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On March 5, a ceremony was held at the National Institute of Applied Sciences of Lyon (INSA Lyon), to mark the launch of ELyT Global and the opening of ELyTMaX's French site.

ELyTMaX - an acronym of Engineering Science Lyon-Tohoku for Materials and Systems under Extreme Conditions - is a joint laboratory set up to promote researches in materials science and mechanical engineering in a French-Japanese environment.

Established by the French National Center for Science Research (CNRS), Université de Lyon and Tohoku University, ELyTMaX opened its Japanese laboratory at Katahira Campus in October 2016, and is co-led by Professor Kazuhiro Ogawa (Graduate School of Engineering) and Professor Gael Sebald (INSA Lyon-CNRS).

More than 20 researchers and double-degree students are currently engaged in ELyTMaX's activities. Several French researchers have been based in Sendai since 2016, and similarly, Japanese researchers from Tohoku University will soon begin residence in Lyon. According to Professors Sebald and Ogawa, funds from both Japanese and French agencies have been secured, and ELyTMaX has already seen encouraging results in the form of co-authored papers and research conducted with private enterprise.

While ELyTMaX is a conventional laboratory, ELyT Global has been described as a virtual lab - a network that connects Tohoku University and Lyon, with research institutes in Germany and Sweden. ELyT Global, which follows the previous ELyT Lab (launched in 2008), is founded by CNRS, institutions of Université de Lyon and Tohoku University. This network promotes broader multilateral collaborative researches and also industry-academia collaborations.

ELyT Global is co-led by Professor Tetsuya Uchimoto (Institute of Fluid Science) and Professor Julien Fontaine (École Centrale de Lyon). It is expected to focus on efforts in fields such as materials and structures design, surfaces and interfaces, and simulation and modeling, while also being dedicated to social issues in transportation, energy and engineering for health.

The official ceremony was well attended. Tohoku University had some 40 representatives, including President Susumu Satomi, Executive Vice Presidents Toshiya Ueki and Sadayoshi Ito, as well as faculty and staff from the Institute of Fluid Science and the Graduate School of Engineering.

Representatives from France included Jean-Yves Marzin, Director of INSIS at CNRS, Khaled Bouabdallah, President of Université de Lyon, Eric Maurincomme, President of INSA Lyon and Vice President of Université de Lyon for entrepreneurship and innovation and Frank Debouck, Director of École Centrale de Lyon (ECL).

Director of the JSPS Strasbourg Office Hiroyuki Miyamoto and the head of Japan's Consular Office in Lyon, Hidekazu Nagasawa, were also in attendance.

Following the ceremony, a reception was held at Lyon City Hall. The Deputy Mayor of Lyon recognized the long history of academic collaboration between Tohoku University and Université de Lyon, and expressed hope for more opportunities to not only promote international industry-academia collaboration but also the possibility of more exchanges with local communities in France and Japan.

ELyTMaX and ELyT Global are both parts of the wider ELyT - Engineering Science Lyon-Tohoku - programme, a decades long collaboration that also includes a summer school named ELyT School dedicated to young researchers in Master and Doctoral studies.