What is Paris-Saclay reseach conglomerate? The French version of Cambridge?

The French government has budgeted over $25 billion to concentrate scores of universities, higher education schools and research centers in an area of (7,700 hectares) located between the airport of Orly and Versailles, and overlapping 49 territorial communities.  Dominique Vernay is to preside this “Foundation of scientific cooperation” of Paris-Saclay Campus.

So far, many governmental public institutions and sydicates have to cooperate, such as the syndicate of transport, territorial collectivities, minister of education, the Defense minister, the ministry of Industry, Paris Chamber of Commerce, and the public establishment of Paris-Saclay…

What are these higher educational centers?

You have the Polytecnique (attached to the military and run by a General of the army) since it was established by Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte, Mines, Agro (agriculture), HEC (high commerce study), Normal sup Cachan, Ecole centrale, Supelec, CEA, Inra, Renault, Thales (communication), Inria, CNRS (nuclear research), Inserm, Dassault (aerospace),…

The project was initiated because France had a problem of recognition as a center of high research destination among the foreign students:  France had no such global names as Oxford, Cambridge, Stanford, MIT, Caltec…For example, Mines, Agro, Hec…have regrouped under the mark “ParisTech” to resemble the names Caltech (California University of Technology) and MIT.

Top 8 World Innovation Clusters

The ex-president of this higher educational institution (Paris-Saclay), Pierre Veltz, published a book “Do we have to save “Les Grandes Ecoles”?  The conservative higher education system in France are presided by at least half a dozen of chairmen, and not by an all-encompassing President to coordinate decisions and executing projects.

The project is to be host of 11 schools of research and 3 universities…

Currently, half a dozen of campuses (Ecole centrale, Supelec, Normal sup Cacan…are “federating” around the university Paris-South Orsay on the plateau Moulon: Polytecnique campus is at 4 km from the faculty of Orsay, which is at 5 km from HEC, which is at 10 km from the university of Versailles…

There are no fast trains linking all these centers with the nearest airport or any fast transport means among the various educational campuses.  More than 20,000 employees and researchers in these campuses are isolated from close urban centers, and lacking adequate transport facilities.

The dream project, spanning 10 years, is to assemble the largest campus in Europe, the technology Latin Square of the 21st century, reaping the benefits of “the cafeteria effect” of Silicon Valley…