Closely tied to the world of higher education in Europe
IFE was brought into being with abundant help from teachers and administrators at the Institut d’Etudes Politiques, known more familiarly as "Sciences Po". Over the nearly 25 years since its creation IFE has remained close to Sciences Po, through informal and formal ties.
IFE also draws on the French and Belgian university systems for teachers, with ties to faculty members at various campuses of the University of Paris, as well as the University of Strasbourg, the Free University of Belgium, the University of Louvain, and others.
Furthermore, IFE is linked to important research centers in all three cities, for hosting student-interns interested in research placements, as well as for providing specialists for research advising. These include various research centers of Sciences Po, research units of the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS), INSERM’s Federated Institute of Neuroscience Research, the Collège de France, and the Maison Interuniversitaire des Sciences de l’homme of Alsace (part of France’s national public research organization, the CNRS), to cite a few.