From l. to r. Joëlle Gras, Deputy Secretary General of the Pyrénées-Atlantiques Prefecture in charge of France 2030, Julien Charles, Prefect of Pyrénées-Atlantiques, Bruno Bonnell, Secretary General for France 2030, Laurent Bordes, President of UPPA, and Laurence Farreng, Member of the European Parliament and Regional Representative.

The “Sud Aquitaine Innovation” project led by University of Pau and Pays de l’Adour and five other founding members (CNRS, INRAE, Inria, Aquitaine Science Transfert and Adera) is one of the winners announced on Monday July 10, 2023, by French Minister of Higher Education and Research Sylvie Retailleau. It will receive a total of 5.5 million euros in funding.

On this occasion, Bruno Bonnell, General Secretary for the France 2030 investment, visited our research facilities already involved in other France 2030 projects: the DMEX Imaging Center with research projects from the LFCR and the TREE Social Sciences laboratory, followed by the IPREM laboratory’s laser ablation trace metal analysis platform. Also attending the event were Claudio Galderisi, Rector Delegate for Higher Education, Research and Innovation, and Dominique Rebière, Regional Academic Delegate for Research and Innovation.Through the “University Cluster for Innovation” (PUI) call for proposals of the France 2030 plan, the French government aims to accelerate territorial innovation dynamics. The objective is to strengthen the economic impact of research sites and to meet the national ambition of creating start-up companies and generating breakthrough innovations.

Our University Cluster for Innovation, which brings together some fifty partners, is in line with the dynamics of its founding members launched through our I-SITE (Science, Innovation, Territories, Economy Initiative ) “Solutions for Energy and the Environment.“ It relies on the excellence of research conducted in our laboratories, on an exceptional instrumentation center (UPPA Tech), and on a set of actions in the field of innovation. The latter are already well established and range from student entrepreneurship to the support of start-up companies within incubators and local technology parks (Helioparc in Pau, Techopole Pays Basque, Domolandes/Agrolandes, Chemparc in Lacq), as well as the financing of innovation projects at different stages of maturity by Aquitaine Science Transfert.

Read the 2023/07/10 government release (in French)

Read more about Sud Aquitaine Innovation