Why did the CNRS choose to open its office in Melbourne?
Jean-Paul Toutain
: Since 2019, ASEAN
and Oceania have been under the remit of the CNRS Office in Singapore, which I directed from 2019 to late 2021. A close look at the primary indicators for partnership intensity showed that Oceania—Australia and New Zealand in particular—represented approximately 60% of the area’s overall activity in terms of co-publications, research trips, and structural initiatives. The French scientific community’s interest in this region, which is of major importance for France as part of its Indo-Pacific strategy, was clearly demonstrated. This period saw the launch of the first International Research Laboratory
(IRL) in Australia entitled CROSSING—on human-machine interactions and artificial intelligence, based in Adelaide—and the launch of the CNRS@CREATE subsidiary in Singapore, led by Dominique Baillargeat
. As this two-pronged presence (office and subsidiary) in Singapore became difficult for our partners to understand, we developed the project to divide the ASEAN-Oceania area, and to establish a dedicated office for our relations with countries in Oceania. The Singapore office, which is henceforth in charge of ASEAN and the CNRS@CREATE subsidiary, is led by Dominique Baillargeat, and we opened a CNRS office in Melbourne with responsibility for the Oceania area, with me as the head. This is the tenth CNRS office, after the one opened in Ottawa, Canada.
Who are the CNRS’s partners there?
J-P. T. : The opening of the Melbourne office was strongly encouraged and supported by Invest Victoria and the Department of Treasury and Finance of the State of Victoria, which provided a subsidy to establish the office, and the University of Melbourne, which hosts the office.
More broadly, our scientific partners include most Australian universities and some Australian research centres. We have developed partnerships with the entire Group of Eight
(Go8) of Australian research-intensive universities. For example, we initiated Joint PhD Programs
with the Australian National University in Canberra and the University of Melbourne. A second class of candidates is currently being selected with the latter university. Finally, another leading CNRS endeavour in Australia has been the launch of the CROSSING IRL, in partnership with the three universities located in Adelaide (Universities of Adelaide, South Australia, and Flinders), IMT Atlantique, and Naval Group.
As with all CNRS offices abroad, relations with the French embassy in the country, and its Cooperation and Cultural Action Service (SCAC) in particular, is crucial. Interaction with the SCAC allows us to give greater consideration and emphasis to the diversity of French higher education institutions, as well as the complementarity of its actors with the CNRS.
What are the major scientific subjects being pursued by Australia, and more broadly by Oceania? How is the CNRS involved?
J-P. T. : The CNRS currently has one IRL, 12 IRPs
, 5 IRNs
, and 5 IEAs
in the region, mostly in the fields of computer science, physics, the environment, health, ecology, HSS, biology, energy, Earth science, the climate, and astronomy.
In addition, extensive and long-term partnerships have emerged from CNRS structures in research focusing on the Southern Ocean and polar regions. We have very strong partnerships with the University of Tasmania, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), and the Antarctic Division
based in Hobart. This is where Astrolabe is based, the French patrol and logistical ship armed by the navy and made available to the French Polar Institute Paul-Émile Victor (IPEV), which takes oceanographic measurements and enables regular rotations with the Dumont D’Urville Antarctic Station. Finally, there is strong logistical cooperation between France and Australia, making it possible to pool together installations and transportation capacities in Antarctica.
Following French President Emmanuel Macron’s decision to make France a member of the Square Kilometre Array Observatory (SKAO)
, radio astronomy became one of the fields with the greatest potential for developing partnerships with Australia, especially with respect to computing (for infrastructure), energy (with the use of hydrogen), and of course astronomy with the study of interstellar environments. A major cooperation effort between the CNRS and the ATOS company
could play a central role in developing the SKAO’s computing capabilities. These possibilities are part of very long-term French-Australian collaboration in astronomy and instrumentation.
Finally, corals are also an area of importance. At the CNRS, the central actor is the Centre for Island Research and Environmental Observatory
(CRIOBE), which since 2010 has managed the CORAIL Laboratory of Excellence that brings together 9 institutions and 4 overseas universities. It also hosts RéNSEE, one of the 5 stations in the INEE’s National Networks of Experimental Ecology Stations. CRIOBE has a close partnership with CSIRO and Curtin University (Perth, Australia).
How will the office support and encourage ties with French overseas laboratories? And more generally with the region, especially New Zealand?
J-P. T. : With regard to overseas, my role will primarily be to facilitate and foster ties between laboratories hosted by the two French universities in the Pacific—l’Université de Polynésie française and l’Université de Nouvelle-Calédonie—as well as to promote the Fonds Pacifique
in partnership with the French embassy.
In New Zealand, the CNRS’s tools are fairly developed with 3 IRPs in the fields of physics and the adaptation of ecosystems to climate change. Since cooperation between Australian and New Zealand universities is very strong, it would be more interesting to develop cross-partnerships with Australia and New Zealand. The CNRS has cross-partnerships in Australia and New Zealand with the French territories of the Pacific. For instance, the VinAdapt IRP on agrosystems and climate change was selected for a project by the Pacific Fund, along with its New Zealand partner the University of Canterbury and the New Caledonian Agronomical Institute (IAC).
What are the office’s long-term objectives?
J-P. T. : The office will initially support the resumption of bilateral activity. The pandemic and the complete closure of Australia’s and New Zealand’s borders had highly negative effects on numerous partnerships. Structural tools that have evolved over time (IRP, IRN, IRL) fully played their role, preserving close ties even in the absence of mobility for the actors involved. However, the effect on new projects was more severe. The projects financed by IEAs in 2019 and 2020 had barely begun, and the pandemic clearly diminished researchers’ desire to propose new ones. With the opening of borders, we must re-establish a high level of exchange, and restart the machine in order to see new partnerships emerge.
The office’s role will also to support current tools that have proven their resilience, and that may be seeking to develop further. Efforts to strengthen the CROSSING IRL, a project that is now the most visible in Australia, should also be intensified. The office will naturally take an interest in any potential projects for opening new IRLs that would further establish the CNRS’s presence in Oceania. I should also mention support for the leading projects of the CNRS and other French higher education institutions in the region (Southern Ocean, polar, astronomy), projects involving laboratories from overseas territories, cross-partnerships with CNRS structures located in Singapore that enable exchanges between researchers and students, and finally support for projects in areas of obvious shared interest (the energy sector in general, and hydrogen in particular, artificial intelligence, engineering, environment and health).
Source link : https://www.cnrs.fr/en/cnrsinfo/australia-the-CNRS-opens-its-tenth-office-abroad
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Publish date : 2022-04-11 03:00:00
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