UNESCO CHAIR 651

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The UNESCO Chair in Innovation for Sustainable Development (651) was awarded in 2004 to the Ecole Supérieure d'Ingénieurs de Marseille (ESIM), Marseille (France) and was transferred to the Ecole centrale Marseille in 2007.

The UNESCO Chair in Innovation for Sustainable Development (651) was awarded in 2004 to the Ecole Supérieure d'Ingénieurs de Marseille (ESIM), Marseille (France) and was transferred to the Ecole centrale Marseille in 2007.
This Network Chair supports the activities of the RMEI. Its main objectives are to:

- promote an integrated system of research, training, information and documentation activities in the field of innovation for sustainable development;

- promote collaboration between high-level researchers and internationally renowned professors, particularly within the Mediterranean and in support of the RMEI.


List of Chair managers

  • Philippe Zanin   2004 - 2007
  • Léo Vincent      2007 - 2014
  • Olivier Boiron    2014 - currently "Role of UNESCO Chairs in promoting sustainable development.
     

    By Sonia Bahri, Head of the Section for International Cooperation in Higher Education.

    Conference given on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the RMEI in Marseille in May 2007.

    It is an honor and a pleasure for me to participate in this international symposium on the training and mission of future decision-makers in the economic world in the Euro-Mediterranean from the perspective of sustainable development, organized by the UNESCO Chair in Innovation for Development sustainability on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the Mediterranean Network of Engineering Schools.


    I would like to thank and congratulate the organizers and more particularly Mr. Fabre, Director of the Ecole Centrale Marseille, and Mr. Léo Vincent, Deputy Director and Director of International Affairs at the Ecole Centrale Marseille, and head of the UNESCO Chair, for this excellent initiative.


    This indeed offers us, in this very beautiful Mediterranean city of Marseille, historic crossroads of Mediterranean exchanges, a space for meetings and debates and allows us to participate in these precious moments, sometimes too rare, of reflection and exchanges between engineers, students, professors and researchers from several countries, political decision-makers and economic decision-makers, on a subject as crucial as that of sustainable development in the Mediterranean basin and the mission of engineers.

    This Symposium is an example of this exchange, of this dialogue between different partners in this international intellectual cooperation which is the very essence of UNESCO, which combines theory and practice, the presentation which gives voice to a thought, a policy, a vision for the future and the workshop which further emphasizes the various aspects of their concrete implementation.

    Sustainable development is undeniably one of the cross-cutting and priority themes of UNESCO's action.

    In the field of science, UNESCO actively contributes to its promotion and implementation.

    Just a few days ago, from May 10 to 12, following the discussions launched at the G8 Summit in Saint Petersburg last July, the

    Italian Prime Minister and the Director-General of UNESCO inaugurated the UNESCO and G8 Forum in Trieste on the theme of Education, Research and Innovation. This World Forum discussed the interconnections between the three components of the triangle education, scientific research and technological innovation in the perspective of sustainable development. It also sought to identify opportunities for industrialized as well as developing countries.

    In the field of education, the main priorities of UNESCO are "Education For All (EFA)" and the "promotion of quality education", essential for sustainable development. In December 2002, the United Nations General Assembly adopted resolution 57/254 on the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (2005-2014) and designated UNESCO as the responsible body promoting the Decade. The overall objective of the Decade is to integrate the principles, values ​​and practices of sustainable development into all aspects and at all levels of education and learning. This educational effort aims to encourage behavioral changes to create a more sustainable future in terms of environmental integrity, economic viability and a just society for present and future generations.

    For higher education and more specifically when it comes to science and technology, the stakes are particularly high, since engineering students will have this extraordinary responsibility of contributing to inventing the world of tomorrow and it is the quality of the training that will be given to them that will help them meet this challenge.

    Sustainable development, which thus includes an environmental, social and economic dimension, is one of the most interdisciplinary concepts possible, involving an approach that is both scientific and technical, educational, cultural and legal where the social sciences and communication also play a key role. . Who can claim today, for example, that culture and the safeguarding of the intangible heritage of humanity are not part of its sustainable development? Similarly, who can imagine that ICTs can stay away from a training strategy for sustainable development. It is therefore through all of its programs in all its fields of competence that UNESCO seeks to promote sustainable development as an essential guarantee of peace in the world.

    The UNESCO Chairs program plays a strategically important role in this regard. Indeed, the UNITWIN and UNESCO CHAIRS Program which was launched in 1992 during the 26th session of the General Conference of UNESCO, was conceived as an international action plan for the advancement of research, training and the development of higher education programs through networking and the encouragement of inter-university collaboration through the transfer of knowledge across borders.
    UNITWIN is the abbreviation of "University Twinning and Networking". It should be remembered that these Chairs, which relate to more than 70 fields of study and research, in UNESCO's fields of competence, that is to say, Education, Science, Culture and Communication are not university chairs in the usual sense. These are university networks coordinated by a UNESCO Chair, as is the case of the Ecole Centrale de Marseille.

    The partnership is open to NGOs, foundations and public or private bodies interested in the activities carried out by the UNESCO Chair, but the Chair must necessarily be established in a university or higher education establishment.

    A database contains information on the Chairs, indicating for each of them the people to contact, the partners, the events organized and the research and publications carried out - UNITWIN UNESCO Chairs Programme.

    From its inception, the Program has aroused great interest on the part of UNESCO Member States. Today more than 600 UNESCO Chairs and 67 UNITWIN networks installed in more than 730 institutions in 121 countries operate within the framework of the Programme.

    Some do remarkable work, and are known worldwide, such as the ORBICOM network in terms of communication or the UNESCO-Cousteau Chairs in ecosystems and marine biology, the Network on landslides in Japan at the University of Kyoto , the Global Network on Intercultural and Inter-religious Dialogue to name but a few.

    Being one of the priority areas of UNESCO,

     

     

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A common political will: Share the ambition to give the Mediterranean basin a social and economic place of choice in a newfound peace and in respect for the future through an exemplary practice of the rules of sustainable development.

While political leaders are debating the future of collaboration and unions between Mediterranean countries and European countries, the RMEI wants to be an actor for sustainable development in the Mediterranean and innovation.
 
The RMEI allows its students to have a good image of training and research in the Mediterranean countries, which is an important asset for the Mediterranean in the globalization of the economy. It situates its action within the framework of innovation and territoriality, areas which were not major axes of training for engineers. It wants to train "engineers/managers/architects-citizens" open to the major challenges of our societies.
 
This promotion of the Mediterranean in the minds of students will reduce their desire for expatriation and therefore slow the loss of young talent.
 
The RMEI also offers the local authorities concerned a pool of high-level academic researchers who can get involved in the identification, monitoring and evaluation of research and innovation policies in the Mediterranean basin. It wants to be a force of proposal and action. It facilitates meetings between researchers, which makes it possible to respond as quickly and efficiently as possible to international calls for tender (Med, Neighbourhood, Tempus programs, etc.).
 
The RMEI acts as an interface between the business world and the technical colleges and universities. It must facilitate and intensify the relationship between Universities - Grandes Ecoles - Research Laboratories - Mediterranean Companies in the service of innovation but also the recruitment of competent engineers and scientists, challenges for large industrial groups but also for SMEs/VSEs in the Mediterranean.
 
The RMEI is open to other regions of the world through its close links with many laboratories located in Chinese, Japanese, Russian, Brazilian, American, … and … European universities.
 
The RMEI is a network of conviviality where universities from countries rub shoulders which, unfortunately, have little dialogue with each other. On a very modest scale, it contributes to the development of cultural tolerance.
 
The RMEI is committed to disseminating the results of its action to major international organizations (United Nations decade, UNESCO, UfM, etc.), at conferences related to sustainable development, territoriality, economic activities and the Mediterranean .
 
The RMEI is also aware of the major effort to disseminate its action locally in the suburbs, to schoolchildren and to any local committee concerned with societal approaches to sustainable development.
 
This policy is translated through the various RMEI working groups.
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The Mediterranean Network of Engineering Schools was created in June 1997 on the initiative of the Marseille Engineering School Group (ESIM), an establishment of the Marseille-Provence CCI.
 
After its first general assembly in 1997 in Marseilles, the RMEI held its annual meeting successively in Barcelona (1998), Tunis (1999), Istanbul (2000), Rabat (2001), Madrid (2002), Patras (2003), Genoa (2004), Algiers (2005), Izmir (2006), Marseille (2007), Hammamet (2008), Rome (2009), Thessaloniki (2010), Rabat (2011) and Venice-Padua (2012).
 
Since 2001, the RMEI has become the component bringing together the engineering schools and technological universities of the Community of Mediterranean Universities (CUM), an official body of UNESCO.
 
In 2007, the RMEI set up a legal structure (association under French law of the 1901 type) which reinforces its autonomy and its possibilities of collaboration within partnerships between its active members as well as with the associated members, local authorities local and the business world.
 
The RMEI is managed by an office of 7 members and administered by a board of directors composed of ten members.
 
During the Michelangelo workshops in April 2012, the creation of the GAMe structure was made official, an acronym for "Giovani Ambasciatori Mediterranei". This structure is managed entirely by the students and has correspondents in the majority of the countries concerned by the RMEI.
 
During its meeting in May 2013, the board accepted the principle of welcoming within the RMEI, a new college corresponding to the RMEM, Mediterranean Network of Management Schools. At the beginning of 2014, the RMEI was made up of 98 members from 16 Mediterranean countries, 22 associate members, some of whom were outside the Mediterranean area (Brazil, Black Sea, Russia) and from the GAMe structure.
Since its creation, the RMEI has been supported by the CCIMP (Chamber of Commerce and Industry Marseille-Provence), the City of Marseille, the General Council of Bouches du Rhône and the Regional Council of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur. It also receives support from UNESCO (Chair 651 Innovation and Sustainable Development). Since 2010, the RMEI has received significant support from the Municipality of Civitavecchia, where GAMe's headquarters are located.
 
Since its creation, the RMEI has wanted to promote the specific assets of the Mediterranean, focusing on increased efficiency, through the networking of Grandes Ecoles, Universities and other partners around the Mediterranean:


- a historical, multicultural Mediterranean identity, around a sea vector of exchanges and economic activities, cradle of great civilizations and great changes (renaissance, etc.);

- a current crossroads of cultures and exchanges, source of creativity;

- a unique position as an interface between Europe, Africa and the East.

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Any candidate establishment, which wishes to become a member of the network as a legal personality or as an associate member, must send a written request to the President of the RMEI, accompanied by an application file allowing the establishment's contribution to be identified. the network and the legitimacy of its candidacy.

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RMEIM Partners