Aix-Marseille University spreads out its international strategy with a particular focus on the Europe-Mediterranean-Africa area. This strategic orientation corresponds to an ambition: to contribute to the strengthening of the Mediterranean area of higher education and research, taking into account the scientific and societal challenges specific to the region. To achieve this, AMU relies on bilateral cooperation, networks and structuring actions (European programmes).
The Tethys network: AMU's international strategy in the Mediterranean
As part of its Mediterranean strategy, AMU promotes several thematic networks around scientific issues and challenges such as climate (Mediterranean Experts on Climate and Environmental Change), law (Ecole Doctorale des Juristes Méditerranéens) or Mediterranean studies.
In addition to these thematic networks, Tethys, of which AMU is a founding member, is an institutional network of great originality.
It was in the context of the Barcelona Conference that the Consortium of Euro-Mediterranean Universities Tethys was created on 28 January 2000, in order to contribute to the Euro-Mediterranean partnership in the field of higher education and research, with the objective of ensuring peace, stability and prosperity in the region. Tethys, which celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2020, currently includes more than 70 universities from 19 countries and brings together the main universities of the Maghreb, the Mashreq and Southern Europe. This partnership enables large-scale actions to be undertaken, with the support of national and European programmes, for the benefit of young people on both shores. In the Mediterranean, as at the global level, universities must be vectors of development, mobility and innovation.
The main missions of the network are to
- To build a place for cultural and scientific exchanges allowing to bring a strong and perennial contribution to the construction of the Euro-Mediterranean Space of Higher Education, Research and Innovation;
- Topromote cooperation between Euro-Mediterranean countries through the sharing of knowledge, the harmonisation of knowledge and the exchange of cultures;
- Todevelop "win-win"partnerships between the North, the South and the East of the Mediterranean.
Each year, all the universities of the network meet within the framework of a general assembly which is held each time in a different country. This event is an opportunity to present actions, to organize exchanges and to invite partner institutions: European Union and UPM, academic networks and associations, international organizations (World Bank, Plan Bleu).
To find out more about the network, consult the Téthys network website.
European projects
Through the Téthys network, the DRI's Strategic Projects and Networks Unit is responsible for the management of several projects financed in the framework of the Erasmus+, Interreg Med and Africonnect programmes.
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The AuditUM project - Audit and Internal Control at the Moroccan University - is a European Erasmus+ capacity building project. It has 12 partners including Aix-Marseille University. Its duration is 36 months. Its budget amounts to 971 026 €. The aim of the AuditUM project is to provide the Moroccan universities that make up part of the consortium with internal audit and control services, based on the models that exist in European universities. |
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The Yabda project - Strengthening Relations between Higher Education and the Socio-Economic World - is a European Erasmus+ capacity building project. It has 14 partners including Aix-Marseille University. Its duration is 36 months. Its budget amounts to 729 170€. The aim of the Yabda project is to respond to the strong need for capacity building in the partner universities for the promotion of entrepreneurship, by helping to build a network of future entrepreneurs in the regional and international ecosystem with a multiplier effect in the Maghreb region. |
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The +Resilient project is a European Interreg Med project. It has 12 partners including Aix-Marseille University. Its duration is 48 months. Its budget amounts to 3 578 529€. The objective of the project is to respond to the need for social innovation and to promote the social competitiveness of SMEs working in the field of social economy, while integrating the use of open data in order to create and promote new jobs and to develop the innovative aspect of the social field. |
Two structuring and innovative European projects, SATELIT and EUNIT, initiated by Téthys and supported by AMU, ended in October 2019.
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The SATELIT project - Academic Solutions for the Euro-Mediterranean Territory Leader of Innovations and Technological Transfers of Excellence - is an Erasmus+ capacity building project, with 21 partners (universities, ministries, chambers of commerce, public bodies...) from the Mediterranean basin (Algeria, Spain, France, Italy, Morocco and Tunisia). |
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The EUNIT project for capacity building - European project for engineering and management in the South MediTerranean region - is a joint project designed with 16 partners of the Téthys network. Coordinated by AMU, it also ended in October 2019 at the end of a 3-year funding. It responded to the priority of Internationalization of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in the South-East Mediterranean, particularly in Jordan, Lebanon and Libya. The overall objective of the project was to enable HEIs in the partner countries to build sustainable international partnerships and maximize their internationalization efforts. Training of trainers programmes and practical internships were carried out in 2017; these measures enabled the eight partners to acquire the necessary skills to set up and manage project set-up and management units. |
Téthys Network
Email : tethys@univ-amu.fr
- Mauve Carbonell, President of the Téthys network
- Camille de Garidel-Thoron, Director of the Téthys network & strategic projects and networks
- Pascale Hurtado, Téthys Network Coordinator
- Marie Matsuhara, Project Manager
- Samir Regad, Project manager
- Véronique Palengat, Administrative and financial manager