The University of Chicago and the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) signed an agreement to establish the International Research Center for Fundamental Scientific Discovery (IRC Discovery), a new collaboration that will bring together some of the world’s leading researchers to collaborate on answering the biggest questions of our time. The signing by President Alivisatos and CNRS President and CEO Antoine Petit took place in Washington, DC, during French President Emmanuel Macron’s state visit.
IRC Discovery is only the fourth CNRS International Research Center in the world and the second in the U.S. Anchored on UChicago’s Hyde Park campus and CNRS headquarters in Paris, it will convene researchers across disciplines to identify large-scale interdisciplinary projects in energy, communication technologies, climate, mobility, health, and political and social sciences, to name a few. Combining research capabilities at UChicago and the CNRS’s 1,144 affiliated research labs and 30,000-plus dedicated researchers, engineers and technicians, this new center will leverage robust networks and large-scale investments in scientific infrastructures.