For anyone who hasn't come across it, can you just explain the setup and what it does?

Yeah, the Collège de France was set up by François Premier, a very enlightened king of France back in 1530, who wanted to make sure that the French public would have access to education, I guess, independently of the church.

So he set up this college of professors.

Each professor is a specialist in a particular area.

And the idea was that each professor would be teaching research as it happened.

So very topical science or art or history that is being researched that would then be communicated to the public.

It's open to the public.

So did you have any qualms about taking on this new and quite different role?