Paris

Queen Elizabeth II was in Paris last week to mark a century of Anglo-French accord. And as part of the celebrations she found herself rubbing shoulders with top cancer researchers from both sides of the Channel.

A sumptuous dinner at the British Embassy in Paris saw the Queen, her husband Prince Philip and Bernadette Chirac, wife of French president Jacques Chirac, assuming the role of matchmakers to bring scientists from the two countries closer together. The event was held to celebrate the centenary of the entente cordiale, an agreement signed on 8 April 1904 to end the countries' colonial disputes.

On the menu, apart from a 1985 Château Margaux, was cooperation on cancer. British figureheads such as Colin Blakemore, head of the Medical Research Council, Mark Walport, chief executive of the Wellcome Trust, and Liam O'Toole, director of the National Cancer Research Institute, met the leaders of France's top cancer centres, such as Daniel Louvard, director of the Curie Institute, and Thomas Tursz, director of the Gustave Roussy Institute.

John Holmes, the British ambassador in Paris, announced a €600,000 (US$730,000) scheme, funded equally by Britain and France, to support the best young cancer researchers from both countries. And the Princess Zahra Aga Khan, daughter of businessman the Aga Khan and coordinator of the health services arm of the Aga Khan Development Network, agreed to fund an Entente Cordiale Cancer Research Prize to reward one up-and-coming researcher from each country.

Cancer leaders at the event said that both countries could benefit from collaboration in everything from bioinformatics to tissue banks. Their information is currently held in different languages, on incompatible computer systems.

Researchers also agreed to a joint conference this autumn on bioethics — an area where Britain's utilitarian outlook is sharply at odds with the more philosophical French position (see Nature 389, 661–662; 1997). The two countries will organize rock concerts, operas and sporting events this year to fund their cancer-research plans.