A new agreement for international cooperation for Aix-Marseille Université

On June 15 and 16, 2022, Aix-Marseille Université received a visit from an important ministerial delegation from Djibouti at the Pharo in Marseille, a new step in the cooperation between the two universities. This visit is part of a dynamic of exchanges initiated by the Southern Region, which signed in 2021, a cooperation agreement with Djibouti and organized a regional mission in this country. 

Last week, it was the Minister of Higher Education and Research of Djibouti who therefore moved to Marseille to meet with President Eric Berton, as well as heads of components, research units and institutes, in order to target areas of partnership in training and research between Djibouti and our university.

Biodiversity, climate change, water resources and management of natural areas were at the heart of the exchanges, while Djibouti is preparing to inaugurate its Regional Observatory for Environmental and Climate Research (ORREC).

The minister came accompanied by the Dean of the Faculty of Sciences at the University of Djibouti, Saida Chideh Soliman; the Director General of the Center for Studies and Research (CERD), Jalludin AK Mohammed; the Director of the Regional Observatory of Research on theEnvironnement et du Climat of CERD, Moussa Mahdi Ahmed; the Director of the Energy and Environment Research Center of the University of Djibouti, Sadat Saleh Said; and the Director of the Institute of Earth Sciences of CERD, Mohammed Osman Awaleh.

After meeting at the Pharo with President Berton and the heads of the FEG, the FDSP, the Faculty of Sciences, archaeology training, the OSU Pythéas and the ITEM and OCEAN institutes, the delegation visited the CEREGE, the IMBE, the LCE (Arbois plateau) as well as the MIO (Luminy campus) on site. It was thus able to exchange with the heads of the laboratories and visit their exceptional technical platforms, such as ASTER.

Marked by the signing of the first cooperation agreement between AMU and Djibouti, the visit allowed to measure the density of possible partnerships between Djibouti institutions and Aix-Marseille laboratories, in an area of major interest, due to its geographical location and natural characteristics, but also the strength of the challenges of climate change.

Exchanges will continue in order to refine the partnerships, before the trip of a delegation of AMU to Djibouti at the end of October, on the occasion of the inauguration of ORREC.