new delhi india and france on monday signed two memorandums of understanding mous on higher education and also decided to take forward 2009 plan of action for iitrajasthan by setting up a french consortium that will help the institute gain expertise in areas like health technology solar energy aerospace quantum computing and several other fieldsthe mous were signed in the presence of valerie pecresse french minister for higher education and research and hrd minister kapil sibal the first mou proposes to set up an international joint laboratory which will be called cellule francoindienne de recherche en sciences de leau cefirse or indofrench cell for water sciences ifcws it will be developed by institut de recherche pour le development of france and the indian institute of science bangalore the laboratory could enter into partnerships with other research structures and organisations in india france and abroadthe second one relates to academic collaboration between seven iits and paristech paris institute of science and technology paris the seven iits are located in kharagpur bombay madras kanpur delhi guwahati and roorkee agroparistech arts et mitiers paristech chimie paristech and a few others come under paristech the mou seeks to promote institutional exchanges student exchanges organising symposia conferences short courses and meetings on research issues joint research and continuing education programmes and exchange information pertaining to developments in teaching student development and research at each institution the iits and paristech may collaborate to participate in the european commission initiatives such as erasmus mundus external cooperation window by partnering with other interested institutionsin case of iitrajasthan the french consortium will help it in gaining expertise in systems integration and design mechanical engineering technologies for art conservation and heritage as well as any other areas to be decided by mutual consent french higher education research institutions and universities will all be a part of the consortium when applicable it will have french and indian industrial partnersmembers of the consortium will be sending to the institute faculty members experts for research or teaching purposes for a tenure of at least half a semester per faculty member on a reciprocity basis the institute will also send indian faculty membersresearch staffstudents to the universities institutesindustries of the french consortium