Q: Beyond the School’s extensive international activity, how would you describe the partnership strategy you are developing?

We rely on two types of partnerships: a limited network of institutions with which we maintain dense, multidimensional relationships, both in Europe and worldwide; alongside these, we develop more targeted and flexible partnerships that allow us to expand our academic choices and mobility opportunities, support area studies, and preserve language diversity beyond English.

I strongly believe in asymmetrical partnerships. Given our relatively small size, we cannot always sustain perfectly balanced exchanges in numerical terms. We are not in a position to offer large-scale exchange volumes. What matters instead is reciprocal value, even when the forms or terms of exchange are not identical. More broadly, the priorities and expectations surrounding internationalization are increasingly diverging across higher education systems, particularly between North America and Europe.

It is also important to note that international collaboration functions differently in STEM and in the humanities and social sciences. In the exact and experimental sciences, laboratories and international research communities are the key drivers. In the humanities and social sciences, area studies and digital humanities play a central role. The agreement we recently signed with Japan’s National Institute of Informatics, alongside our strategic partnerships with NARA Institute of Science and Technology and the University of Tokyo, grew out of a highly specialized collaboration between the director of IXXI at ENS de Lyon and a Japanese researcher. Among other initiatives, the partnership includes the digitization of Japanese-language collections through the expertise of the Institute of East Asian Studies (IAO).

Q: What are ENS de Lyon’s major strategic partnerships?

China: PROSFER and JoRISS Programmes

The PROSFER doctoral program, has been renewed with ECNU (East China Normal University) , after being restructured across the Lyon academic site (Lyon 1, Lyon 2, Lyon 3, and ENS de Lyon). Nearly 150 PhDs have been awarded since 2002. The program’s new structure will expand our capacity to host Chinese doctoral students while broadening the disciplinary scope of the partnership across STEM, and social sciences and humanities. In the current geopolitical climate, strengthening collaboration with China in the humanities and social sciences represents a particularly valuable opportunity.

ECNU in Shanghai also maintains privileged ties with NYU Shanghai, an autonomous Chinese-American institution, with which we have expanded our JoRISS research program, allowing us to launch four calls for projects annually.

At the same time, more focused collaborations are being developed or reinforced with Beijing Language and Culture University and the University of Beijing in advanced Chinese studies and area studies.

India: Biosantexc Program

The Biosantexc program with the Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research (IISERs) is a structuring component of ENS de Lyon’s international strategy, with expanding master’s-level exchanges and the imminent extension to doctoral programs. A joint workshop held in Paris on December 8-9, 2025 brought together the four Indo-French campuses around global health challenges and artificial intelligence.

India is now an essential scientific partner, although collaboration requires careful attention to intellectual property and sovereignty issues—challenges that differ from, yet in some respects resemble, those encountered in our partnerships with China.

ENS de Lyon also participated in the RUSH event in New Delhi, organized alongside the Franco-Indian Summit on Artificial Intelligence during President Macron’s visit.

Japan: Agreement with the Nara Institute of Science and Technology

In Japan, a doctoral co-supervision agreement was signed with NAIST (Nara Institute of Science and Technology), covering all scientific disciplines represented at ENS de Lyon. The visit also strengthened ties with the National Institute of Informatics in Tokyo, particularly in the fields of digital humanities and access to rare archival resources.

Promising opportunities have also emerged with Kyoto University, both in STEM and in the humanities and social sciences, especially around sociology. These collaborations build upon long-standing scientific partnerships whose formats must now evolve to reinforce ENS de Lyon’s presence in Asia.

Canada: Academic Cooperation and Exchanges

ENS de Lyon’s partnerships with Canada continue to grow and strengthen, while also adapting to the profound transformations currently reshaping academic cooperation with the United States. These shifts are already having significant indirect effects on Franco-Canadian relations.

Our Canadian partnerships are grounded in visiting faculty exchanges and long-term academic projects built on relationships of trust. Recent milestones include a framework agreement with the Université de Montréal, closer ties with the Université du Québec à Montréal, the launch of a partnership with the Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique, and several new student mobility agreements with Quebec universities.

ENS de Lyon is steadily increasing its presence in Canada, with the long-term goal of strengthening ties with English-speaking Canada as well. One flagship initiative is the dual master’s degree in Urban Studies developed jointly with the University of Ottawa. Scheduled to launch in fall 2027, the program will offer interdisciplinary training in the social sciences focused on major urban challenges, including mobility, environmental transitions, social inclusion, and governance. The project also reflects the ambitions of the Franco-Canadian campus established by the University of Ottawa in November 2025.

Although our historical and francophone ties naturally lean towards Quebec, it would be strategically unwise to overlook developments elsewhere in Canada, specifically in British Columbia.

Q: What is ENS de Lyon’s strategy toward the United States?

In the current context, unlike some French and European institutions, we have chosen to maintain and strengthen our relationships with U.S. universities. American higher education is extraordinarily diverse, with more than 3,500 institutions whose dependence on federal research funding, relationships with state governments, and public or private status vary enormously. This requires a highly individualized approach to our partnerships. Berkeley and the University of Virginia, for example, are both public universities, yet only around 10% of their funding is public, while the State of Virginia exercises significantly greater oversight over UVA than California does over Berkeley. Likewise, the relationship between the Trump administration and Harvard—with its nearly $57 billion endowment—is fundamentally different from its relationship with the University of Michigan. In any case, financial resources alone do not guarantee institutional independence.

It is also important to remember that our scientific collaborations are ultimately built around individuals. The personal positions of scholars should not be conflated with the official positions of their institutions vis-à-vis the federal administration. We must remain nuanced and avoid short-term reactions that could compromise the future.

We recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the University of Texas at Austin during the Transatlantic Ties Symposium organized by Texas Global and the Institut des Amériques in November 2025. The agreement provides for student and faculty exchanges, the development of innovative dual-degree programs, and new collaborative research and academic initiatives.

Another example is our active and intentionally asymmetrical partnership with Northwestern University in Chicago. We send graduate students there for exchange programs and occasionally support long-term research visits, while welcoming scholars from Northwestern through a dedicated visiting-faculty program.

In addition, ENS de Lyon has recently become one of fifteen French institutions selected for the prestigious Lafayette Fellowship program, a master’s scholarship initiative run by Villa Albertine in New York and the Cultural Services of the French Embassy in the United States. The program aims to train future American leaders in France while strengthening Franco-American exchanges. For ENS de Lyon, it is also an opportunity to attract highly qualified international students into degree programs.

Q: And what about the Global South?

In South America, ENS de Lyon is deeply involved in the Nanomer program and acts as its international coordinator. The program brings together more than fifteen institutions in Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador, Spain, and France.

Nanomer, which is focused on nanotechnologies, aims to build a network of faculty members, researchers, and students built around mentorship, collaboration, and knowledge-sharing. The goal is not only to advance research, but also to rethink how science is taught by making it more engaging and inclusive for students in both Europe and Latin America.

Q: How can ENS de Lyon remain globally attractive in such a competitive and geopolitically uncertain international higher education landscape?

My first answer is simple: we are attractive. The outstanding quality of our teaching and research remains our strongest asset, and that reputation continues to hold internationally.

We are a small school, which allows us to develop flexible partnerships based on smaller exchange volumes. Our multidisciplinary profile is another major strength, as is the close integration between research and teaching.

Through ENS de Lyon, young researchers immediately become part of a broad scientific community extending across all of our academic and research partners, while benefiting from highly personalized support. Lyon itself is also an asset: from an international perspective, the city offers a quality of life that is often more attractive than Paris’, while maintaining the same level of academic excellence.

At the same time, attractiveness can never be taken for granted and must constantly be reassessed.

English is now the language of international scientific exchange, and we must continue expanding our English-language course offerings. We also need to attract students through short discovery mobility opportunities and then encourage them to stay. This is why we are developing shorter, more flexible programs with open academic pathways.

In the same spirit, we plan to introduce two- to three-week immersion programs that will allow international students to discover the French scientific, cultural, and political environment—something akin to summer schools.

To retain students over the longer term, we also need sustainable funding mechanisms. This is the goal of the newly launched PhD Track initiative, which will create continuity between Ampère scholarships and doctoral contracts.

For our own students, we are also strengthening financial support for so-called “costly” destinations, often among the most prestigious partnerships. We won’t allow students to exclude themselves from those programs for financial reasons.

Finally, the creation in October 2025 of a dedicated internationalization fund—open to researchers, faculty, and administrative staff alike—adds another practical tool to support the school’s international engagement strategy.

Q: A final word on Europe. Europe remains at the core of our international network, especially in terms of student and faculty mobility. What role does ENS de Lyon play within the European Higher Education and Research Area?

ENS de Lyon has earned strong recognition within the European Higher Education and Research Area, as reflected in its third-place ranking in the Times Higher Education classification of European institutions with fewer than 5,000 students.

Europe’s centrality is reflected both in the number of partnerships and in mobility flows. Of our approximately 160 partner institutions across 43 countries, 92 are located in Europe—including 14 in the United Kingdom and five in Switzerland.

Similarly, 67% of our students’ international mobility experiences— to take classes, or engage in internships, or teaching assistantships—take place within Europe, particularly in Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, and Spain. Incoming exchange students largely come from those same countries. Erasmus+ remains the cornerstone of student mobility, as well as - though to a lesser extent than we would like - staff and faculty mobility.

This European focus is also reflected in research output. The seven institutions with which ENS de Lyon researchers co-publish most frequently are all European, particularly concentrated in Switzerland, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. Germany remains the European country with which ENS de Lyon produces the largest number of co-publications overall.

ENS researchers also stand out for their strong performance in Horizon Europe funding. Hardly a year goes by without at least one ENS laboratory securing European Research Council (ERC) funding for frontier research projects selected solely on the basis of scientific excellence.

Finally, Lyon’s proximity to prestigious institutions such as EPFL in Switzerland, along with the longevity of partnerships with institutions like the University of Cambridge and the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa, enables collaborations that go far beyond traditional exchange programs.

Examples include dual-degree programs with the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in chemistry; with Trinity College Cambridge in chemistry, physics, life sciences, Earth sciences, and mathematics; and a Franco-German dual degree in intercultural studies developed with the University of Freiburg and Lyon 2 University under the framework of the Franco-German University.