2024-02-29 18:12:24
Par Thibaut Faussabry
Published on Feb 29, 24 at 7:12 p.m. See my news Follow News Essonne
More than 2,300 registrants, 100 speakers, including three Nobel Prize winners and 20% foreigners, 59 conferences… the first edition of the Paris-Saclay Summit opened this Thursday, February 29, 2024 at l’EDF Lab in Palaiseau (Essonne) for two days during which it is above all a question of sciences a you major role that they are led to play in the years and decades to come.
Climate change, biotechnology, artificial intelligence…
“We wanted to create a free event, open to allduring which science meets society”, underlines Grégoire de Lasteyrie, president of the Paris-Saclay agglomeration, at the initiative of the event with the weekly Point, the Île-de-France Region and the Department of Essonne.
In the corridors of the conference center of the leading electricity producer in France, we come across researchers, entrepreneurs or even students from the Saclay plateau, but also citizens, high school and college students as well as some foreigners who can follow the conferences thanks to simultaneous translation into English.
This first edition aims to be general with different subjects covered, even if climate change, biotechnologies and artificial intelligence are the strong themes which stand out among the multitude of conferences offered.
No more than three speakers per conference
For each of them, the organizers started from limit the number of speakers to three or even two in order, according to Grégoire de Lasteyrie, to “facilitate exchanges and go more in-depth into the subjects discussed”.
“One of the challenges of the Paris Saclay Summit is to restore science to its letters of nobility by addressing the greatest number of people, moment when the words of scientists are contestedparticularly by young people,” underlines the president of the Paris-Saclay agglomeration.
Eroding confidence in science
In his inaugural speech, Grégoire de Lasteyrie mentioned a recent Ifop study indicating that only 33% of young people aged 18 – 24 think that science brings more good than harm. This same figure was 55% in 1975.
The elected official also deplored a “worrying challenge to the scientific consensus” highlighting the fact that one in six young people in France think that the Earth is flat.
“It is important to give scientists a voice”
A speech which had a certain resonance with François Gemenneprofessor at HEC, president of the Scientific Council of the Foundation for Nature and Man and member of the IPCC.
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It is important to give scientists a voice. Not because they are better than others, but because their words obey codes, validation by peers and committees. We cannot put the words of a scientist on par with that of an average person who has proclaimed themselves an expert on this or that subject.
François Gemenne
Speaking at a conference on the decarbonization of air transport, the political scientist specializing in climate issues is pleased to contribute through this summit “to show the general public to what extent science can respond to major contemporary challenges.”
The ambition to become the equivalent of what Davos is for the economy
A sign of the public’s enthusiasm for the event, certain conferences will be held sold out.
“It’s a pleasant surprise for a first edition, especially since we only really started working on it in October,” rejoices Grégoire de Lasteyrie, who evokes a total budget of around one million euros.
The president of the Paris-Saclay agglomeration, Grégoire de Lasteyrie, had been thinking about organizing this summit around science for a year and a half (©TF / actu Essonne)
While Paris-Saclay will bring together 25% of French public and private research in 2030 (20% currently), the Paris Saclay Summit has vocation to anchor itself over time and gain an international dimension over future editions.
“The crazy ambition we have is that Paris-Saclay becomes to science what Davos is to economics. We hope that this summit will become the place where scientists will want to go to make big announcements,” concludes the elected official.
Paris-Saclay Summit: Thursday February 29 and Friday March 1, 2024 at the EDF Lab in Palaiseau. To discover the complete program and register, go to the event website. To follow the conferences remotely, everything happens on the Point Youtube channel.
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