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The creation of the International Institute for Rivers and Cultural Heritage

The creation of the International Institute for Rivers and Cultural Heritage

Published on 26 April 2004 - Updated 22 December 2010
Cet article date d'il y a plus de 20 ans

International cooperation, Training and research, Mission Val de Loire

The creation of the International Institute for Rivers and Cultural Heritage under the aegis of UNESCO is the result of consultations which have been ongoing since 2001. There are two dimensions to the Institute, one local and the other global.

Aim

The aim of the International Institute for Rivers and Cultural Heritage, set up under UNESCO, is to mobilise the research and training potential of the universities in the Val de Loire and the training and/or research and engineering establishments located within the World Heritage site or surrounding area. Its aim is to participate in the worldwide effort to protect, manage and develop the natural and cultural heritage of our river corridors.

Within this general framework, the Institute has identified four key aims:

Identify and establish specific initial and ongoing training courses
Set up engineering and research projects, notably to benefit developing countries
Encourage and support academic or applied research
Develop and fund research works

Mission and activities

Fund, disseminate and promote research and projects

The mission of the Institute is to fund, disseminate and promote research and projects. It aims to ensure widespread dissemination of existing research works, projects, practices and usage in order to promote their development and access to them.

Some of its key activities are to:

Publish and disseminate existing research works
Identify and develop innovative research, training and projects
Organise events aimed at specialists and non-specialised target groups involved in activities related to conservation and safeguarding cultural heritage

Encourage and develop research and project management

The Institute actively supports projects aimed at managing cultural heritage through three types of activities:

Encouraging exchange programmes by granting international bursaries. Young researchers from other countries will be welcomed to France and young French researchers will be encouraged to pursue their work abroad. The best pieces of work will be awarded prizes and published.
Offering resident posts to lecturers and researchers from other countries who are involved in supervising research and who can give classes and lectures as well as carrying out research.
Assistance in setting up two types of projects:
- Projects in developing countries
- Transnational and multidisciplinary research projects.

Be a focal point for scientific and technical skills

The Institute will be a focal point for skills drawn from:

numerous teams of scientists attached to higher education and research establishments
engineering departments of public and private industrial organisations
technical departments in local government authorities
various specialist associations.

Its aim is to support the development of basic or applied studies in the following areas:

risk management
navigability, river ecology
pollution
conservation of water biodiversity
water resources
archaeological and ethnographic research
agronomy
planning
amenity provision
industrial archaeology
development
promotion and management of cultural heritage
tourism development

A new kind of training

These training programmes, offered in the form of specific courses, are scheduled to be in place at the start of the 2005 academic year.

The Institute is offering a selection of high level courses (Masters, PhD) created by its partner institutions. Qualifications are awarded by the university members of the partnership. Places will be awarded to students who have already taken a first degree or masters. They are particularly well suited to international researchers who wish to be trained in the areas covered by the Rivers and Cultural Heritage initiative: