The National School of Geographic Sciences (ENSG) was originally founded in 1941 to train technical personnel for the Institut Géographique National (IGN, a public administration currently within the Ministry of Ecology, Energy, Sustainable Development and the Sea) and other national mapping agencies around the world. Since 1997, the ENSG has been located just east of Paris in Marne-la-Vallée on the cité Descartes campus, in a specially built postmodern facility, shared with the National School of Highways and Bridges (ENPC). Over 5 000 engineers, technicians and managers from more than 80 countries have already been trained at the school. In the past 10 years, the ENSG has widened its focus to encompass a vast range of professional training needs in the field of Geomatics, which has made it the most important center for technical Geomatics training in France.

Presentation of the school

The ENSG’s permanent staff of 70 members organizes and teaches, independently or in partnership, 14 different courses of study in the fields of Geomatics centered on the acquisition and management of geographic information. These courses of study begin from the basic technician’s level, through the Specialised Masters’ (SM), advanced technical degrees (BTS), undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate diplomas (BSc, MSc, MEng). There are approximately 250 students at the ENSG, with a bit less than one third, student-civil servants, in training to fill the ranks of IGN’s technical personnel. The teaching staff includes thirty permanent full-time members in 5 departments and more than 200 part-time lecturers from academic or professional spheres. The school also offers a considerable number of adult education courses (about 10 000 trainee/days in 2008).

All the technical disciplines of Geomatics are taught at the ENSG : Computer Science, Internet, Geodesy, Topography, Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing, Cartography (Web and paper), Information Systems, especially Geographic Information Systems (GIS). Theoretical classes are always illustrated by fieldwork assignments and internships; part of these fieldwork training sessions take place in IGN’s permanent facilities at Forcalquier in Provence (see photos).

The ENSG has its own research laboratory : the Laboratory for Applied Geomatics (LGA), and four associated research laboratories :
 COGIT (Object-Oriented Design, Generalization of Topographic Information and Cartography) specialised in GIS and Cartography ;
 MATIS (Photogrammetry, Computer Vision and Remote Sensing) focused on image processing ;
 LOEMI (Laboratory for Optronics, Electronics, and Mechanics for Instrument Design), where new instruments are developed, such as the airborne digital cameras used at IGN ;
 LAREG (Geodesy Research Laboratory), where the International Terrestrial Reference Frame (ITRF), the world’s geodetic referential is determined and updated.

The school also actively participates in several academic networks :

It is increasingly involved with the new innovative cluster for scientific research, the PRES Paris-Est on the cité Descartes campus just east of Paris. The school also plays a leading role among four engineering schools in Geomatics : the National Conservatory of Arts and Trades (CNAM) ‘s chartered surveyors’ school, the ESGT (where 1st year engineers from ENSG attend mutualized classes in Le Mans), the INSA in Strasbourg and the ESTP in Paris. The ENSG is also part of an international network with wide-ranging partnerships all over Europe, and also in North Africa (Morocco, Tunisia) or the Middle East (Lebanon).

The school is at the intersection of three cultures :

 A very strong « engineering » culture: most of the management and permanent teaching staff are engineers and have research or applied R&D experience in the industry. Teaching is usually just a phase in their career paths, which leads to research positions for some, production work for others. These teachers all have a solid professional experience in project design and production unit management for the organization of work and implementation of research leading to the establishment of digital geographic databases and maps. This data is essential for territorial and natural resource management, urban and rural development, environmental protection, natural and manmade risk prevention, etc.

 A fully developed corporate culture of « public administration » : IGN has a long tradition of excellence in public service, currently under the auspices of the Ministry of Ecology, Energy, Sustainable Development and the Sea (MEEDDM);

 A well rounded "university" culture : the ENSG’s teachers work closely with a great many universities and graduate schools, supervising doctoral theses, teaching at undergraduate or graduate levels in universities and regularly collaborating with researchers from French and foreign laboratories.

The ENSG’s annual budget is approximately 6.5 million euros, not including the 2.9 million euros in salaries for student-civil servants under contract to IGN. Undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate training represents a total of 5.2 million euros. Adult education courses, organized for IGN personnel and non-IGN professionals in equal proportions, inversely generates about 1.4 million euros per annum.