A Branch of the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (www.ehess.fr) has been opened in 2011 at the Australian National University , College of Asia and the Pacific (http://asiapacific.anu.edu.au/), in partnership with the Embassy of France in Australia and with the active support of the Permanent Secretariat for the Pacific of the French Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs. Based on the permanent presence of an EHESS member (Serge Tcherkezoff), its mission was twofold:

1) to organise workshops which promote a dialogue on the Pacific region, bringing together participants (researchers, political and economic decision-makers, students) from the French Collectivities in the Pacific (New Caledonia, Wallis and Futuna, and French Polynesia) and their counterparts in the English-speaking countries of the Pacific ; thereby encouraging collaborative projects across the range of economic, social, political and cultural issues ; thus the name of the program: Pacific-dialogues; and

2) to promote scientific exchanges between the French social sciences, as they have evolved at the EHESS, and the social sciences as they have evolved at the ANU.

The first mission was in accordance with the policy of the Pacific Fund of the French Pacific Secretariat. Today (2016-2017), it is continued by Serge Tcherkézoff with the same scientific aims (depending on yearly funding from the institutions) ; see the « operations » listed in the next column. On the logistical level, the permanent presence became a Visiting Prof. in the same ANU College.

From 2016, the second mission on the other hand is now organised through a general MOU linking EHESS and ANU on all topics, without any limitation to the Pacific area (signed on 28 June 2016, with a five years validity). The MOU is housed under the ANU Deputy VC (Research) office (see also the European studies center ANUCES). The Implementation Agreement signed on the same day organizes the exchanges for scholars (2 per year in each direction) and for the Master/Ph.D students (5 per year). Thus, there is now a distinction between our Pacific-centered program « Pacific-Dialogues » housed in CAP/CHL and the general MOU linkage between EHESS and ANU (for all geographical areas and all Social Sciences disciplinary fields).