A New French-Indian Life Sciences Campus for Health

MEAE and MESR are launching a call for projects to create a French-Indian campus in the Indo-Pacific focused on the field of life sciences for health. The main goal of the campus is to strengthen academic and scientific cooperation with India, a key partner in the Indo-Pacific region, on the strategic topic of health.The Campus France agency is promoting the project, lending its expertise and managing mobility.

The goals of this call for projects for the French-Indian campus are:

• To balance the flow of students by supporting cross-cultural mobility, drawing Indian students to France as well as attracting French students and those from the Indo-Pacific region to India.

• To reinforce bilateral cooperation (France-India) in the strategic sector of health, support the development of partnerships between key players in higher education and French research, and help Indian establishments attract more international students.

• To prepare young people for professional careers and meet existing socio-economic needs in the health care sector.

• To build an ecosystem of multidisciplinary, highly transversal research that fosters the development of innovative partnerships between various players (academics, innovators, clusters, start-ups, manufacturers, etc.), particularly by providing support for training through research.

All projects must:

• Focus on applying the life sciences to health and its challenges.
• Offer tailored, ambitious responses to the goals specified in this call for projects.
• Support France's strategy of cooperation in the fields of higher education and international research, and provide a European element that incorporates European initiatives and systems for higher education, research and innovation (Erasmus+, Horizon Europe, European Alliances, etc.).

This call for projects welcomes submissions from:

• Independent French higher education and research establishments.
• Consortiums of multiple French higher education and research establishments. In such cases, one leading higher education and research establishment must be clearly designated to coordinate the project.

This call for projects is financed by the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs, and coordinated in partnership with the Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation.

The winner or winners will receive financial support to launch their project(s). Eligible partners must start by making sure that the conditions they create will guarantee the long-term financial and operational sustainability of their initiatives. The ability to create these conditions is one of the selection criteria.

The total amount of funding is €900,000, to be distributed among a maximum of three projects.

The call for projects will proceed in two phases:

Pre-proposals must be submitted by May 31, 2022, at 11:59 p.m. (Paris time) to the following address: cfi.dgm-dcerr-esr@diplomatie.gouv.fr.

Once evaluated, all pre-selected applications must submit a complete project by September 30, 2022. A workshop will be held in India between the two phases, in June 2022, with the French coordinators of the preselected projects. During this time, working visits will also occur with the potential Indian partner establishments.

The projects selected for Phase 2 are:

• Consortium of the University of Reunion Island - Lyon 1 - Lyon 2 - Poitiers / Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT) / Biotechnology, and social sciences around the natural and healing properties of plants.

• Consortium of ENS-Lyon (coordinator) - ENS-PSL - ENS-Saclay - ENS-Rennes / IISER Pune -IISER Tirupati - IISER Kolkata -IISER Bophal - IISER Mohali Title / One Health.

• Consortium of the University of Bordeaux (coordinator) - Paris-Saclay - ISIPCA - Rennes 1 / Mumbai University - Osmania University - Transdisciplinary University Bangalore - IICT Hyderabad / Natural Substances for Health. Cosmetics, natural health products.

• Sorbonne University / Unidentified Indian partner / Integrated Health / One Health.

• Toulouse 3 - Paul Sabatier University / Unidentified Indian partner / Pharmacy, Toxicology.                                 

• Clermont Auvergne University / Unidentified Indian partner/ Nutrition, Physiology, Genetics.

• Côte d'Azur University / Savitribai Phule Pune University - ISEER Pune / Basic Biology and Computer Science.

• Grenoble Alps University / Manipal Academy of Higher Education / Biotechnology and Health Engineering.

The final projects will be submitted by September 30, 2022.

The call secretariat is the contact point for all applicants: cfi.dgm-dcerr-esr@diplomatie.gouv.fr