How can the University of Nairobi develop university-business relations?

The relationship between universities and companies is at the heart of the strategic partnership signed in May by ParisTech, four of the network's schools - AgroParisTech, Chimie ParisTech, École des Ponts ParisTech, Mines Paris - and CentraleSupélec with the University of Nairobi, with the financial support of the Agence Française de Développement (AFD). It was therefore only natural that the first action launched should focus on companies.

Beatrice Ndaisi and Alan Tagi from the University of Nairobi's Advancement Office travelled to Paris in the first week of October to meet the people in charge of corporate relations at the various schools.

Pierre-Yves Mingant, in charge of partnerships at CentraleSupélec, had concocted a three-day program on the school's campus. Beatrice Ndaisi and Alan Tagi visited "La Fabrique", the school's entrepreneurship facility, and met with the school's Foundation. CentraleSupélec presented the various tools - IT and others - put in place to monitor corporate relations. They also had the opportunity to visit the Station F incubator in the heart center of Paris.

They were then welcomed to the new AgroParisTech campus by Aliénor Jeanne,  International Relations officer. Maryvonne Lassalle de Salins, Director of Partnerships, explained the school's philosophy in terms of corporate relations, how partnerships are forged in education, research and innovation, and the tools used. Jeanne Leclerc, in charge of the AgroParisTech Foundation's "Chairs and Initiatives" project, presented the various ways in which the Foundation supports the creation of companies and chairs, and Ejsi Hasanbelliu presented the CoPack Chair she coordinates. Beatrice Ndaisi and Alan Tagi visited the school's brand-new campus, and in particular the Food'InnLab, one of the school's open third-party innovation spaces of the fab and/or academic living lab type, with Lucile Deloince, in charge of R&D and Innovation projects for FIPDes. Finally, they met with the students who organize the Vitae Forum (company/student meetings).

Finally, they ended their visit at Chimie ParisTech - PSL, where Mariane Igilhariz, head of corporate relations, showed them around the school, and more specifically the premises of the Industrial Relations Department where companies and start-ups are housed, as well as the ParisFlowTech flow chemistry technology platform where industrialists come to develop their flow chemistry projects. Other facilities of interest to the two missionaries were the recently-opened Fablab, which will be used for initial and continuing training as well as research, and the school's warehouse for purchasing consumables for research and chemical waste management. They also took part in a student round table with Saint-Gobain. Following this tour of the premises, Mariane Ighilahriz introduced the delegation to the various forms of collaboration offered by the school between companies and researchers (partnership research projects, company chairs, joint laboratories, service provision, co-supervised PhDs, executive education, etc.), as well as between companies and students.

Throughout the week, the exchanges were very rich for both parties. Beatrice Ndaisi and Alan Tagi were able to discover different models at different stages of development, which they will be able to draw on to set up the corporate relations department at the University of Nairobi.