Harvard - CRI - Sciences Po: an original summer school in Paris

For the first time, the Sciences Po School of Public Affairs is partnering with Harvard and the Centre de recherches interdisciplinaires (CRI) to offer students from these three prestigious institutions a programme combining hard sciences and social sciences.

Creating a dialogue between hard sciences and social sciences

This summer programme explores the links between biology, engineering, design and social science in order to transform local public policies through a focus on citizen engagement. Building on the 17 UN sustainable development goals, the students work to find solutions to a concrete problem in view of improving the quality of life of Parisians in terms of the environment, health or education. "It's a different way of thinking about urban development and the city," explains Harvard student Eana Men. "For example, we study how air passes through the lungs, or how proteins circulate. We then apply that to the way the city functions." All the projects developed by the summer school students will be presented to the Paris City Council in the form of three-minute videos.

Three prestigious institutions come together in Paris

The intensive eight-week programme is organised by professors Robert Lue and Alain Viel from Harvard's Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, in collaboration with François Taddei, director of CRI and Yann Algan, dean of the Sciences Po School of Public Affairs. A total of 40 students will participate: 20 from Harvard, ten from CRI and ten from Sciences Po. The programme combines lectures, design workshops, walks for ethnographic observation through various areas of Paris, and participation in events like Futur en Seine, allowing students to gather material and ideas which they then use to develop responsive and actionable project designs.

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