16 – 19 November 2026 · Université de Rennes, France

Forum Chile–France
2026

A decade of binational scientific cooperation reaches its fourth chapter: six research communities, two countries, one shared agenda for the challenges ahead.

HostUniversité de Rennes
Working GroupsSix, across four themes
SinceParis, 2015
Apply to Participate → Explore the Working Groups
Apply About Rennes 2026 Working Groups Program Institutions Past Forums
Scroll
Call for Participants

Join a Working Group.

Chilean academics are invited to apply to one of the six Working Groups outlined further down this page. French researchers should reach their university contact person. Here is how the process unfolds:

Opens

Jul 27, 2026

The call for participation opens to Chilean academics across all three member universities.

Closes

Aug 10, 2026

Applications close. Each submission is reviewed for fit with its chosen Working Group.

Evaluation

Aug 11 – 21

Working Group leads rank applicants and the Task Force confirms final participant lists.

Results

Week of Aug 24

Selected participants are notified and preparation for Rennes begins.

Apply to Participate (Only Chilean Academics) → More information about the call

Link the official call bases here once approved.

About the Forum

A platform built to last.

Since its founding, the Forum Chile–France has grown from a single high-level meeting into a standing bridge between two national research systems — one that keeps returning, keeps widening, and keeps producing new collaborations.

  • Format A week-long academic conference, held every two years in alternating host countries
  • Activities Opening and closing ceremonies, thematic workshops, academic and networking meetings, funding presentations, a roadmap for long-term cooperation, and a closing cultural activity
  • Reach Coastal sciences, renewable energy, sustainable water management, inequalities, and health sciences have all featured across past editions
    • Université de Rennes, Beaulieu campus
    The Host City

    Rennes opens its campus to two continents.

    A leading French research university with a strong international outlook, Université de Rennes brings its academic excellence, research capabilities, and long-standing commitment to global cooperation to this edition — opening its campus to Chilean and French researchers for a week of shared work.

    The 2026 edition is organized around four thematic pillars: Global Health, Environmental and Sustainability Studies, Digital Technologies, and the Social, Cultural and Political Challenges to Democracy — giving this edition its widest disciplinary reach yet.

    • Dates 16–19 November 2026
    • Venue Université de Rennes, France
    • Format In-person, with a parallel authorities' agenda
    Beaulieu campus, Université de Rennes — Wikimedia Commons
    Working Groups

    Four pillars, six workshops, one binational agenda.

    Selected from 43 admissible applications across the three Chilean universities, these six Working Groups were chosen for their disciplinary breadth, binational relevance, and potential for lasting collaboration.

    Global Health

    1 working group

    Climate Change, Environmental Exposures, and Health: Interdisciplinary Challenges for Research and Action

    This working group creates an interdisciplinary space to examine how climate change and environmental exposures affect health, bringing together climate science, geography, geophysics, epidemiology, and public health. It explores how phenomena such as heat waves, wildfires, air pollution, and extreme weather events reshape patterns of risk and exposure across territories and populations. The group aims to bridge disciplines that have traditionally worked apart: advances in pollution modeling, climate projections, and spatial analysis help identify exposed populations, while epidemiology clarifies the health consequences and associated inequalities. Discussions will focus on shared methodological approaches and collaboration opportunities between Chile and France, strengthening interdisciplinary ties to address the environmental and health challenges posed by a changing climate.

    Environmental & Sustainability Studies

    2 working groups

    Contested Energy Transitions: A France–Chile Perspective

    This working group approaches energy transitions as spatial and political processes shaped by technological systems, financial flows, regulatory frameworks, territorial imaginaries, ecological pressures, and social conflict. It brings together French and Chilean researchers across disciplines to compare transition pathways, build shared analytical frameworks, and identify priorities for joint research. Central questions include how both countries balance energy security with decarbonization, how the costs and benefits of energy infrastructure are distributed and contested across territories, and which ecological thresholds are being tested as energy systems expand. By placing France's nuclear-centered strategy alongside Chile's rapid renewable expansion and mineral extraction, the group aims to produce a comparative research agenda and lay the groundwork for sustained collaboration and future publications.

    Strengthening the Research Areas of the Agroecological Innovation Hub of the Ñuble Region

    This working group proposes strategic cooperation between the Agroecological Innovation Hub of Ñuble, led by Universidad de Concepción, and French institutions such as L'Institut Agro Rennes-Angers, Université Angers, and Université de Rennes, members of the Vegepolys Valley cluster, to advance agroecological practices and sustainable food systems. It will co-design joint actions on biodiversity, soil health, circular economy, and agri-food bioeconomy, drawing on French experimental-platform networks to develop and evaluate cropping systems that reduce external inputs. The Hub already coordinates experimental units linking the university, research institutes, an agricultural school, and local producers. Bringing academics and students from both countries together, the group aims to consolidate an internationally connected agroecological innovation ecosystem in Ñuble, strengthening the resilience and sustainability of the agricultural sector.

    Digital Technologies

    1 working group

    The Dual Impact of Artificial Intelligence: The Chile–France Case

    Artificial intelligence is often imagined as an immaterial cloud, yet it functions as a planetary metabolism sustained by minerals, energy, water, land, and human labor. This working group examines that double footprint — territorial and human — building on the Chilean-French SEED collaboration and related research to bring together scholars who observe, map, and follow AI's global deployment. On one side, it studies the infrastructure behind AI: cables, exchange points, power plants, and data centers. On the other, it examines the workers who produce, classify, verify, and moderate the data that trains and sustains these systems, often under precarious conditions. The group aims to build a shared conceptual framework, test cartographic and ethnographic methods along the Chile-France axis, and analyze the asymmetries structuring the global AI value chain.

    Social, Cultural & Political Challenges to Democracy

    2 working groups

    Democracies under Pressure: Inequality, Political Cultures, and Institutional Resilience in Chile and France

    Contemporary democracies face profound transformations that challenge their stability, legitimacy, and capacity to respond. In both Chile and France, persistent social inequalities, fragmented community ties, political polarization, and institutional distrust are reshaping traditional mechanisms of representation and cohesion. This working group brings together researchers from both countries to examine how socioeconomic inequality, cultural change, and new forms of mobilization affect democratic quality, and how state and non-state actors respond through adaptation, resistance, or institutional innovation. Building on existing ECOS projects and consolidated Franco-Chilean networks across sociology, political science, anthropology, and cultural studies, the group seeks to deepen these collaborations through the Rennes Forum, advancing shared diagnoses and comparative research on the social, cultural, and political challenges facing contemporary democracies.

    Decentralization, Territorial Governance, and Sustainable Transition: Comparative Challenges in Chile and France

    This working group creates a space for academic collaboration between Chile and France on decentralization, territorial governance, and environmental sustainability, examining how institutional arrangements and levels of subnational autonomy shape public policy implementation, state capacity, and sustainable development. It focuses on challenges shared by both countries — territorial inequality, ecological transition, environmental quality, multilevel coordination, and regional institutional strengthening — drawing on recent Chilean evidence on air quality and decentralization to show how greater regional capacity can improve environmental policy outcomes. Combining academic presentations, discussion of ongoing research, and exploration of joint funding opportunities, the group pairs France's long tradition of territorial planning with Chile's recent experience of regional strengthening and competency transfer, building toward comparative research on multilevel environmental governance.

    Working Group leads will be confirmed and announced ahead of the Forum.

    Program

    Four days, three kinds of activities.

    The Forum 2026 unfolds as a four-day academic gathering in Rennes: an opening day combining an Embassy welcome with the Forum's funding presentations, two full days of thematic workshops, a closing session where each Working Group presents its results and shapes a shared research roadmap, and a closing cultural visit to Saint-Malo.

    Common activities
    Academic activities
    Authorities & staff activities
    Day 1 · Mon 16

    Arrival & Opening

    AMA welcome activity hosted by the Embassy of Chile in France, followed by the delegation's transfer to Rennes.
    PMRegistration, the opening session, and the Forum's funding presentations.
    Day 2 · Tue 17

    Thematic Workshops

    AM/PMWorking Groups convene for a full day of thematic sessions.
    Day 3 · Wed 18

    Workshops & Roadmap

    AMWorking Groups continue their sessions.
    PMA closing session where each Working Group presents its results and the shared research roadmap takes shape.
    Day 4 · Thu 19

    Cultural Visit

    AMA closing cultural visit to Saint-Malo.
    Duration4 days
    Academics~50 expected
    Institutional authorities10 expected
    Administrative staff10 expected

    A detailed, hour-by-hour schedule will be published closer to the Forum.

    Organizing Institutions

    Two national delegations, one shared roster.

    The Forum is coordinated by a binational Task Force bringing together leading universities, ministries, and diplomatic and scientific agencies from both countries.

    Chile

    • Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile smcubillos@uc.cl
      Member university
    • Universidad de Chile sarita.rodriguez@uchile.cl
      Member university
    • Universidad de Concepción cgreig@udec.cl
      Member university
    • DECYTI, Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores
      Government partner
    • Embajada de Chile en Francia
      Diplomatic partner

    France

    Past Forums

    Three editions, one growing platform.

    From its first gathering in Paris to a pandemic-era reinvention, the Forum has kept meeting and kept growing — carrying its community forward into a fourth edition in Rennes.

    2015
    Paris

    1st Forum Chile–France

    The inaugural edition launches the platform, convening Chilean and French universities around shared academic priorities for the first time.

    Founding edition
    2017
    Santiago

    2nd Forum Chile–France

    Held in Chile with around 300 academics and the participation of both presidents in office, this edition marks the platform's highest point of visibility to date.

    Presidential visit
    2021
    Paris

    3rd Forum Chile–France

    Held in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Forum adapts to a hybrid format — a small in-person delegation in Paris alongside roughly 200 academics joining online.

    Hybrid resilience
    2026
    Rennes

    4th Forum Chile–France

    The platform returns in full strength, hosted by Université de Rennes, with six Working Groups spanning health, environment, digital technology and democracy.

    Current edition
    Rennes · 16–19 November 2026

    Ten years of cooperation.
    One forum ahead.

    From Paris to Santiago, and now to Rennes — the Forum Chile–France keeps building the bridges that binational research depends on. Be part of the next chapter.

    Apply to a Working Group →