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The Udall Center and the French National Center for Scientific Research will celebrate their collaboration this Friday on campus.

By Jeff Harrison, University Communications
October 7, 2008

The Udall Center at The University of Arizona and the French National Center for Scientific Research will officially inaugurate the Unité Mixte Internationale/Joint International Unit, or UMI.  The event is Friday, Oct. 10, starting at 4 p.m. at the Udall Center, located at First Street and Euclid Avenue in Tucson.

UA President Robert N. Shelton and David Martinon, the consul general of France in Los Angeles, will be among the featured speakers, including representatives from CNRS, and other UA officials and scientists.

The collaboration, one of only four in the U.S., creates a framework for UA and CNRS researchers with a common interest in water, environment and public policy.  Approximately 15,000 university and laboratory scientists in France have connections to CNRS.

The UMI will promote research partnerships between the UA and CNRS and expand research funding opportunities, comparing water resources management and governance in the Southwest U.S., the Americas, France and the European Union.

"The core of the arrangement is exchanges: faculty, researchers and students heading both ways, with the idea of partnering on research they could do together," said Robert Varady, acting director of the Udall Center and director of the new UMI center.

"There are two words that describe the commitment: international and interdisciplinary," said Graciela Schneier-Mandanes, a deputy director of the UMI.

"We think the UA is an extraordinary place for interdisciplinary research on water, and that's why we're here," she said.

Schneier-Mandanes is a visiting scientist at the Udall Center and at the department of geography and regional development, the Water Resources Research Center and the Center for Latin American Studies. She also is a senior researcher and director of rés-EAU-ville, an urban water research network at CNRS, and a member of the faculty at the Sorbonne Nouvelle.

Three CMES scientists already have visited the UA and more are expected. A French resource economist and a UA researcher also have paired on a CNRS call for proposals.  The linkage allows UA researchers to apply for grant available only through the CNRS system.