[Reportage] Tunisian scientific community meets in Montreal

The event was held in collaboration with HEC Montréal, which hosted it. It brought together Tunisian academics, researchers and students studying at Quebec universities.

was the first face-to-face meeting with the Tunisian scientific community in Quebec organized by The University of Tunis Mission in North AmericaMUTANTTunisian government agency, since the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to federal government data, there were approximately 35,000 Tunisian immigrants in Canada in 2020, mostly living in Quebec.

According to the same source, Canada, one of the most popular places to study abroad, attracts 2,000-3,000 Tunisian students per year.

In an interview with Radio Canada International (RCI), director The University of Tunis Mission in North AmericaMUTANTHaykel Ben Mahfoudh puts the number of Tunisian students in Canada at around 6,000, but he stresses that this number is not accurate.

Many Tunisian students enter master’s and doctoral programs, most of them in the field of engineering.

Mr. Ben Mahfoudh said that The University of Tunis Mission in North AmericaMUTANT In North America, Tunisia represents the entire ecosystem of scientific research and higher education.

He expressed the purpose of the meeting Lots of science in 2023does to build relationships and exchange with our scientific community, to create relevant networks, to create opportunities and above all to connect with our scientific community.

He adds that Tunisia has a framework agreement for scientific research cooperation between the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research and the Fonds de recherche du Québec (FRQ) and calls for projects funded by both parties.

Tunisia’s Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research, Moncef Boukthir, intervened in this matter through video recording during this event.

In this meeting, the director of MMC The University of Tunis Mission in North AmericaMUTANTThe deputy consul of Tunisia in Montreal announced that 2023 will be rich in terms of both achievements and projects.

In a few weeks, we will launch the first call for projects in the framework of the collaboration between the Tunisian Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research and the Quebec Research Funds. Research areas have been identified and funding envelopes will be allocated soon.

These areas include the digital economy, circular economy and entrepreneurship. Researchers, businesses and emerging companies can apply for funding.

Framework agreement for scientific cooperation between the Tunisian Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research and the Ministry of Scientific Research Quebec Research FoundationFRQ was signed last November in Djerba, Tunisia, during a scientific symposium organized within the framework of the Francophonie Summit, Mr. Ben Mahfoudh recalls.

During this summit, the two sides renewed the agreement between the government of Tunisia and the government of Quebec on student mobility at the higher education level.

The beginning of the Widget widget. Skip widget?

End of widget widget. Go back to the beginning of the widget?

director of The University of Tunis Mission in North AmericaMUTANT The Tunisian Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research also announced the signing of an agreement between the University of Montreal and the Sadok Besrour Foundation for the promotion of medicine in Tunisia.

The latter is named after a Canadian-Tunisian family doctor established in Montreal for more than half a century.

This contract will open great prospects for scientific partnership between the public and private sectors– says Mr. Ben Mahfoudh, who chaired the meeting The University of Tunis Mission in North AmericaMUTANT From January 2022. It belongs to this organization science diplomacy According to him, Tunisian.

The meeting was also an opportunity to organize a debate on dialogue between scientific communities in Quebec.

Haykel Ben Mahfoudh, Marie-Nathalie LeBlanc, Vice-Chancellor of the Agence universitaire de la Francophonie (AUF) and Professor of the Department of Sociology at the Université de Québec in Montreal (UQAM) and Associate Professor at HEC Montreal, Michel Audet, in this dialogue led by Philippe Régnoux, founder and publishing director of the site. participated CScience.

Regards

At the end of the meeting, four members of the Tunisian scientific community in Quebec were awarded honorary titles.

Awards and certificates of appreciation were presented to them for their achievements in their fields of specialization and their dedication to serving the Tunisian community in Canada.

Awardees Dr. Sadok Besrour, Professor Ahlem Ammar, Deputy Dean for Research at the Faculty of Education, University of Montreal, Dr. Mohamed Haddad is a postdoctoral researcher at the Armand-Frappier Center for Health Biotechnology at the National Institute for Scientific Research. Research (INRS), also from Yousra Rimani The University of Tunis Mission in North AmericaMUTANT.

Note: this report is also available in Arabic and translated into French by Fadi Harouny.