ENS mission is to train its students to and by research, to professions related to higher education and research. This mission will predicate in the Paris-Saclay situation, because it is exactly this purpose that makes our renown and our originality within our partners. The School will continue tobe a place of learning and a research centre. The multidisciplinary side falls naturally within its confines, with the three cultures that constitute us: pure sciences, engineering sciences and human and social sciences. The reinforcement provided by Paris-Saclay is going to strengthen this through the support we expect to find, as much for training as for research, in all subject areas in which we work. The remarkable research environment provided by Saclay will reinforce research within ENS. As for the interdisciplinary nature, characterising research within ENS, especially through our three federative institutes (D'Alembert, Farman and Social Sciences), it's an essential approach because of its flourishing scientific innovation.

In the setting up of large higher education and research sites like Paris-Saclay University, there can be a temptation to reform disciplinary bastions. It can even be a necessary step in order to unite communities. At the same time, inserting our research into the Saclay environment helps us to realize that we are not the only ones to have an interdisciplinary approach. There is here, a first opportunity, related to the possibilities of cooperation and merger. Finally, the different calls for projects bound to IDEX Paris-Saclay, whether they be research programs or PhD contracts, put emphasis on its interdisciplinary nature. It is therefore a second opportunity to give to research at ENS new options.

ENS federative institutes have, apart from their differences, something in common: they have been created to promote partnerships between labs on campus, from different subjects, around major federative themes and around the use of the site and its equipment. In a way, the idea was to arouse scientific innovation but also to overcome the solitude of different labs. This is a successful policy; we can especially see it in IDA. This institute is an example of what Paris-Saclay is trying to promote. IDA has to make itself better known to our partners, look for alliances with others when it's possible and so become, gradually and by asserting its identity and its research program, a federative institute of Paris-Saclay University enjoying the support of ENS.