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CRI is co-constructing and sharing new ways of learning, teaching, conducting research and mobilizing collective intelligence in the fields of life, learning and digital sciences, in order to address the UN's sustainable development goals (SDGs).
CRI operates around 4 main areas :
CRI was founded in 2006 by François Taddei and Ariel Lindner with the Bettencourt Schueller Foundation as an essential and key supporting partner and Paris City Hall. It also benefits from the support of a wide range of foundations, corporate sponsors and institutions including the University of Paris, with which CRI co-founded the interdisciplinary action-based research challenge institute (“Institut des Défis”) to prototype a model of a Learning University enable of responding to the global challenges of our time.
A learning society and a learning planet are organized to systematically promote the learning of individuals and collectives that compose them and enable them to solve the challenges they face.
Because our greatest challenges are global, we must develop a learning planet that facilitates learning through research, engagement and innovation at all stages of life: everyone must be able to document their learning, exploration and action so that others can learn from their successes, difficulties and failures, learn from their experiences and improve their solutions. We must develop a society where sharing, mentoring and cooperating are the norm and transform lifelong learning. Countries such as Finland, Singapore or Canada, that have been able to modernize their education systems show us that such changes are possible and that it is possible both to raise individual standards and to reduce inequalities.
CRI, founded by researchers specializing in evolutionary dynamics and systems engineering, brings together very diverse audiences throughout the world to design and prototype new learning ecosystems and new exponential dynamics in order to mobilize collective intelligence and thus accelerate our ability to meet the SDGs.
We have to learn how to take care of oneself, others and the planet - François Taddei - Chairman and co-founder of CRI
As a society and a planet we face a major challenge : Humanity generates problems faster than the knowledge needed to solve them. Our mission is to close this gap by combining three approaches:
Over the last sixteen years, with the generous support of the Bettencourt Schueller Foundation, CRI has grown from a handful of people to an international renowned institute and a worldwide community with more than 100 teachers, 40 in-house researchers, 1,300 alumni, 30,000 Savanturiers pupils, 350 yearly students, 100,000 online learners including 30,000 school teachers. CRI evolved from 20 m² to a prestigious and award-winning 7000 m² research and learning campus hosting an ever wider range of programs for all ages and all walks of life (Bachelor to PhD, K12 - Savanturiers, lifelong learning, outreach, research collaboratory etc.). Furthermore, CRI is in high demand to offer new perspectives to traditional institutions from universities content to companies to ministries to intergovernmental bodies.
We propose that over the next ten years, we will focus on four interacting and interwoven objectives :
In the tradition of Socrates and Humboldt, CRI is an evolving and fruitful framework of freedom based on key values.
Trust facilitates learning, mobilizes everyone's energies and releases creative thoughts. It makes it possible to expose and overcome differences of opinion, to share and build together. To flourish, it requires people to display integrity and competence, and to be kind to each other. This is what allows constructive criticism to be expressed.
“We are all born scientists”. Asking questions is what human brains were born to do, as shown by Alison Gopnik. We can all contribute to the advancement of knowledge, even the youngest ones, because we can nurture the art of questioning, have access to knowledge and technology, learn from peers and mentors, and be trained to take into account best practice in research and ethics.
For Aristotle, knowledge takes three forms: Episteme, Techne and Phronesis. While the first two have given us science and technology, the ethics of action, is rarely taught in higher education. CRI encourages students to think about the applications and implications of their projects, the consequences for themselves and others, in the short and long term, at the local and global level to guide their approach throughout their careers and throughout their lives.
"None of us is smarter than all of us"; no single discipline is smarter than all disciplines considered together. No one knows everything, everyone knows something and being enriched by our differences is essential for creating new solutions.
The new CRI campus, whose site was graciously provided by the Ville de Paris, opened in October 2018 after renovations made possible through the generous support of the Bettencourt Schueller Foundation. The campus includes an on-site student residence comprising 55 dormitories, and housing is provided based on income considerations as well as how far students have to travel to get to campus.
Lead architect Eddy Vahanian along with Patrick Mauger and chief architect for historic monuments Daniel Lefèvre worked together to design a true learning hub where teaching and research intersect. The main hall, the Learning Centre, the Makerlab, the auditorium, the laboratories, the offices, the reception areas, the garden, the rooftop: every space is open and fluid (and often equipped with cutting-edge technology) to provide CRI members with an ideal setting for meeting and exchanging. This likewise makes the site an ideal venue for scientific or cultural gatherings, conferences, and events.
The Bettencourt Schueller Foundation has been a strategic long-term partner since the CRI was created. We also receive support from an array of partners such as Ville de Paris and the INSERM, and we receive grants from the Axa Research Fund, the European Union, the Investments for the Future programme, the French National Research Agency and MSD Avenir.
The CRI develops its degree and research programmes through the Université de Paris and INSERM.
