- silence

- And now the news with the creation of the Mediterranean Center for International Trade,

- Marseille has thus chosen for a few years now to bet its economic future on the Mediterranean area.

- The local Council, through actions in Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, also played in its turn about the Mediterranean area, in particular at the level of administrative relationships.

- And then the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) in its turn launches itself

- into the adventure one could call Mare Nostrum by creating the Research and Study Institute on the Arabic and Muslim World (IREMAM).

- It was inaugurated less than an hour ago by Jean-Claude Gaudin, the new president of the local Council. Reporting by Rémy Champenois.

- 5 research teams, 60 researchers and technical collaborators, as many teachers, that is the IREMAM, Research and Study Institute on the Arabic and Muslim World.

- The vocation of the IREMAM is to become one of the poles of French research on the Arabic world in association with Aix and Marseilles universities.

- But it is an accomplishment, first of all, of 10 years of works that were done here by all the research teams which belong to the 3 universities of Aix-Marseilles

- and that cluster in this Research Institute on the Arabic world

- and secondly they are the symbol for the CNRS of the priority we want to grant

- in France to the researches on the Arabic and Muslim world.

- Yes, so Aix gets an essential role in this research?

- Indeed.

- Aix en Provence has, through its teams that we gather here, a very strong research tradition in this field

- and this institute will without any doubt be the main one in France, helped by the CNRS in this field of research.

- Aix was chosen for a simple reason: it is10 or 20 years since it has been the main center, the more active one, in this research,

- I will for instance quote the CRESME, a specialized lab on the Maghreb, that has been working for 20 years,

- that has been publishing books for 20 years, that has been doing researches that are considered to be top researches in this field.

- That makes quite a large number of researchers?

- Yes, the IREMAM will gather around 60 full-time technical researchers and collaborators,

- mainly paid by the CNRS,

- adding around 60 associated researchers, and researcher-teachers.

- Most of them are of course Arabists?

- A great many of them are Arabists,

- that is a need now, for those who want to care about the Arab world.

- So there are 2 activities, research on the one hand and publications on the other?

- Exactly.

- The purpose of the activity of the IREMAM is the research on the Arabic world,

- and the natural outcome of this research is naturally the publications which sample is quite significant.

- But on the other hand, there is also a training activity as, thanks to the cooperation between the CNRS,

- Aix-Marseille I University and Aix-Marseille III University, we could set a PhD

- that prepares post-graduate students

- and the specialty of this PhD is precisely the Arabic world.