunities of the twenty-first century.
It was for this purpose in 2009 that a national strategy for research and innovation was devised, which Valérie Pécresse, Minister of Higher Education and Research, described thus:
This is first a strategy based on the analysis of the great challenges to come, which constitute as many priorities for French research; it is a truly national strategy: its priorities will therefore be defined in terms of the vital needs of the nation, to reassert the social value of research and innovation, and to revive the dialogue between science and society; it is primarily research-oriented: its priorities then have a place in the scheduling of research organizations, which will endow it with drive; it must power a transformation of research into innovation, by strengthening the interactive continuum between research and the needs of the market and of society, to lend a permanent dynamic between fundamental discoveries and their technological application, as well as their dissemination within our universities and grandes écoles.
The three French priorities of research and innovation are
• health, wellbeing, food and biotechnology;
• the environment and ecological technologies; and
• information and communication technology and nanotechnologies
The demands of society for research into health are growing, and health, wellbeing, food and biotechnology offer many opportunities for economic development to French industry – in the pharmaceutical sector and in new health technologies. This research is of the first priority, organized around established goals: to research living organisms, from the genome to the ecosystem, to advance knowledge of its complexity, in particular by following cohorts of the population over time (a long-term observation of certain individuals, better to understand public health issues and developing models of living organisms by means of trials of simulation and prediction).
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- French Scientific and Cultural Diplomacy , pp. 73 - 94Publisher: Liverpool University PressPrint publication year: 2013