Said1
Gold Member
ContinuedFrance Wants Its Own MIT
A French think tank wants to build a tech research hub in a Paris suburb that would rival MIT and Oxford.
September 29, 2005
Seeking to attract more researchers and funding in fields like nanotechnology and biotechnology, French scientists said Thursday they would create a Paris research center that will one day rival the Massachusetts Institute of Technology or Oxford University.
Proposed by the Strategic Innovation Council (SIC), an independent think tank, the European Institute of Technology of Paris is expected to draw about 300 high-level researchers to a 148-acre campus, possibly in a southwestern suburb of the capital.
Building 860,000 square feet of ultramodern labs would cost as much as 200 million ($240 million) and the institutes operating budget would be about 800 million ($960 million) per year, the council said, with money coming from the French government and other sources.
In a separate announcement concerning a new research law, French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin said the government backed the formation of these type of research campuses. He added they would benefit from an initial endowment and an annual subsidy to endow chairs, recruit renowned scientists, and as a result, get some of our best researchers now living abroad to return.
deed, France, Europes third-largest biotech power after Germany and the United Kingdom in terms of the number of biotech companies created, is anxious to become a big player in cutting-edge technology.