December 18, 2014. The National Research Nuclear University “MEPhI” was officially visited by the delegation of the French Embassy in Russia consisting of a Science Councilor Alexis Michel, a Deputy Advisor on Science Michel Tararine, a Coordinator of scientific collaboration Corinne Lassailly.
The visit included a constructive exchange of views on the prospects of possible cooperation in the field of education and science. Anticipating the discussion, meeting participants gave an overall view of education systems of the two countries. MEPhI rector M.Strikhanov told about the specificity of geographically distributed University, about the organization of educational process, about creation centers of excellence.
Councilor of the French Embassy said that “despite the ambiguity of the political situation, interrupts or braking of scientific collaboration between Russia and France will not and should not exist”. Moreover, he assured, mutual cooperation will only increase. As an example he cited the result of negotiations between the French National Centre for Scientific Research and the Russian Science Foundation about the competitions, in terms of which it is planned to finance joint projects of French and Russian scientific laboratories.
Praising the MEPhI brand, and in particular the quality of training, Alexis Michel turned to the prospects of possible cooperation. He told about exchange programs funded by the Embassy of France. For example, program of “a joint postgraduate students”, in which postgraduates make half of their work in France and receive a doctorate in French University and a PhD in Russia at the same time. He said that the French Embassy annually offers about 20 scholarships for postgraduates of Russian universities and will be glad to offer this opportunity for young scientists from the MEPhI. In addition, Alexis Michel proposed an exchange of students and scientific staff, development of joint bachelor's, master's, doctoral and postdoctoral programs, funding for research trips of MEPhI professors in France.
The meeting was also attended by Professor from the University of Savoy (France), Pascal Chardonnet, who gives lectures in MEPhI. Professor spoke in favor of developing a system that allows to give a strong impulse to young MEPhI students towards fundamental science that is the basis of all subsequent applied researches.
