This recognition marks the conclusion of a three-year Erasmus+ project and celebrates a relationship that began in the early 2000s and has continued uninterrupted since the start of the Russian invasion.
A partnership that began in 2001
The ties between Centrale Lyon and Ukrainian higher education date back to 2001, with an initial cooperation agreement involving the school, SNECMA, and the Kyiv National Aviation University. In the years that followed, agreements were signed with several leading institutions, including the Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute and Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv. Over the course of eighteen years, some twenty Ukrainian students have been welcomed to Écully.
Starting in 2014, the cooperation took on a new scale. The Euromaidan movement and Ukrainian society’s growing rapprochement with the European Union led the school to strengthen its engagement with the country. A delegation traveled to Kyiv, agreements were renewed, and dual-degree master’s programs were established with the Polytechnic Institute and Taras Shevchenko University.
Two consecutive Erasmus+ projects
Between 2017 and 2019, an initial Erasmus+ credit mobility project helped strengthen these exchanges. With a budget of 226,000 euros over two years, it made it possible to host seventeen Ukrainian students, send six French students to Ukraine for internships, and facilitate forty-eight staff exchanges in both directions for training and teaching purposes. The French Embassy in Ukraine supplemented this European support with about ten degree-granting scholarships awarded to Ukrainian students between 2018 and 2022.
A second Erasmus+ project will take over from August 1, 2023, to July 31, 2026. Its three-year budget of 360,000 euros has been 98% utilized. It facilitated twelve mobility exchanges for Ukrainian students and 122 incoming staff exchanges, organized around six one-week training sessions at Centrale Lyon, covering topics ranging from the assessment of student competencies to innovation and urban resilience.
This second project expanded the partnership to include a third institution, the National University of Civil Protection of Ukraine, which provides technical and methodological support to the State Emergency Service of Ukraine.
An Unexpected Focus: Firefighters Sharing Their Experiences
The collaboration with the National University of Civil Protection was initially intended to focus on fire propagation in tunnels, a field studied at the fluid mechanics and acoustics laboratory. After making contact with the SDMIS, the metropolitan departmental fire and rescue service, the collaboration took on a whole new dimension.
A training session was dedicated to feedback from Ukraine’s State Emergency Service on protecting the population during Russian airstrikes. In return, the SDMIS shared its experience with fires in confined spaces and the use of robotics in metro tunnel operations. Two additional training sessions were scheduled: a canine unit session for Ukrainian firefighters and a multi-agency civil protection coordination exercise. These had to be postponed, as the Ukrainian partners were unable to travel due to the high risk of airstrikes in the summer of 2026.
A Partnership That Withstood the War
Beyond the numbers, the relationship with Ukraine has, since February 2022, been reflected in the direct involvement of the school’s staff. In the days following the invasion, ten families of Ukrainian female researchers and their children were welcomed, often hosted by Centrale Lyon staff members. The school assisted these families with their applications and submitted them to the PAUSE program, led by the Collège de France. Of the ten applications coordinated by the school, eight were funded—five led by Centrale Lyon, two by INSA Lyon, and one by the University of Lyon 1. Two long-term PAUSE-ANR projects were subsequently secured.
It is this combination—long-term scientific cooperation and concrete humanitarian commitment—that the ambassador’s letter recognized. It highlights the value of a partnership that, supported by two Erasmus+ projects, continued even after the start of the full-scale Russian invasion.
And then
The second Erasmus+ project will conclude in July 2026. The postponed training sessions - particularly the component focused on the coordination of emergency services- will resume as soon as travel conditions permit. The relationship between Centrale Lyon and its Ukrainian partners will continue to be built on the ties forged over the past quarter-century, in both education and research.
