As responsible for the technical relations with the Universities at the CNES Toulouse centre, I would like : first to present an brief overview of French national space agency : French space policy, Cnes and european and international partners, Cnes budget (national and contribution to ESA) Major CNES programs then I intend to speak about the specificity of french engineering schools and universities. I will continue speaking about several previous CNES student projects done with CNES support (ARSENE and SARA) After that, I will present the current EXPRESSO student call for ideas Aim of this student call Different fields which could be addressed Types of projects which could be proposed Organisation which could be envisaged (inside France, with European and international cooperation) Plan and schedule for future action An overview of the different propositions which have been submitted to CNES at the date of this presentation will be presented.