The Initiative d`Excellence of Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL

Paris, 2 May 2016
The Initiative d’Excellence of Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL) Research
University is confirmed: a proof of confidence and an encouragement for a new
university model with an 18-month project milestone
The decision of the international jury to confirm the financial endowment of Paris
Sciences et Lettres with an 18-month project review is proof of the recognition of its
strategic choices in research, education and innovation. It is also a challenge for all its
members who collectively contribute to the construction of a new model of integrated
university.
In 2011, the strength of the Paris Sciences et Lettres project and the prestige of its founding
members paved the way for its selection in the context of the "initiatives d’excellence" call for
projects, the objective of which was to create several hubs of higher education and research
capable of competing with the best universities in the world.
Five years later, PSL has grown with 9 new members and has become a multidisciplinary
institution with common values of excellence, the spirit of innovation and the determination to
create a new model of research university.
It must now quickly clarify the future stages of its transformation. Already hailed by major
international agreements with Cambridge, UCL, Technion, and more recently with the EPFL,
and soon with Columbia and NYU, Paris Sciences et Lettres must now take a new step
forward: its inclusion in the international rankings. As of this summer, PSL will transmit its first
data to the Times Higher Education (THE) rankings before heading for Shanghai, where
simulations place it as the 25th best university in the world.
"Paris Sciences et Lettres is one of the finest projects that France is currently leading
and will continue to lead for the next few years, and one of the most decisive for its
future. Today we are gathering all our energies and all our talents to continue to further
convince and radiate the prestige and the excellence of our brand at the international
level. It is a story that we are all writing together with passion". Thierry Coulhon,
president of PSL.
About PSL* - www.univ-psl.fr
PSL is a world-ranking research university that places innovation and the creation of values at
the heart of its ambition. Located in the centre of Paris, it unites 25 institutions of excellence,
18,500 students, 3500 lecturer-researchers, as well as 178 research laboratories and over 80
libraries and museums. An innovative alliance of the arts, sciences, social sciences and the
humanities, PSL provides the best talents with the means to meet, enrich their knowledge and
invent the future.
* Member institutions of PSL
Chimie ParisTech, Collège de France, Conservatoire national supérieur d’Art dramatique,
Conservatoire national supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris, École des hautes études
en sciences sociales, École française d'Extrême-Orient, École nationale des chartes, École
nationale supérieure des Arts Décoratifs, École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts, École
normale supérieure, École Pratique des Hautes Études, ESPCI Paris, Fondation Pierre-Gilles
de Gennes pour la recherche, IBPC-Fondation Edmond de Rothschild, Institut Curie, Institut
Louis Bachelier, La Fémis, Lycée Henri IV, MINES ParisTech, Observatoire de Paris,
Université Paris-Dauphine, Association Art et Recherche, CNRS, INRIA, INSERM, and Institut
Pasteur
Press contact:
PSL: Sabine Rozier-Deroche Tel: +33 6 42 66 45 24 [email protected]