International Cooperation
Head of international cooperation office
Research conducted at the IPBS involves many international collaborations; more than 150 laboratories abroad, mostly U.S. and European, nourish relationships and share their skills with different teams at the IPBS. A major effort is conducted to increase the participation of the IPBS in European and international research networks, which appears essential for the quality and visibility of our research. In addition, researchers are actively involved in the hosting and training of foreign students and postdoctoral researchers to increase the exchange of expertise between institutions of international repute.
The mission of the International Cooperation office is to increase the international visibility and attractiveness of the IPBS and to promote participation in the Horizon Europe research and innovation framework.
The activities of the International Cooperation office include:
- Conducting an international partnership development strategy in direct interaction with the Direction for European and International Research Cooperation of the CNRS and in line with both the University of Toulouse and the Occitanie Region policy,
- Promoting the attractiveness and influence of the IPBS by organising international conferences, representing the institute abroad, and feeding the international IPBS network and its alumni network,
- Being the contact point with the international partners, the “Agence Campus France” and the French and foreign diplomatic networks,
- Managing international calls for recruitment of new team leaders,
- Informing, encouraging and accompanying researchers in their applications to international calls for projects (preparation and follow-up of applications, etc.).
Mission &
strategy
The mission of the international cooperation office is to develop the international network of IPBS.
The IPBS international strategy aims to reinforce cooperation, to increase the IPBS international visibility and attractiveness but also to heighten IPBS participation to the European research and innovation framework Horizon Europe.
This strategy for the development and structuration of the IPBS international cooperation is driven by Dr. Isabelle Saves, head of the international Cooperation office. It is conducted in direct interaction with the CNRS Direction “Europe and International” and the CNRS Partnerships and Valorisation Office, in line with the University of Toulouse, the Region Occitanie and the ministry for higher education, research and innovation policies. The feeding of IPBS international network of research institutions also implies direct interactions with the Campus France Agency and the French and foreign diplomatic networks.
Notably, the incentive and support work carried out over the past six years has already resulted in very positive results, such as the awarding of the very first ERC Starting Grant at IPBS, the participation of IPBS to many applications to call for fundings under Horizon2020 and Horizon Europe frameworks, the establishment of one International Research Partnership (IRP) with 2 associated co-tutelle PhD and one International Research Network (IRN), the recruitment of Marie Sklodowska Curie Action (MSCA) or MSCA/Respire Foundation fellows, and the strong increase in researchers’ mobility.
Europe
The IPBS has been involved in many research networks under the successive European Commission’s Frameworks for research and innovation, from the Fifth Framework Programme for research, technological development and demonstration activities to Horizon Europe.
Current European Partnerships
Past European Partnerships
International
Joint research programs with research institutions around the world, in Asia (Taiwan and Japan) and North America (Canada and US) and South America (Brazil and Argentina), illustrate the international scope of the IPBS.
The current policy of the IPBS is to increase its international cooperation through the strengthening of the framework for hosting foreign students and researchers, the participation to mobility programmes such as “Projets de Recherche Conjoints” or International cooperation tools (IEA, IRN, IRP) developed by the CNRS and “Partenariats Hubert Curien” (PHC) developed by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
IPBS cooperation with the University of Buenos Aires (Argentina) benefit from the creation (2016-2020) and renewal (2021-2025) of the International Research partnership (IRP) MAC-TB/HIV. [https://www.ipbs.fr/index.php/creation-cnrs-joint-international-laboratory-headed-c-verollet-and-g-lugo-villarino]
More recently, the TIDyUP-FP project led by Julien Marcoux in the IPBS Proteomic group, has been awarded a grant and PhD scholarship from the France-Arizona Institute for Global Grand Challenges. This collaborative project with the Arizona University aims to better understand the specificity of pore-forming peptides and the molecular mechanisms responsible for pore formation in order to tackle infectious diseases.
Lately, the International Research Network (IRN) MIRA brings together 4 French partners and 5 Indian partners, coordinated by the IPBS, who will join forces in the fight against emerging infectious diseases and antimicrobial resistance.
Additionally, particular effort focus on finding fellowships and on funding researcher mobility, as well as on improving the international visibility and attractiveness of the institute. To cite a few, international partnerships are currently supported by the ECOS-Sud exchange programme (Argentina), the “Centre Franco-Indien pour la Promotion de la Recherche Avancée” (CEFIPRA/IFCPAR), the Programme “Découverte Chine” and Chinese PhD students receive scholarships from the Chinese Scholarship Council (CSC), etc.
Throughout these last years, many delegations came to discuss and meet the researchers of our laboratory.