The Academia Sinica delegation led by President James C. Liao visited Académie des Sciences morales et politiques (ASMP), Campus Condorcet and EHESS from May 10 to 12, 2023. On May 12, the delegation attended the signing ceremony of agreement between EHESS and AS in Paris. The delegation members are Dr. Roy Tseng, Director of the Secretariat and Research Fellow of the Research Center for Humanities and Social Science; Dr. Tzu-Ching Meng, Director of the Department of International Affairs and Research Fellow of the Institute of Biological Chemistry; Dr. Miaw-fen Lu, Deputy Executive Secretary of the Central Academic Advisory Committee and Research fellow of the Institute of Modern History; Dr. Kuan-Min Huang, Director of the Institute of Chinese Literature and Philosophy; Dr. Chien-Liang Lee, Director of Institutum Iurisprudentiae; and Ms. Ren Huang, Program Manager of the Department of International Affair.

Académie des Sciences morales et politiques

Founded in 1795, ASMP is one of the five academies of the Institut de France. The visit of Academia Sinica delegation to ASMP was received by President Jean-Clau de Trichet and Professor Mrianne Bastid-Bruguiére. Jean-Clau de Trichet is a French economist who served as President of the European Central Bank from 2003 to 2011. Previous to his assumption of the presidency he served as Governor of the Bank of France from 1993 to 2003. Mrianne Bastid-Bruguiére was a professor of École normale supérieure (ENS) and served as President of ASMP in 2012. She was awarded Grand-Croix in 2014. As an internationally well-known scholar of Modern and Contemporary Chinese History, Professor Mrianne Bastid-Bruguiére has close connection with Taiwan.

The main purpose of the visit is exchange of ideas on such topics as composition of academicians, electoral system, and how an effective advisory role the academies may play to offer policy recommendations to the government. In contrast with a cohort of over two hundred academicians of Academia Sinica mostly residing abroad, the ASMP consists of only 45 members of eminent reputation in philosophy, history, politics, economics and law. All of them are based in France. As part of the electoral procedure, the candidates will be arranged an interview with each of the academicians before election, which is distinctive about the ASMP.

Campus Condorcet

The establishment of Campus Condorcet originated from a joint campus program between EHESS and EPHE for research in the humanities and social sciences. It was aimed to build an international campus to meet the educational, scientific and digital challenges of the 21st century. Campus Condorcet brings together eleven institutions of higher education and research, each with a solid international reputation, including CNRS, EHESS, EPHE, ENC, FMSH, INED. President Pierre-Paul Zalio and his administrative team used to frequent Taiwan and are familiar with Taiwan’s academic community. President Zalio gave a detailed explanation of the Campus’ operation and the core research fields. He also took the delegation on a tour of the Campus and its digitalized libraries.

EHESS

The long-term collaboration between Academia Sinica and EHESS dates from the MoU made in 2012. Exchange of scholars had continued until the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic. In September 2022, President Liao visited EHESS and initiated a tentative discussion on the possibility of joint PhD program between the two institutes. In the signing of the agreement between President Liao and EHESS President Romain Huret, the delegation witnessed a significant occasion of collaboration in higher education between Taiwan and France. This is Academia Sinica’s first international joint PhD program in the humanities and social sciences in recent years, and is hoped to become a model for future international partnership in higher education with other nations.