Principal Daniel Woolf is taking part in the delegation of U15 executive heads to Paris and Grenoble, France this week as the group explores the French innovation ecosystem and its linkages to higher education.

During the four-day trip, which began June 26, the U15 executive heads will meet with Thierry Mandon, State Minister for Higher Education and Research, and the Ambassador of Canada to France, the Honourable Lawrence Cannon. They will also be introduced to several Belgian university presidents during their visit.

“This trip presents us with a unique opportunity to learn from and build relationships with our French and Belgian counterparts who have a strong research presence,” says Principal Woolf, who is also the U15’s vice-chair. “The meetings in Paris will surely highlight strategies we can take at Queen’s to help increase our research prominence on the world stage, which is a continuing priority for the university.”

The U15 executive heads will also visit the National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), the premier public research organization in Europe, which has been home to 20 Nobel Prize laureates and 12 Fields Medal winners. The group will then take part in a roundtable at Sorbonne Université, and later meet with the Coordination of French Research Intensive Universities (CURIF), a group of 16 of France’s top universities.

The trip will wrap up on June 30, after the executive heads meet with representatives of the institutions of the Université Grenoble Alpes, and visit the MINATEC innovation campus –home to more than 3,000 researchers, 1,200 students and 600 business and technology experts.