The École française d’Athènes is the first foreign institute established in Greece. Founded in 1846, it is a center of advanced research in humanities whose core mandate is the study of Greece in its Balkan and Mediterranean contexts, from prehistoric time to the present. This mission encompasses the training of a new generation of academics, facilitating early-career researchers’ access to the field and the sources. It supports their integration within a high-level international environment.

The École française d’Athènes is:

• a research centre with 70 permanent team members working in 7 departments.
• a research library containing 96,000 items, including 2,600 journals, with access to cutting-edge electronic resources.
• a publisher of up to 20 volumes each year in 18 collections, 5 internationally renowned academic journals, and a catalogue of more than 600 titles in history, archaeology, epigraphy, numismatics, geography, sociology, and other disciplines.
• a unique archival collection of manuscripts, photographs, drawings, and maps from its expeditions to the sites and museums of Greece and other Mediterranean countries: 8,000 engravings, more than 657,000 photographs, 56,000 maps and drawings, 256 linear meters of handwritten documents.
• a state-of-the-art technology park supporting researchers who develop cutting-edge approaches to archaeology.
• a high-performance digital ecosystem based on interoperability and open science.
• an international research centre: the school’s Athenian headquarters welcomes more than 300 researchers annually. The 7 excavation houses host members of academic expeditions during their research in the field or in museums collections.

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See the EFA’s slideshow

The École française d’Athènes is one of the French Schools Overseas, a network of five institutions of higher education and research governed by the 2011–164 Decree of the 10 February 2011 modified by the n° 2021-146 Decree of the 10 February 2021. Establish abroad, in Greece (École française d’Athènes, 1846), in Italy (French School at Rome, 1875), in Egypt (French Institute for Oriental Archaeology, Cairo, 1880), in Southeast Asia (French School of Asian Studies, Paris, 1898) and in Spain (Casa de Velázquez, Madrid, 1920), the Schools have a triple mission of education, research, and dissemination in the humanities and the social sciences. They host young researchers of doctoral or post-doctoral standing while also drawing on a community of more senior researchers, both French and non-French. Together the Schools publish approximately one hundred volumes each year. In their host countries, they develop networks of collaboration and cooperation, making them invaluable stakeholders in French research abroad. Since 2015, they have a committee of directors which oversees the network’s shared activities.

Under the supervision of the Ministry of National Education, Higher Education, Research and Innovation, the French Schools Overseas are governed by a joint decree (2011–164 Decree /modified by the n° 2021-146 Decree). They are under the academic guidance of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres as well as that of the Académie des Beaux-Arts, for the artistic section of the Casa, and the Académie des Sciences Morales et Politiques, for the School at Rome. Each School has its own Board of Trustees and its own Academic Board, and in the case of the Casa an additional Artistic Board. In January 2015, the Schools established by convention a special Committee of Directors with a rotating presidency, which acts as an authority for reflection and the proposal  of new networks. Since 2013, the Schools are represented at the Conference of University Presidents.  


Visit the Website of the French Schools Overseas Network

Watch the CNRS video on the 5 Schools