Since 2015, NewCorp Conseil has been the University of Lyon's communications agency for the Idex application.
The awarding of the Idex label by the international jury at the end of the final hearing on 20 February 2017, and validated by the Prime Minister on 25 February, is therefore an immense source of satisfaction. It is the well-deserved - and long-awaited - result of a huge amount of teamwork under the supervision of Khaled Bouabdallah, President of the University of Lyon, and Jean-François Pinton, President of the ENS de Lyon and leader of the Idex project, not forgetting the tremendous groundwork carried out behind the scenes by Fanny Viot as project manager.
(The Initiative of Excellence (Idex) call for projects, launched by the French National Research Agency (ANR) and the General Investment Commission (CGI), aims to select research universities with a global reach and a top-level scientific impact in broad fields of knowledge, in the service of France's attractiveness and image in the world. The label is awarded by an international jury).
It's also an institutional project
In addition to academic recognition, the Idex application, through its process and the project it supports, is also an extraordinary institutional and corporate challenge, which has involved bringing together a very large and diverse academic, political and economic community around a common project; building a new brand and visual identity shared and co-branded by all the establishments, to serve a new visibility and pride of belonging; and defining a genuine long-term strategic project proposing a major and innovative transformation and transition for the University.
Universities, new territorial and societal actors
Universities have not only become brands, obviously evolving in the context of international competition, but they have also become regional projects involving all stakeholders, given the interconnected and mutually beneficial nature of the issues and interests at stake. The major university centres are now fully involved in the issues of marketing and regional appeal, major assets in the service of reputation and overall performance. The institutional communication of these major academic clusters, and of each of their components, is one of the essential tools that help to promote their expertise, unite their players, raise their profile, attract talent and develop resources and projects.
In addition, if the communication and transition challenges facing major universities are increasing, it is also because they are experiencing a triple economic interconnection in full development:
1/ with their ecosystem as a whole, as links develop between the academic and economic spheres, between training and entrepreneurship, between public and private research partnerships, etc. Universities are neither sanctuaries nor monasteries, but connected universes, open to the world and their environment.
2/ within the university centres themselves, the time is ripe for the quest for multidisciplinarity and the cross-fertilisation of knowledge, given the importance of being able, at times, to break out of disciplinary silos in order to distort thought patterns, and even open minds and shape people! While vertical approaches are of course still strong and often logical, cross-disciplinary and hybrid approaches are becoming increasingly attractive, as it seems that innovation and novelty, particularly disruptive innovation, come from these border areas, where expertise overlaps.
3/ a societal interconnection. To meet the major challenges of our time, scientific knowledge is central and decisive, whether in terms of finding new technological solutions for energy saving, optimising production processes, combating pollution, agricultural alternatives, adapting to climate change, etc., but also in terms of new management methods, medical research, alleviating psychological disorders, combating conflicts of all kinds, etc. but also in terms of new management methods, medical research, the alleviation of psychological disorders, the fight against conflicts of all kinds... knowledge is increasingly seen (and even fantasised) as the key to reinventing a more sustainable and harmonious world, between people, and between man and nature.
For all these reasons, tomorrow's major university teaching and research complexes are key players in the new world we are building. At the heart of the production and transmission of knowledge, they are also essential places for generational transition.
Read the press release on the Idex accreditation of the University of Lyon:
SUCCESS OF THE IDEXLYON PROJECT: THE INITIATIVE OF EXCELLENCE LABEL IS AWARDED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF LYON
