The University Innovation Center
The Sorbonne University Alliance is recognized as a major national player in the promotion and transfer of value to society.
The Sorbonne University Alliance University Innovation Center
The Sorbonne University Alliance's PUI brings together ten founding members and four partners spanning all disciplinary fields in the humanities and social sciences, medicine, science and engineering, design, technology, and management.
The objective is to accelerate the Alliance's collective capacity to develop the dissemination of research results to economic stakeholders in the broadest sense (companies of all sizes, local authorities, the government, etc.) in all its forms (start-up creation, technology transfer to existing companies, collaborative research, expertise transfer, etc.).
Furthermore, given the diversity of stakeholders, and in contrast to an ill-suited "one-stop shop" approach, our operations are focused on two parallel and complementary approaches: joint actions and the sharing of best practices and procedures.
The first objective is to strengthen coordination between the various stakeholders in the innovation chain and the Alliance's partners. This cross-cutting objective across all the actions implemented is particularly relevant for structuring our governance and strengthening business networking. Before providing support per se, the PUI is expanding its field efforts to identify projects and consolidate the flow. The idea is to inform, raise awareness, and train potential future project leaders as early as possible in order to initiate and multiply these projects and thus ultimately increase their quality and relevance.
It is with this in mind that pre-maturity and entrepreneurship programs are being rolled out for all communities, including students, doctoral candidates, and staff. Building on the successful experiences of the pilot phase, this objective is taking its rightful place in the action plan for the coming years, with a series of programs targeting different audiences. Entrepreneurship is considered here both in the strict sense of business creation, but also as the broad development of innovation and partnership activities with a societal impact.
Finally, the last objective identified is to bring together the key players in the innovation ecosystem in a single location. The role given to the Cité de l'Innovation in structuring our PUI reflects this objective: it involves not only creating spaces adapted to projects, but more broadly strengthening interfaces between researchers, students, and socio-economic stakeholders, helping to embed innovation in the daily culture and identity of the Alliance, with the aim of achieving local, regional, and international influence.
The “Sorbonne University Cité de l'Innovation” label
Our institution is thus recognized by the Ministry of Higher Education and Research as a major player in the transfer of knowledge and innovation to society and the socio-economic world, and identified by socio-economic stakeholders as a benchmark site in the Île-de-France innovation ecosystem.
This certification recognizes the university's ability to consolidate its innovation chain by bringing together all the public and private stakeholders that make it up and to develop a comprehensive and accessible range of technologies and expertise.
The funding awarded, amounting to €1,000,000, allows the institution to pursue:
- The coordination of various innovation stakeholders, local partners, and the socio-economic world;
- The visibility of the transfer and partnership offerings by locating these stakeholders in a unique location: the Sorbonne University Innovation City;
- Building synergies with European initiatives;
- Deploying entrepreneurship pathways for student, doctoral, and staff communities.
As part of France 2030, the Ministry of the Economy, Finance, and Industrial and Digital Sovereignty, and the Ministry of Higher Education and Research, have launched a call for proposals to strengthen and accelerate the innovation dynamics of territorial ecosystems through the establishment of University Innovation Hubs (PUIs). Since Monday, July 10, the Sorbonne University Alliance (ASU) has been one of the 24 consortia whose PUI project has been selected. The ASU will receive €9 million in funding. This project has been spearheaded since its inception in 2021 by Elizabeth Angel-Perez, Vice President of Research and Innovation, and Lucas Ravaux, Deputy Director in charge of Valorization and Coordinator of the Sorbonne University Cité de l'Innovation. Already labeled a pilot PUI in 2021, the Sorbonne University Alliance has over the past two years strengthened the coordination of the cluster's stakeholders in favor of the development of innovation.
This experimental phase, for which the Alliance received €1 million in funding, enabled the implementation of the following across the cluster:
- Flexible and responsive governance
- Coordination around the various innovation support mechanisms for co-founders
- New pre-creation entrepreneurship support mechanisms, particularly for researchers (myStartup Program)
- The redeployment and strengthening of pre-maturation support supported by the Alliance
The funding obtained by the PUI ASU will enable it to:
- Strengthen its operational efficiency through improved clarity of innovation support tools, support tailored to all types of projects, and the development of centralized management tools.
- Consolidate the flow of innovative projects through the recruitment of expert staff exclusively dedicated to developing collaborations and transfers, strengthening and expanding thematic scope of early-stage projects, earlier alignment of projects with market expectations, and increasing awareness and support for entrepreneurship for all members of the community.
- Develop increased interfaces with society by supporting the potential of the Sorbonne University Cité de l'innovation, with the ambition of sustainably establishing itself within the Parisian ecosystem as the benchmark site for partnerships between research and the socio-economic world, both in France and internationally.
The 29 prize-winners
| 24 confirmed projects | Project leader | Funding allocated (in €M) |
| BLUEBOX | Université de Bretagne Occidentale | 4 |
| Campus InnoV | Université de Rennes | 7 |
| FITInnovE | UGA | 10 |
| Innovation Alliance Université Paris-Saclay | Université Paris-Saclay | 11 |
| IP3 (IP CUBE) | Institut Polytechnique de Paris | 5,7 |
| Le PUI de Montpellier | Université de Montpellier (pilote) | 6,5 |
| LOIRE VALLEY INNOV | Université de Tours | 4 |
| L-VoRTEKS | Université de Lille | 4 |
| Med’Innov | Université Côte d'Azur | 7,5 |
| OpenCampusInnov | La Rochelle Université | 3 |
| P.U.I Normandie | Normandie Université (pilote) | 4 |
| POLARIS | Université Lorraine | 5,7 |
| Pôle PSL Innovation | PSL | 11 |
| PREDICT | ComUE Angers-Le Mans | 3 |
| PUI CAP I-TERR | Université Clermont Auvergne (pilote) | 4 |
| PUI ASU | Sorbonne Université (pilote) | 9 |
| PUI Nantes Université | Nantes Université | 6,2 |
| PUI Provence | Aix Marseille Université | 6 |
| PUI@Bordeaux | Université de Bordeaux | 5,8 |
| PUI-A | Université de Strasbourg (pilote) | 8,5 |
| Sud Aquitaine Innovation | Université de Pau et des Pays de l’Adour | 5,5 |
| Université Toulouse Innovation | Université de Toulouse | 7,5 |
| VALIOTECH | Université de La Réunion | 3 |
| Valo Cité | Université Paris Cité | 6 |
5 projects in the seed phase
| Cytransfer | CY Cergy Paris Université | 2,5 |
| IMPULSE | ComUE Université de Lyon | 2,5 |
| InnoRem | Université de Reims Champagne-Ardenne | 2,5 |
| PUI-BFC | Université Bourgogne Franche-Comté | 2,5 |
| Seville | ComUE Paris-Est | 2,5 |
France 2030
Le projet est soutenu par l'Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR), dans le cadre du plan d'investissement gouvernemental France 2030 déployé par le Secrétariat général pour l’investissement (SGPI).