The CNRS-University of Chicago International Research Center for Fundamental Scientific Discovery (IRC Discovery), launched in 2022, provides a comprehensive framework to guide collaboration between the University of Chicago and CNRS. The center aims to formalize, nurture and expand collaboration between these two great institutions. Key disciplines of this cooperation include the humanities and social sciences, biology and quantum physics.
IRC Discovery actively supports joint PhD programs, providing an environment conducive to transdisciplinary and international collaborations between CNRS and University of Chicago students and their principal investigators. Launched in 2019, these programs have become an annual event, facilitating exchanges between research teams on both sides of the Atlantic. The financial support provided by CNRS and the University of Chicago enables these teams to pursue three-year collaborative research projects and conduct research visits to achieve their shared scientific goals.
IRC recently awarded seven doctoral fellowships to its latest cohort. The awarded projects cover a wide range of disciplines, from quantum technologies to miniaturized batteries, as well as online epistemic vigilance. For the CNRS, the selected projects concern respectively CNRS Physics, CNRS Chemistry (2), CNRS Biology (2), CNRS Nuclei & Particles and CNRS Humanities & Social Sciences. The projects will run from 2025 to 2027.
List of projects selected in the latest cohort (on the UChicago Global website) :
- The effects of subcortical neural encoding on second language phonetic learning
- Multiscale biophysical characterization of the Campylobacter flagellar system
- Novel Radical Cyclization Cascades for the Total Synthesis of Sclerocitrin
- Physics and potential for quantum technologies of KTaO3 two-dimensional electron gases
- Powering future on-board quantum technologies with high energy density solid-state batteries (Q-Batt)
- Uncovering the Physics at the Horizon: Tidal Deformability and Symmetries of Black Holes
- Veridicality, rhetorical tropes, and epistemic vigilance in on-line communication: semantic and pragmatic underpinning
