The Project

The ILIADE project is one of the four winners of the call of of projects launched by the French Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs, in partnership with the French Ministry of Higher Education and Research, for building a Franco-Indian campus in life sciences for health. 

Officially launched on April 27, 2023 in Vellore (India), the Franco-Indian campus project "ILIADE" (Innovation par les plantes et l'AI pour l'Inde et la France) led by the Université de La Réunion and the Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT) alongside six other French and Indian partners, aims to strengthen bilateral academic and scientific cooperation between France and India around the strategic themes of life sciences and health. Among the advances made possible by this Franco-Indian campus: students from France, India and the Indian Ocean region can now take advantage of a complete, structured Bachelor's-Master's-Doctorate (LMD) curriculum, including a Master's degree in biotechnology offering two pathways:

- Biotechnologies applied to medicinal plants and phytotherapy

- Computer science and artificial intelligence applied to biomedical data

The ILIADE project aims to :

- offer students from France, India and, more broadly, the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA) and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the opportunity to follow a structured and comprehensive French-Indian training program in biosciences and health in order to meet the public health challenges set out in the 2030 Agenda (United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 3)

- build a research ecosystem composed by innovative multi-stakeholder partnerships in biosciences and healthcare sector (French and Indian industries, competitive clusters, etc.);

- enable cross-mobility of students and researchers between the French and Indian institutions involved in the project.