2016-11-10

At 4 pm of November 10^th, 2016, Chairman ZHANG Yi, Deputy Secretary General HU Zhenming, Mr. Hermann Josef Walschebauer, Managing Director of European Consortium of Technology Transfer (ECTT, the partner of ECMDC), Mr. Henrich Guntermann, CEO of ECTT, and Ms. GU Xiang, Project Assistant of Natural Sciences Sector of UNESCO visited the Center for Research and Interdisciplinarity (CRI) in Paris. The Delegation met with Mr. Francois Taddei, Co-Founder and Director of CRI, Mr. Gaell Mainguy, Director of International Relations, and Ms. Gaelle Chevalon, International Relations Officer.

Mr. ZHANG Yi, and Mr. Francois Taddei (Left Four), Mr. Gaell Mainguy (Left Three), Ms. Gaelle Chevalon (Left Two), Ms. GU Xiang (Right Three), Mr. Hermann Josef Walschebauer (Right One), Mr. Henrich Guntermann (Right Two)

The Center for Research and Interdisciplinarity (CRI) was founded in 2005 as a convivial place at the crossroad of life sciences and exact, natural, cognitive, and social sciences. CRI works with Paris-Descartes University, Paris-Diderot University and other higher institutions to offer bachelor, master and Ph.D programs. The main of CRI is to promote new educational techniques and strategies to empower the students to take initiative and develop their own research projects. Mentors, research institutions, private companies, and foundations, provide the support for the student-created research projects and activities. CRI organizes visiting professors to carry out the innovative cooperation, opens a variety of courses and organizes many student clubs. In France, CRI enjoys a prestigious reputation and is the partner of UENSCO.

Mr. Francois Taddei, Founder of CRI expressed his welcome to the Delegation. He introduced the background of CRI and the related significance. He remarked that, when “Innovation” was on everyone’s lips across the world, there were various understandings of the related concrete action plans. Higher institutions in the world, which were supposed to take the lead in the innovation, might have not been engaged in the related research. Because of this fact, he and his colleagues of the same mind jointly set up CRI. CRI had received the social recognition because of its academic achievements after the dedicated efforts of 11 years.

Mr. ZHANG Yi congratulated Mr. Taddei on the achievements of CRI. He said, one of the major tasks of ECMDC was to facilitate sci-tech cooperation between China and Europe. ECMDC was actively constructing the dialogic platform, and creating the cooperation mechanism for Sino-European scholars and experts in sci-tech, and educational circles in many aspects. Therefore, ECMDC would be ready to work with Mr. Taddei to explore the down-to-earth cooperation between two parties.

After the in-depth discussion, both parties reached the consensus of cooperation. ECMDC would introduce CRI to Chinese partners, jointly develop the special courses, and provide the consulting service in line with the actual demands of Chinese universities, and sci-tech, educational authorities. ECMDC intended to invite CRI to participate in the construction of UNESCO-China Sci-Tech Innovation and Education Center, and the preparatory work for the special topic of China-EU Municipal Development Forum with the purpose of sharing the avant-garde concepts and ideas in the field of interdisciplinary studies and innovation with Chinese counterparts.