The University of Savoie is a multi-disciplinary university of 12.000 students (13% of whom are international students) and 600 full-time academic staff, 1.000 part-time and professional staff, and 400 technical and administrative staff. The university supports 20 research centres and offers a total of 200 academic programmes at Licence, Masters and Doctoral levels, in all main subject areas except medicine. The University of Savoie has a vigorous policy of developing international relations: the university is presently ranked first out of all the universities in France for the volume of its Erasmus exchanges.

Within the university, the structures that will be involved in the project will be the following:

The Faculty of Languages and Human Sciences (UFR LLSH). This faculty covers the departments of French, Foreign languages, Applied foreign languages, History, Sociology, and Psychology, and offers courses from undergraduate to doctoral level. The staff members participating in the project teach in the departments of Foreign languages and French, and also coordinate the provision of language teaching to students in other departments within the faculty. Associated with the faculty is the Institute for French Studies, which provides full-time French language courses for students from all over the world, and classes in French language and culture for incoming exchange students.

The LLS Research Laboratory (Languages, literatures, societies). The LLS is an interdisciplinary research group, the largest within the faculty, whose 60 members have research interests in linguistics, literature, cultural studies, history, philosophy and sociology. The staff members participating in the project are involved in two of the main thematic areas of research within the LLS: “language learning” and “mobility”. In 2011 the LLS hosted an Erasmus intensive programme for postgraduate students dedicated to “Languages and cultures in contact/in contrast”, in collaboration with partner universities in Poland, Germany and Turkey.

The International Relations Office. This is a faculty service which, in collaboration with the university’s central Division of International Relations and the Vice-President for International Affairs, is responsible for the coordination of all student and staff mobilities in the faculty. These include not only Erasmus programmes but also language teaching assistants and exchange programmes with partner regions, in particular Ontario and Quebec.

Within the project, the University of Savoie will lead Work Package 6, “General project quality assurance”, and will contribute to other work packages; in particular:

• WP1 - General project management
• WP2 – Review of target groups' needs
• WP3 - Planning of the intercultural paths
• WP5 - Preparation of the overall material for the web platform
• WP6 - General project quality assurance (LEADER)
• WP7 - Dissemination strategies
• WP8 - Actions aimed at project exploitation

Financial management of the project budget will be handled by the administrative services of the Faculty of Languages and Human Sciences.