Universite d'aix Marseille

About us

Aix-Marseille University is ranked as the first Euro- Mediterranean University. Born in 2012, as well as being one of the youngest universities in France, it is also the largest in terms of its student body, its faculty and staff, and its budget in the whole of the French speaking world (http://www.univ-amu.fr/en). These factors combined with the remarkable results already achieved in teaching and research, contribute to rank Aix-Marseille University as a top class higher education and research institution. At the last international Shanghai ranking published in August 2017, AMU is ranked 102 (+ 10 places) over the world's 500 ranked universities.

All the academic fields that may be studied in France are represented at Aix-Marseille University, which has five major divisions, structured into 19 faculties, schools, and institutes. Aix-Marseille University has more than 78,000 students including 10,000 international students, 8,000 faculty and staff members, 12 doctoral schools and around 3,300 PhD students. Aix-Marseille University is home to 132 research facilities – 119 research units and 14 federative research structures – linked to France’s biggest research institutions (CNRS, INSERM, IRD, INRA, CEA).

The Department of Archaeology, is part of three Research laboratories working jointly with the National Centre of Scientific Research (CNRS) and the Ministry of Culture. Each of these units are specialized in different chronological periods, from the early Palaeolithic period and prehistory to medieval and modern archaeology. Their members are also specialized in a large range of research fields, while there is a wide interdisciplinary approach. Aix-Marseille is the only University in France specialising in research and education in Underwater Archaeology. The Department offers undergraduate diplomas, 4 different Research Master Degrees, and runs the only Master Program in France dedicated to maritime and underwater archaeology in France (MoMArch- MA in Maritime and Coastal Archaeology).

NEANIAS will exploit the wide international network of the UNESCO Chair of Aix-Marseille University, as well as the UNESCO Unitwin Network in Underwater Archaeology (see below) for the activities of WP2 and WP10 (dissemination and outreach). This network comprises public and private research Institutions in Europe, Africa and Asia, as well as small and medium enterprises that are active in the maritime domain (implementation of aeolian parks, fishing industries, oil and gas activities, among others). Moreover, the University has over 700 partnerships all over the world, and the Department of Archaeology is leading international research programs in different countries, in cooperation with Research Institutions from the western and eastern Mediterranean, such as Croatia, Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Malta, Spain as well as North African countries, Morocco, Libya, Algeria, Tunisia, and Egypt among others.

As a result, the Project will also profit from the research activities and international projects in underwater archaeology past and active (see below), the scientific results of which will contribute to WP2.

Main role in the project

The role of Centre Camille Jullian team (CNRS-AMU) from Aix-Marseille University will be two-folded:

• Be an active end-user providing a wide range of interdisciplinary data produced by national, international and European projects, in order to evaluate the NEANIAS services.
• Organise communication and dissemination activities in underwater archaeology, under the auspices of the UNESCO Chair in Maritime and Coastal Archaeology of AMU. The scientific team, beyond its established network of partners, benefits also by its official participation to the UNESCO Unitwin network of Underwater archaeology. This network and existent collaborations will allow:

We are also in charge of the coordination of the network of end-users in underwater archaeology in order to evaluate the produced services, providing continuous feedback to the IT teams during the duration of the project and the wide dissemination and implementation of the project's results to the international community of underwater archaeology.