They travelled to Germany to attend the Medika Symposium and came to Paris to get an overview of the French opportunities in terms of collaboration and technology transfer.
After a presentation of the Inserm (member of Aviesan) policy on international cooperation, 2 institutes were described: the Institute for Circulation, Metabolism and Nutrition and the Institute for Health Technologies with the HTech4Dev Initiative we are working on.
The NIA sounded very interested in this initiative as they are a funding agency specialized in technology transfer. They are aware of the needs in surrounding countries such as Cambodia, Viet Nam or Lao and would agree to contact Thai technology providers to get them involved in HTech4Dev.
Working with this Thai Agency would be a very exciting. This would be a major step forward as we intend to extend our initiative towards Asia and then develop transcontinental partnership between Asia, Africa and South America!
Aviesan may come to regret its alliance with NIA. You can read in the news about the revocation in June of the PhD degree of its Director, Supachai Lorlowhakarn, after he was found guilty of plagiarizing 80% of his thesis from the report of an EU-funded project. In August he was found guilty of criminal forgery of the employment contract of the report's real author, William Ellis, a UN consultant who made the original allegation. The consultant has since been subjected to a nasty campaign including legal and other forms of harrassment. His car has been ambushed at least twice. Supachai is now under investigation by the National Anti-Corruption Commission for fraudulent use of state funds. He and NIA also face allegations of breach of copyright.
ReplyDeleteIs this really the kind of representation Aviesan needs to spearhead its Asian presence? See news reports at
http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?storycode=420399
http://www.scidev.net/en/south-east-asia/news/thai-plagiarism-saga-takes-a-new-turn.html
http://www.andrew-drummond.com/2012/09/video-exclusive-attack-on-british.html
I suggest that Aviesan may need to do a bit more due diligence to avoid this marriage ending in tears. However, my real sympathies lie with Dr Rome, who may not be aware of what is really going on at NIA.