Today's Date:

The role of the Science and Technology Mission (MST) of the embassy and its four branch offices in Boston, Chicago, Houston and San Francisco, is to serve as a tool for observing American strategy in a few key areas, particularly innovative technologies and investments in Research and Development.

The Foreign Ministry, in conjunction with other ministries such as Education, Research, Industry and Telecom-munications, together with France's most important research institutions (CNRS, CEA, CNES, INSERM, INRIA, ADEME, etc.), have given the MST a four-part mission:

- To observe American scientific and technological policies. Policy-making cannot be reduced to the activities of the federal government and the states; it is also driven by congressional debates and enriched by numerous think tanks, scholarly societies and professional organizations whose members include academics, manufacturers and representatives of the administration. American businesses also contribute to the mix.

- To track R&D in the United States in key sectors labeled "critical technologies." These may be specialized subjects or concerns that lie just over the horizon: multimedia and information technologies; material science and manufacturing processes, particularly those which save energy and boost productivity; biotechnology; telemedicine and new medications; the environment, recycling and the treatment of industrial and household wastes, etc. The MST publishes regular newsletters (BIGRE US, Etats-Unis Environnement, Etats-Unis Microélectronique, Etats-Unis Materiaux). It also hosts and supervises missions and interns studying cutting-edge technologies, with assistance from the ADIT, in targeted areas.

- To conduct exchanges and collaborative ventures between French and American teams; organize seminars; support the creation of scientific networks involving the two countries; select high-level candidates for scholarships and grant programs designed to attract American scientists to our laboratories (the Chateaubriand program, for example) and to support the work of French researchers in the United States (the Lavoisier program); to improve the image of French brands among American academics and manufacturers. In addition, the MST's annual "Forum USA" enables hundreds of French engineers and researchers residing in the United States - in particular, the youngest among them - to meet representatives of French companies seeking managers familiar with the scientific, technological and economic realities of North America.

- To help promote French know-how and sci-tech programs by distributing publications and press releases, providing information for American interlocutors and organizing and taking part in public events (colloquia, workshops, round tables, etc.).