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In 1997, the University of Illinios entered into a formal cooperative research partnership with the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) in France. Funded by the French government, CNRS is a basic research insitute that maintains research facilities and academic departments in universities all over France. CNRS sponsors over 1,200 laboratories and employs over 26,000 personnel, including nearly 12,000 research scholars and scientists and over 14,000 professional engineers, scholars, and support staff. CNRS has played a major role in many of the scientific discoveries made in France in recent decades, and has established collaborations with major international research agencies.
The UIUC–CNRS Cooperative Research Program provides funding for personnel exchange (travel, living accommodations, and living allowances) for research scholars and scientists from either institution, who have developed collaborative research projects in one of eight broad areas of interest:
- Chemical and Environmental Engineering
- Chemistry and Materials Science
- Computer Science
- Life Sciences and Neuroscience
- Mathematics
- Physics
- Sciences of the Universe
- Social Sciences and Humanities
To date, more than 50 such collaborative research projects have been undertaken through the auspices of this program. Each year, approximately 60 researchers are exchanged between the UIUC and CNRS.
Click here to view a past issue of The Communiqué, a news letter describing recent activities and projects undertaken through the auspices of this exchange.
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The University of Illinios at Urbana-Champaign is currently in negotiation with the Institut National de Recherche en Informatique et en Automatique (INRIA) to establish a collaboration similar in structure to the UIUC/CNRS Cooperative Research Program, focused on computer science and electrical and computer engineering. INRIA, the national institute for research in computer science and control, operating under the dual authority of the Ministry of Research and the Ministry of Industry, is dedicated to fundamental and applied research in information and communication science and technology (ICST). The Institute also plays a major role in technology transfer by fostering training through research, diffusion of scientific and technical information, development, as well as providing expert advice and participating in international programs. By playing a leading role in the scientific community in the field and being in close contact with industry, INRIA is a major participant in the development of ICST in France.
Throughout its six research units in Rocquencourt, Rennes, Sophia Antipolis, Grenoble, Nancy and Bordeaux-Lille-Saclay, INRIA has a workforce of 3,600, 2,800 of whom are scientists from INRIA's partner organizations such as CNRS (the French National Center for Scientific Research), universities and leading engineering schools. They work in 138 joint research projects. Many INRIA researchers are also professors whose approximately 1,000 doctoral students work on theses as part of INRIA research projects.