ISIFoR maintains its “Carnot Institute” certification
The news was announced on the 6th July 2016 by Thierry Mandon, Secretary of State for Higher Education and Research, at the Carnot Institute annual meeting: ISIFoR will conserve its certification.
ISIFoR, which has been certified since 2011, is thus one of the 29 Carnot Institutes chosen after the Carnot 3 call for applications, which is highly selective with strict criteria in relation to innovation and partnerships with companies.
Carnot certification: promoting the development of partnerships in research
The Carnot Institutes are public research bodies with a strong commitment to developing partnership-based research activities, i.e. the R&D work of their laboratories for innovation in companies – from SMEs to major groups. The objective of the network is to increase the Carnot Institutes’ economic impact on companies in terms of job creation, national and international turnover and, consequently, competitiveness.
ISIFoR, key actor in the field of geo-resources
This certification renewal confirms the strategic position of the ISIFoR Carnot Institute in the field of geo-resources.
ISIFoR brings together academic and industrial research partners situated in the greater south-west in Pau, Bordeaux and Toulouse. The skills on offer are spread over 11 laboratories* forming part of the Université de Pau et des Pays de l’Adour, Toulouse Polytechnic Institute, the Paul Sabatier University in Toulouse, the Montaigne University in Bordeaux, Bordeaux Polytechnic Institute, the ADERA, the CNRS and the Research Institute for Development. ISIFoR represents more than 700 researchers. It is also exceptionally well-placed, being close to the AVENIA cluster and numerous companies. Today, this synergy makes the greater south-west a nationally recognised centre for creativity in bedrock engineering.
ISIFoR’s ambitions for the next few years
Since 2011, the Institute has built a solid base for development, as highlighted in the French National Research Agency’s last evaluation in 2015, which underlined ISIFoR’s “very satisfactory performance” during its first certification period. On this basis the Institute is renewing its objectives for the next six years, with a strategy based on four socio-economic issues and thirteen technological challenges that will structure its partnership activities and its strategy for obtaining resources. Beyond this, the Institute has fixed three priority objectives:
- an increase in the number of its partnerships with SMEs and middle-market companies, particularly in fields related to the energy transition;
- the development of its international activities,
- and finally, continuous improvement of its management processes in order to reduce the time required to conclude contracts with companies and monitor the level of satisfaction of its partners.
Extra&Co, for the “Extraction and Primary Processing” industries
Extra&Co has been selected within the context of the specific call for projects “Structuration of the Carnot offer in response to the requirements of economic sectors” in the “Promotion of the Carnot Institutes” part of the “Future Investments” programme. Set up for six years, Extra&Co will be run by a consortium of four Carnot Institutes (ISIFoR, BRGM, ICÉEL and M.I.N.E.S) covering the whole value chain of the mineral resources sector (metallic and non-metallic) and bedrock energy resources. It is coordinated by the ISIFoR Carnot Institute and its objective is to contribute to the development of the extraction and primary processing industries. The objective of Extra&Co is to organise, propose and manage an offer of R&D-related services to accompany the growth of very small to middle-market companies in the industry’s key markets.
* LFC-R UMR 5150, LMAP UMR 5142, SIAME EA 4581, IPREM UMR 5254, LaTEP EA 1932, GET UMR 5563, IMFT UMR 5502, Georesources and Env. Bordeaux EA 4592, OPERA, CHLOE, UMS D-meX 3360.
Contacts:
- Pierre CÉZAC - pierre.cezac @ univ-pau.fr
- Virginie BUIL - virginie.buil @ univ-pau.fr
- Chloé RIAUD - chloe.riaud @ univ-pau.fr
