Unité Mixte International Initiative (UMI)

new large-scale venture between France and MIT will help provide a platform to discuss other potential partnerships.

The major new initiative is a joint international laboratory to focus on multi-scale materials science for energy and the environment. This "unité mixte international," or UMI, will be located at MIT and co-sponsored by Le Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), France’s national scientific research center. It will house four to six CNRS researchers, who will serve as co-principal investigators with MIT researchers. The UMI will be co-directed by Franz-Josef Ulm, the George Macomber Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) at MIT, and Roland Pellenq, a CNRS scientist who is also a senior research scientist in CEE.

In proposing the joint lab, organizers cited recent international energy and environmental disasters -- such as Japan’s nuclear crisis and the Deepwater Horizon oil spill -- that highlighted the need for a return to “science-based engineering,” manufacturing materials with an eye toward sustainability, durability and waste management. In addition to its MIT and CNRS sponsorship, the UMI will seek funding for specific research projects from industrial and government sources. The initial agreement will last two to four years, after which it may be renewed.