Université Paris-Saclay strengthens its institutional ties in India at the APAIE 2025 Conference

The delegation was led by Delphine Placidi-Frot, Vice-president for International and European Relations, and Rachid Bennacer, Delegate Vice-president for Research, and included representatives from CentraleSupélec, AgroParisTech, ENS Paris-Saclay, the Paris-Saclay Faculty of Medicine, and the university's International and European Relations Department. The trip marked a significant step in the strengthening of ties between Université Paris-Saclay and its Indian partners, in a country of increasing strategic importance in the current geopolitical climate. It also provided an opportunity to launch ambitious new projects with other international partners.

APAIE 2025

APAIE 2025 (the Asia-Pacific Association for International Education) is a key event for higher education in the Asia-Pacific region. From 25 to 27 March 2025, a delegation from Université Paris-Saclay met with approximately fifty partners as part of the event, defining or consolidating concrete projects for the internationalisation of research and education.

Strengthening ties with India

As well as attending the APAIE conference, the trip also aimed to strengthen relations with key partners in the country. The delegation visited IIT (Indian Institute of Technology) Madras, IIT Delhi and IIT Bombay, regularly ranked among the country's top higher education institutions. ENS Paris-Saclay representatives also visited IISER Bhopal and Pune, while the CentraleSupélec team visited the Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS) in Pilani. These meetings helped to identify or specify specific areas of cooperation (in the fields of energy, AI, health and biotech, chemistry, humanities, etc.), supported by academics from the university, and upcoming actions, such as themed workshops, internships and joint responses to Franco-Indian calls for proposals, such as one currently on hydrogen.

To mark the end of this mission, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed with IIT Bombay, marking a turning point for shared research projects and the establishment of future exchange agreements. The CentraleSupélec team also signed a MoU with BITS-Pilani, paving the way for joint education projects.

A strategic country

India is a high-potential and strategic country for France, both in terms of developing student mobility (particularly incoming) and cooperation in education and research. Meetings with France's Ambassador to India, Thierry Mathou, and the scientific and university cooperation attachés in New Delhi and Mumbai, were an opportunity to reiterate this. The development of the Franco-Indian health campus, to which ENS Paris-Saclay already contributes, a planned involvement in the Franco-Indian Year of Innovation in 2026, and above all the deployment of the prospects established as part of the trip, demonstrate Université Paris-Saclay's commitment to offering opportunities to its students, researchers and staff with top-level international partners in major areas of the global academic landscape.