Inauguration of the Maison de la Recherche

Inalco: renovated Maison de la recherche, "a tool to match our ambitions" (J-F. Huchet)

"We now have a working tool commensurate with our ambitions for our research activities", declares Jean-François Huchet, President of Inalco, on 19/10/2021, at the inauguration of the new Maison de la recherche, located in the Bernage mansion on rue de Lille in Paris, after a year's work. Inalco has been based here since 1873.



"We've been looking forward to this event for a long time, as the work took place between January 2019 and February 2020, so the building had been ready for a year and a half, but the pandemic prevented us from showing it off," he tells News Tank, on 21/10.



The building houses the 14 research teams, the research and doctoral studies department, Inalco's publications, the headquarters of the new foundation, as well as the administrative and financial engineering for research and the administrative and technical department.
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"One of the objectives was to provide good research conditions and high-capacity spaces, starting with the 100-seat auditorium and meeting rooms seating 50 each, to host events or organize inter-laboratory seminars," says the president.



The work cost €4.5 million, financed from the company's own funds. "We were between two CPER¹ and we still wanted to move forward with the reserve we had available."



This didn't stop the institute from asking for resources under the future CPER and the stimulus plan, which it didn't get. "We're a little disappointed, because there are still important things to be done on woodwork, but also in terms of energy efficiency, between the poorly insulated windows and the oversized boiler, which cost a lot of money to run."

Large plateaus for laboratories

The institute has been housed in this private mansion since 1873, when it was known as the École des langues orientales.



"It's our historic building, but at the turn of the 1970s, it proved too small for the growing number of students. That's why Inalco has had several other sites, in the former NATO building where Université Paris-Dauphine is located, in Clichy, Asnières, before building and integrating our new building in the Grands Moulins district (Paris 13e) in 2011."



The rue de Lille building had not been renovated since 1935. "It wasn't at all organized for research use, there was no auditorium, the teams were pretty poorly housed. So everything had to be redone, except for certain emblematic rooms such as the former president's office. Everything else was destroyed and rebuilt. The teams therefore had to be relocated for the duration of the work.



In addition to the large spaces, such as the auditorium or lounges fitted out as meeting rooms that can be booked via an online schedule, the laboratories are organized into "large plateaus with open spaces enabling teams to get together".



"And while we have limited teaching, which is held instead at Les Grands moulins, the rue de Lille building can also accommodate doctoral or M2 seminars, or visiting researchers on an ad hoc basis, with five lecture or meeting rooms."

A translation and recording booth

The premises also had to be equipped. "We have provided a translation and recording booth in the auditorium, as we want all events held there to be able to be recorded and deposited on the platform that collects all data on areal studies."



For the automatic language processing research teams, computer-equipped rooms with substantial storage capacities have been set up. "And on both our sites, we plan to have storage and relay systems on servers."

Meeting the challenges of research

"If research is the least visible and well-known floor of Inalco, yet it has always existed from its origins. For example, in the field of areal studies, we have the highest concentration of E-Cs in the world," says Inalco's president, at the inauguration.



He adds that this year, Inalco researchers are carrying out 25 projects as part of a research contract (ANR, ERC, etc.). With this in mind, he adds, Inalco "completed the reorganization of a research support service this year.


He adds: "Inalco must play its full part in the renewal of areal studies. The challenges facing SHS are immense in a multicentric world, which requires us to analyze all histories, cultures and philosophies. This observation was already present at the time of the creation of Langues O, but is even more apparent today, and is reflected in several challenges:

• Reinforce language learning again and again;
• favoring field immersion in research;
• continue and strengthen collective research;
• strengthen responses to European AAPs by trying to structure themes, for example around Islamology;
• build on European and Francophone cooperation;
• strengthen our presence in the digital humanities;
• respond to the challenge of valorizing research, through better communication, and in particular our multimedia platform."

While he admits that a building "won't do everything", he says he is "confident that the community that brings the establishment to life will open this new page and take up these challenges."



By News Tank




¹CPER : Contrat de plan Etat-Régions