About us
The organisation Chercheurs Étrangers à Nantes (Foreign Researchers in Nantes) is a nonprofit organisation, created in 2001 and initiated by the City Council of Greater Nantes and the University of Nantes. Its aim is to set up a one stop shop for foreign researchers arriving in Nantes and its area. It embodies the will to make Nantes an international place for research. Its missions are both to support on a daily basis the research institutes to welcome their international colleagues, and help foreign researchers and their families settling down in Nantes.
The organisation is a welcome desk holding the label EURAXESS Services Centre awarded by the European Commission. The organisation Chercheurs Étrangers à Nantes is also a member of the EURAXESS France Board of Administrators since January 2018. Chercheurs Etrangers offices are located on the ground floor of the MCE: Maison des Chercheurs Étrangers (House for foreign researchers) since 2007. The organisation welcomes every day foreign researchers, takes care of the residents who live in the flats of the MCE and organises cultural events so that foreign researchers can meet each other, socialise and integrate in the city.
« The best part about coming to Nantes is that the association is very accessible and they help you with any matter especially in terms of getting settled in at your new location. »
– Vivek Damodar RANJAN, researcher at the Centre for Research and Transplantation and Immunology (INSERM-Nantes Université)
Today the association Chercheurs Étrangers à Nantes and its two full time employees are financed by its 21 members (the Nantes Metropole Council and 20 higher education and research institutes).
Along the years, the organisation has secured good relationships with the Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation, the local Préfecture and city services, such as the department for schools. Those contacts are helpful in quickly solving problems linked with the arrival of international researchers in Nantes, and they fully contribute to high quality standards.
43
foreign researchers who arrived in Nantes in 2022 have benefitted from the support of the organisation.
70
different nationalities are represented among the researchers who arrived in 2022.
1228
foreign researchers live in Nantes in 2022.
2023 Annual Report of the organisation
Key figures, testimonies, missions … click below to read in French the annual report of the organisation Chercheurs Étrangers à Nantes. Contact us to receive paper versions.