The Office for Science and Technology (OST), a team of 24 staff members located in the Embassy and 6 consular offices (Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, San Francisco) is dedicated to bilateral FR-US collaborations in Science and Technology. The OST’s main priorities are to monitor and report advances in Science and Technology in the US through newsletters and diplomatic channels, promote bilateral partnershipsin science, technology and innovation, foster exchanges and increase mobility of researchers, doctoral students and entrepreneurs, serve as a liaison between French and American academic and scientific organizations as well as between the two countries’ central governments and the European Delegation, increase the visibility of France’s foremost laboratories, universities and start-ups, support young innovative companies and the internationalization of competitiveness clusters. Close collaboration between the OST and other diplomatic divisions, such as the Economic Department, the Cultural Services of the Embassy of France as well as French Research Organizations (CNRS, Inserm, CNES, CEA), allows the OST to efficiently handle the many economic and social implications of current science and technology issues.
University of Nantes (UN) is a multidisciplinary higher education institution which has for main objective to strongly raise the excellence of its scientific activities and education/training activities (master and doctorate) to international standard. With 3,200 permanent and contract research staff and more than 37,000 students enrolled at UN over 2016-2017, the University of Nantes is one of the largest universities in France. Université de Nantes carries out the Sea and Litoral Research Institute. Sea and Litoral Research Institute is a multi-disciplinary research funding and performing organization gathering 19 high level research units. IUML is organized through a scientific and strategic project aiming at better positioning researchers and labs working locally in marine sciences on the national and European arenas. By its critical size (650 pers.), IUML is one of the top marine research and training clusters in France. One of the key features of this cluster lies in the spetrum of topics covered by the research units and the number of its collaborative projects between various disciplines: History, Biology, law, Food engineering, Economics, Biotechnology, Geography, Civil engineering, Management, Flux mechanics, Earth sciences, Sociology, Pharmaceutics, Ecotoxicology, Energy, Fisheries sciences, etc.. IUML is one of the rare clusters acknowledged by two scientific departments (Engineering and Humanities) of the National Council of Scientific Research. It is controlled and funded by Ecole Centrale de Nantes, Université de Nantes, Université du Maine, Université Bretagne Sud, ENSAM, ENSM, Ifremer and CNRS. Research performed by IUML members includes engineering (civil engineering, ocean engineering, food engineering), health sciences & biology as well as social sciences & humanities. An example of a research projects carried out by IUML are the projects focussing of marine renewable energy and supported by WEAMEC (ROS3D, LEHERO-MG, MUSCAS, OWARD), FEM (OMDYN, MHM-EMR, ABIOP, LISORE), region pays de la Loire (HYDROL44, SURFFEOL, iMARECO2) or EUROPE (OCEANET, IBOCS2).
The Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Northeastern University includes 37 faculty and 15 affiliated faculty, over 400 undergraduate students, over 200 M.S. students, and 70 Ph.D. students. The Department has a range of teaching and research strengths, anchored by several multi-disciplinary, multi-institutional centers and programs that are core to the activities of the department. With a strategic focus on Urban Engineering, the department has three overarching themes, including Environmental Health, Civil Infrastructure Security, and Sustainable Resource Engineering. Northeastern University’s College of Engineering has a distinguished history of accomplishment and vast potential for innovation in engineering research and education, particularly in the energy, environmental, health and security fields. With 13 multi-institutional research centers with funding by eight federal agencies, over 170 tenured/tenure track faculty engaged in interdisciplinary research and teaching, more than $59 million in annual federal funding, and thousands of loyal alumni providing support, the College of Engineering is a leader in Engineering for Society.
The Civil and Environmental Department at Northeastern University (NU) is a founding member of the Massachusetts Research Partnership (MRP) in offshore wind energy research and the Partnership of Offshore Wind Energy Research in the United States (POWER-US). POWER-US is a uniquely qualified organization that convenes research assets in the U.S. to respond to the offshore wind energy industry’s most pressing technical questions. The partnership combines industry, university, and National Laboratory expertise and provides an impartial, multidisciplinary, and international perspective that advances technology, commercializes innovations, and reduces costs and risk of the offshore wind energy industry. NU’s researchers have specific expertise in structural design, large-scale testing, and risk assessment. NU also boasts significant large-scale testing capabilities at the Laboratory for Structural Testing of Resilient and Sustainable Systems
Sea and Littoral Institute IUML is organized through a scientific and strategic project aiming at better positioning researchers and labs working locally in marine sciences on the national and European arenas (H2020, INTERREG by propoting and encouraging interdisciplinary studies. By its critical size (650 researchers), IUML is one of the top marine research and training clusters in France. Within the Pays de la Loire region, IUML can also cooperate with renowned maritime companies : Port Atlantique de Nantes Saint-Nazaire, STX shipyards, Bénéteau group, Naval Energy, GE, TOTAL,… On a broader scale, IUML is member of french cluster of Universités Maritimes (European Marine Board). As a french leader in Marine Sciences and Technologies, IUML will gather other forces in France : WEAMEC, GdR EMR, France Energie Marines.
