Sophie D’Amours
Universities around the world must address complex social issues and rethink their approach to research and innovation to maintain a leading role in our communities.
Few thriving sectors represent this challenge as well as digital technology, optics, and artificial intelligence. Cities are becoming smarter, copious amounts of information is circulating at breathtaking speeds, health research is going digital at an unprecedented rate, and our ecosystems—from vast northern environments to miniscule microbiomes—require modern, technology-driven research.
It is essential for universities to forge alliances in order to provide meaningful solutions in these areas. They can tackle critical global challenges by joining forces and pooling their research capabilities across all disciplines.
The strategic partnership between Université Laval and Université Côte d’Azur is a perfect example of this approach and our desire to respond boldly to the issues facing our societies. This ground-breaking agreement will generate tangible benefits in research and innovation by targeting strategic and high-potential sectors.
The partnership will increase opportunities for international mobility for members of our respective academic communities while promoting knowledge sharing.
The interdisciplinary and international collaboration between Université Laval and Université Côte d’Azur will contribute to the development of inspirational leaders who are able to transform innovations in optics, digital technology, and artificial intelligence into tangible solutions for our societies.
I am very proud of and excited about the enthusiasm surrounding the partnership between Université Laval and Université Côte d’Azur. It speaks volumes on the shape of tomorrow’s universities and the scope of their contributions to our world.
Sophie D’Amours
Rector, Université Laval
Jean-Marc Gambaudo
Our strategic partnership with Université Laval is much more than a simple collaboration. It enables us to help our students and researchers take advantage of opportunities at our partner institution.
A strategic partnership means acknowledging and understanding that together, we will be better able to respond to international calls for projects that address twenty-first century scientific and social issues.
But we are most proud of the friendship that underlies this strategic partnership. May it be a long and successful one!
Jean-Marc Gambaudo
President, Université Côte-d’Azur
Rénald Bergeron
I was Dean of the Faculty of Medicine when I was introduced to the UL-UCA strategic partnership and decided that my faculty would become an active participant. In October 2016, the Faculty of Medicine seized the opportunity to set up a first joint Educational Leadership Chair (ELC) with Université Côte d’Azur, a concrete and innovative first step. A second ELC followed shortly thereafter.
As Vice Rector of External and International Affairs and Health, the partnership has been under my responsibility since July 2017. I am both very proud and pleasantly surprised to see the strong ripple effect generated by the desire of UL and UCA administrators to work together and the synergy of our actions, which has allowed us to move forward at a steady clip.
What is the secret to our success? It is clearly the human connection we share with our partners in France, our rigorous analysis of our universities’ educational and research strengths and synergies, our desire to seize and create opportunities, and the commitment of the project’s leaders. There have already been tangible results in the past two years: three joint ELCs, numerous research partnerships in cutting-edge sectors, five joint interdisciplinary Sentinel North-IDEX UCA Jedi teams, joint education programs under development, two joint working teams for key international projects on smart cities and Territoires d’Innovation – Grande Ambition (TIGA), big data, and artificial intelligence, to name just a few.
Long live this inspiring and fruitful project!
Rénald Bergeron
Vice Rector of External and International Affairs and Health
Université Laval
Jeanick Brisswalter
The strategic partnership between Université Côte d’Azur and Université Laval is a testament to the shared philosophy that guides our respective institutions. It is first and foremost an action-based philosophy, because above and beyond the written agreement upon which our international partnership is based upon, our relationship thrives as a result of sustained efforts on both sides of the Atlantic to foster concrete collaboration on training, research, and innovation.
Université Côte d’Azur and Université Laval share a common vision of what a university should be: an institution with deep local roots that forges strong ties with other academic institutions to address current and future challenges by fusing research with innovation and building bridges between academia and the non-academic world. The partnership aims to develop our international visibility through coordinated training for faculty members and healthcare professionals, especially in emerging nations with which we share ties, including in Africa and Asia. These initiatives are made possible by two Educational Leadership Chairs that bringing together our respective experts.
Training, research, and innovation are the three pillars underpinning our joint efforts to meet challenges and engage actors in our home regions and those of our international partners.
Under the strategic partnership, Université Laval and Université Côte d’Azur have already pooled expertise in the areas of smart cities, artificial intelligence, health, risk management, and environmental protection to produce knowledge that will help us meet major societal challenges and train tomorrow’s students. It is creating exchange opportunities for students, teacher-researchers, and researchers through joint initiatives.
It was in this framework that Idex UCA Jedi coordinated with Université Laval’s ambitious Sentinel North program in August 2018 to develop five projects that aim to better understand northern environments and and foster their sustainable development against the backdrop of global warming.
With this objective in mind, Université Laval and Université Côte d’Azur recently teamed up to develop joint projects on both sides of the Atlantic involving smart cities and the social and legal issues raised by artificial intelligence.
The partnership is driven by a shared approach and vision and is based on innovative forms of international collaboration. It can only evolve and expand, paving the way for new programs and exciting opportunities.
Jeanick Brisswalter
Vice-President of Research
Université Côte d’Azur
Innovation and excellence are watchwords at Université Laval. As one of Canada’s leading research universities, it currently ranks 6th in the country with$377 million devoted to research last year. The University’s 3,730 professors, lecturers, and other teaching and research staff share their knowledge with a student body of more than 43,000, one-quarter of whom are graduate students. The oldest French-language university in North America, Université Laval has educated more than 300,000 students who have gone on to play leadership roles in society.
+
Université Côte d’Azur brings together the major players in higher education and research from Côte d’Azur and, thanks to its Initiative d’Excellence certification, ranks among the top ten universities in France. Université Côte d’Azur offers a model for 21st century universities that encourages new interactions between disciplines; a new form of coordination between research, teaching, and innovation; and strong partnerships with the private sector and local authorities.
+