The consortium of higher education establishments gathered around Tools + (Transforming and opening learning and sciences), coordinated by the ENS de Lyon (Ecole Normale Supérieure) brings in its wake the following structures: Sciences Po Lyon, the Ecole centrale of Lyon, the Ecole des Mines of Saint-Etienne, VetAgroSup and the National Conservatory of Music and Dance of Lyon.
To these six establishments already associated in the Collège des Hautes Etudes Lyon Science(s), created in 2013, representing a community of 8,800 students, is added the Jean-Moulin Lyon 3 law university with 27,900 students.
It should be noted that Tools +, supported by research organizations (CNRS, Inria, INRAE, Inserm and IFPEN), is one of the two projects of the university sites of Saint-Etienne and Lyon with Shape-Med@Lyon in which VetAgroSup is also a stakeholder, proposed as part of PIA4.
The program, presented on February 7, revolves around three components with the key word “opening”: towards students for more diversity, particularly in the profiles of managers; multidisciplinary studies and international openness.
The amount of this file filed on 1is February and whose response is expected in the spring of 2022 for deployment from September, amounts to €25.6 million as part of the second wave “Excellence in all its forms” the PIA4 of the State, endowed with €20 billion over five years. “We want to train students at the highest level, these transformations are necessary today to meet the challenges of transforming society”, said Jean-François Pinton, president of the École Normale Supérieure in Lyon.
After the end of the long-term project Idex, Initiative of Excellence, on October 29, 2020, the Tools+ project seems to be part of a concern for efficiency and reinforced cooperation in order to raise the campuses of Lyon and Saint -Etienne on the international scene in terms of training and research in economic, social and cultural terms. In June 2021, the ENS Lyon, Sciences Po Lyon and the CNSMD of Lyon had responded with the Tools project to the first wave of the PIA4, for which 66 M€ were hoped for, but it did not succeed. With this perimeter extended to other partner establishments and the reduction of the budget, Tools+ with the same vocation, wants to put all the chances on its side.
Diversity
This orientation results in a “strong political choice” with the provision of material aid, in the form of scholarships (in addition to those paid by the State to scholarship students), co-financed by partner establishments, for 400 students for an average annual amount of €4,000 per student. That is an overall annual amount of €1.6 million co-financed by partner establishments to the tune of €796,000. “It’s about solving the difficult financial equation that we can encounter when we commit to long studies, added the president of the ENS de Lyon. This scholarship aims to allow students not to have to work in parallel to finance their studies”.
Along with this aspect of diversity and better access to higher education at Bac+5, comes that of research and training for an annual total of €1.2 million, including €200,000 in support of investments .
This envelope includes four training and research themes: science of crises (such as Covid-19) and environmental issues; observations, data, concepts and modelling; culture and scientific mediation; and finally “rethink” public affairs. This will result in the creation of a school of public affairs in Lyon (LYSPA, Lyon school of public affairs) in order to meet the challenges of the transformation of public administration and to bring out a pole of public affairs other than ‘in the Paris region.
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International
In terms of internationalization, an annual envelope of €300k is requested to develop the PhD Track program in order to attract “best international students” to the research centers developed within the framework of Tools+ in particular, and the program “pDoc”. To this will be added the contribution of the establishments to the tune of 150 k€/year. Doctoral students, during their thesis, will be able to teach or mentor bachelor’s and master’s students, participate in popular science work, take part in international courses, which will lead them to receive specific training and certification.
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