University endowments

France-Berkeley Fund

Established in 1993 as a partnership between the government of France and the University of California at Berkeley, the France-Berkeley Fund (FBF) promotes scholarly exchange in all disciplines between UC Berkeley and all research centers and public institutions of higher education in France. Through its annual grant competition, the Fund provides seed-money for innovative, bi-national collaborative research. (Since September 1999, applications from UC Davis and UC Santa Cruz have also been eligible for the competition). Successful projects bring together senior and junior researchers in a variety of ways, from workshops and conferences to exchanges of researchers in laboratories. Since 1993, the France-Berkeley Fund has awarded more than $900,000 to fund nearly 100 projects in a wide range of fields — from viticulture and bioengineering to health care policy and Asian history — involving a total of three UC campuses, the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory and more than fifty French institutions. Many past FBF grant recipients have gone on to secure additional funding from private and governmental sources on both sides of the Atlantic to further their collaboration. In addition to the grant competition, the Fund administers the Berkeley-C.N.R.S. exchange of scholars in the humanities and social sciences. Please see our 2008 Call for Applications.

France-Stanford Fund

The France-Stanford Center for Interdisciplinary Studies (FSCIS) was created in 2002 at the initiative of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Stanford University. It was officially inaugurated in November 2003. Its fundamental goal is to foster interdisciplinary collaboration and exchange between Stanford researchers and students and their French counterparts.

The France-Stanford Center for Interdisciplinary Studies, founded in partnership with the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, aims to bridge the disciplines of the Humanities, Social Sciences, Sciences, Engineering, Business and Law, addressing historical and contemporary issues of significance for France and the United States from a broad range of perspectives. The Center brings faculty and students from across Stanford’s departments and schools together and into contact with colleagues in France, to explore issues of common intellectual concern, to advance collaborative research, and to foster interdisciplinary inquiry.

France-Chicago Fund

The University of Chicago is one of the most prestigious universities in the Midwest. It has ties to France through a foundation of the Foreign Affairs Ministry: the France-Chicago Center (FFC). The FFC had a budget of around $100,000 in 2004, less than 10% of which was designated to the sciences.

In 2007, the FFC saw its first exchanges with the Collège de France (Climatologist Edouard Bard and Physicist Serge Haroche) and the Institut des Hautes Etudes Scientifiques de Bures (Mathematics Chair). New in 2008 is France and Chicago Collaborating in The Sciences (FACCTS). This program will have an annual fund of $100,000 for financing projects in the sciences, primarily from the fields of physics and biology. The ten projects subsidized under FACCTS for this year were selected after a request for proposals. The budget for 2008 is established at $275,000, of which about 56% is designated for the sciences.

MIT-France Program

The MIT-France Program started in September 2000, as the sixth country program of the MIT International Science and Technology Initiatives (MISTI). MISTI prepares MIT students and faculty to work and live in societies outside the United States through intensive language instruction, cultural immersion, in-country internships, and faculty research collaborations. MISTI is also working with corporations, government agencies, and non-governmental organizations to internationalize industry, education, and research. Building on highly successful MISTI experience in Japan, China, Germany, India, and Italy, the MIT-France Program aims to bring understanding of the accomplishments and issues of contemporary France to the attention of the students and faculty of MIT and to foster operational transatlantic cooperation.

In order to build long-term networks of cooperation between MIT and France, the MIT-France Program has been setting in place six main components:

• Internships for MIT students and young graduates in companies and research laboratories in France
• “Study in France” opportunities for MIT students and graduates at selected universities and grandes écoles
• Doctoral and postdoctoral fellowships for young MIT researchers to conduct research in France’s leading laboratories
• Visiting positions for French professors or researchers in various MIT departments
• On-campus lectures, seminars and conferences
• Seed funding for collaborative projects between MIT and France which encourage multidisciplinary approaches in education, research and technological innovation
• Partnerships with a limited number of leading French companies.