On 12 March 2019, the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) brought together its British academic and institutional partners, and French manufacturers in the UK, to celebrate its 80th birthday, hosted at the French Ambassador’s Residence in London.

The United Kingdom, as the 3rd largest CNRS co-publication partner in the world, was one of the key venue of this year of celebrations. It was a unique opportunity for the CNRS to testify to the close links uniting it with the UK’s research community and to the importance it attaches to the bilateral scientific cooperation.

Accordingly, Professor Alain Schuhl, CNRS Chief Research Officer, recalled that the landmark establishments in the UK [the Maison française d’Oxford and the Abraham de Moivre international Laboratory], and the dense network of projects jointly formed over the years between the CNRS and our British partners are testimony to the vitality and richness of this collaboration, which the CNRS is determined to pursue at the highest level.

Alain Schuhl, CNRS Chief Research Officer

Credit: CNRS

The intervention of Professor Alice Gast, President of Imperial College London, once again demonstrated the strength of our partnership in mathematics formalized a year ago by the inauguration of the first research laboratory established jointly by the CNRS and a British institution.

Alice Gast, President of Imperial College London

Credit: French Embassy to the United Kingdom

Finally, the event of 80 years of the CNRS in London was also the opportunity for the CNRS, the French Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs, and the University of Oxford to sign a tripartite collaboration agreement around the Maison française d’Oxford (MFO). The MFO is indeed a flagship laboratory in the humanities and social sciences and the perfect symbol, for Jean-Pierre Jouyet, Ambassador of France in London, of the “dynamism of the Franco-British relationship, particularly in the academic field“. The reinforcement of the cooperation between the CNRS, the French Ministry and the University of Oxford will ensure a greater integration of the MFO into the British university and the extension of its scientific perimeter with a goal of interdisciplinarity. Frédéric Thibault Starzyk, director of the MFO, is delighted with this agreement, which “will make the MFO the epicenter of a renewed scientific collaboration between France and the United Kingdom” and which will give it “better visibility both at the local level and at the European level “.

Alain Schuhl, Jean-Pierre Jouyet and Karen O’Brien

Credit: French Embassy to the United Kingdom