The International Elite Engineering School of East China University of Science and Technology (ECUST) was officially established in 2019 through collaboration between ECUST, Fédération Gay-Lussac (FGL), and École Nationale Supérieure de Chimie de Rennes (ENSCR). The school integrates the French elite engineering education model with high-quality resources from both China and France, adhering to the philosophy of excellent engineering education, whose mission is to cultivate top-tier elite engineers and corporate pioneers with an innovative spirit and international outlook.

Serving as a cornerstone of France’s elite education system, the French elite engineering education system is unique and globally renowned. Also hailed as the "shining emblem" of French higher education, this system, born in the Napoleonic era, has evolved over 200 years. It has cultivated distinguished alumni such as former French President François Hollande, Gustave Eiffel (designer of the Eiffel Tower), Marie Curie, and numerous Nobel laureates. Additionally, the majority of presidents and executives at leading French corporations—including Airbus, Sanofi, and L'Oréal—are graduates of French engineering schools, a testament to the system’s global reputation for elite training.

The FGL comprises 20 top-tier French engineering schools specializing in chemistry and chemical engineering, housing 19 national-level research laboratories. Nowadays, it has trained over 50,000 engineers working worldwide. ECUST and the FGL have collaborated for over a decade on joint student training programs. In 2013, their partnership was approved as an "Outstanding Undergraduate Program" by China Scholarship Council.