A cooperative bank serving the entire French civil service, CASDEN Banque Populaire helps its members carry out their projects, providing them with a comprehensive range of savings products, loans and guarantees.
With over 2 million cooperative shareholders, it aims to become the reference bank for public sector employees and cater fully for its members’ expectations and needs.
Built on an alternative, affinitive model, CASDEN is based on values of cooperation and solidarity, and shares a sense of public service with its cooperative shareholders.
It has forged a long-term partnership with Banques Populaires, so giving its cooperative shareholders access to a full range of local banking services. Its network of activists, all of them determined and fully committed shareholders, consolidate such proximity and the cooperative spirit that inspires it.
In the fields of Higher Education, Research and Culture, its network of Regional Facilitators meet with staff from Universities, Grandes Ecoles and Research Organisations.
CASDEN Banque Populaire has built relationships with these institutions with a view to fostering development of projects that contribute to the lives of their staff as well as to dissemination of scientific culture.
Another way of assisting its cooperative shareholders in their professional lives and lending them support on a daily basis.
We spoke with Philippe Miclot, CASDEN Banque Populaire’s General Delegate for Institutional Partnerships and Relations.
You’ve been supporting the “My Thesis in 180 Seconds” operation for several years now. In your opinion, what are the issues involved in training young researchers in scientific mediation?
“My Thesis in 180 Seconds” attracted us immediately due to its innovative format and modernity, and we’ve been partners of the operation since its first edition, alongside the Conference of University Presidents (CPU) and the National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS).
As a national and now international operation, it has helped popularise research by demonstrating that any research subject can be accessible to a wide public. This is a key issue in CASDEN Banque Populaire’s eyes. It’s also one of its main commitments in the context of its partnership strategy with research institutions.
The educational aspects inherent in scientific mediation are of partulcar interest to CASDEN, as it was originally created for teachers.
It’s essential for young researchers to be able to share their experiences with as many people as possible so as to open up minds, encourage vocations in the field and contribute to scientific progress in a variety of fields.
Alongside the Fondation de l’Avenir (Foundation for the Future), CASDEN Banque Populaire has been presenting the CASDEN Young Researcher Award every year since 2009. Can you tell us how this initiative came about? What makes it particularly important to you?
We’re here to lend support to civil servants, including researchers, in achieving their personal and professional goals. We also implement a strong societal commitment policy focusing on our cooperative shareholders’ areas of interest (Education, culture, research, and so on). Supporting young researchers through grants meets this dual objective. We help young people complete their research projects, so encouraging vocations, and contributing to medical research. The Fondation de l’Avenir is a natural partner as, like CASDEN, it belongs to the mutualist and social and solidarity economy world.
In your opinion, what does an event like Science & You – an international colloquium intended for researchers in and practitioners of scientific mediation – represent in the scientific and technical cultural landscape?
It’s a real opportunity for encounters and exchanges between all actors in the research and scientific communities, whether doctoral students, researchers or scientists, as well as for sharing with as wide an audience as possible, with genuine interest in mediation. CASDEN Banque Populaire is proud of the support it lends to the event, organised by one of our partners, the University of Lorraine.
To find out more about CASDEN Banque Populaire, rendezvous on casden.fr.