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  3. Franco American Scientific Traffic (FAST)

Franco American Scientific Traffic (FAST)

What role does higher education play in the encountering of French and American institutions?

Research

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Research project

French scientists have long enjoyed the welcome of American institutions and these exchanges have yielded insights and lasting results. They have transformed American universities, to a limited extent, and, to a larger extent, they have also affected French institutions by brain drain and reverse brain drain. Compared to countries sending the larger contingents of foreign scientists to American higher education institutions (China, India), France features second, but when assessed from the French perspective and its domestic market of ideas, the North American mobility of French scientists is more impactful to their home institutions than Chinese or Indian scholars to their own.

FAST addresses this lack with a comprehensive study of the presence and activities of French researchers on American soil. This symmetrical study is not interested in or indulging ethnic studies but sets out to study the role that higher education plays in the encounter of French and American institutions. These researchers who link up with French institutions may be French themselves, but for the vast majority, they are not but engage their French counterparts while affiliated with American institutions. Understanding the variety of these situations and the outcomes of these collaborations is what FAST does. By studying the links between French and American researchers, in France and the USA, and researchers affiliated to French and American institutions, we document and analyze the different trajectories of the largest diaspora of French researchers in the world.

Project funding

The project is funded by Richard Lounsbery Foundation.