2021-2022 Innovation Awards Ceremony at the Innovation Afterwork of the University of Montpellier and its partners

The University of Montpellier's next Innovation afterwork will take place on Tuesday, October 18, 2022, starting at 6pm. The evening will feature the Innovation Awards ceremony, and will be the focus of a variety of exchanges and meetings on the innovation and partnership policy of the University of Montpellier and its partners.

By invitation only

Why an Innovation afterwork at the UM?

The University of Montpellier, France's leading university in the world rankings of universities doing the most to advance science, invent new technologies and help support the global economy (Reuters 2019), and one of the five universities piloting a Pôle Universitaire d'Innovation (PUI), will be taking advantage of this opportunity to showcase its innovation and partnership strategy, present its latest success stories and discuss future challenges.

The afterwork will also feature the traditional Innovation Awards ceremony for researchers and teacher-researchers who have distinguished themselves by bringing forward innovative ideas that open up new economic, technological or societal avenues.

The Innovation Awards in a nutshell

The "University of Montpellier Innovation Awards", launched in March 2019, aim to highlight researchers, teacher-researchers and staff from I-SITE consortium establishments and organizations who are at the heart of projects that are particularly innovative, particularly in terms of expected impact. Each year, a call for applications is sent out to all staff at UM and its I-SITE partners, and these applications are evaluated by a jury made up of personalities from the worlds of higher education, research and the socio-economic world.

5 winners of the 2021-2022 Innovation Award

At the awards ceremony, the winners will explain in greater detail their career paths and projects.

• Magalie GIES: Post-doctoral researcher at CIRAD (UMR Qualisud)
  Agronomy - Environment - Biodiversity Unit

Magali Gies received her PhD in 2019 from the University of Montpellier, during which she developed a functional food based on fermented, probiotic, plant-based cereals with cholesterol-lowering potential thanks to the incorporation of phytosterols. Malnutrition/overnutrition is a global issue that concerns all populations, whatever their social background. This food is therefore aimed at populations in newly industrialized countries, where the prevalence of metabolic syndrome is growing exponentially. Today, Magali Gies is continuing her work on the PROMET project (funded by the MUSE project) as a post-doctoral fellow at CIRAD.

• Alain THIERRY, Inserm researcher (UMR IRCM - Institut de Research en Cancérologie de Montpellier)
  Biology-Health Division

Alain Thierry is currently Inserm Research Director at the IRCM and heads the "Biomarkers for Precision Medicine in Oncology" team. 15 years ago, he began fundamental work on circulating DNA, which rapidly revealed a strong potential for clinical applications and innovation. Today, this work enables us to determine the choice of treatment, detect residual disease after surgery, monitor recurrence and detect resistance to treatment. Alain Thierry's team is considered to be one of the best in the world in this field.

• Habib BELAID, Post-doctoral researcher at CNRS (UMR IEM - Institut Européen des Membranes)
  Chemistry Division

Habib Belaid is a post-doctoral researcher at the Institut Européen des Membranes (IEM) in Montpellier. His work focuses on the synthesis and characterization of biomaterials for healthcare applications. This has led to the development of new formulations of printable composite materials with biocompatible and bioresorbable properties, as well as bioactive and antibacterial properties. The launch of a new product and service will address a major healthcare issue in the field of bone tissue engineering in dentistry and cancerology.

• Vincent CREUZE, Professor at the University of Montpellier (UMR LIRMM - Montpellier Laboratory of Computer Science, Robotics and Microelectronics)
  Mathematics, Computer Science, Physics and Systems Department

Vincent Creuze's work focuses on the "small" underwater robots weighing less than 100 kg designed at LIRMM. These innovations are now in daily use by French archaeologists, at depths of up to 2,500 meters, both for scientific missions to study and preserve heritage, and for missions of public interest. Vincent Creuze has been working since 2014 in collaboration with the French Ministry of Culture, Département des Recherches Archéologiques Subaquatiques et Sous-Marines. Thanks to these innovations, France is currently the first country to operate robots specialized in underwater archaeology on a daily basis. France's expertise in deep-sea archaeology is recognized worldwide by archaeologists and scientists, and receives extensive media coverage.

• Sophie SPRING, Lecturer at the University of Montpellier (UMR MRM - Montpellier Research en Management)
  Social Sciences Division

Sophie Spring has designed a serious game dedicated to raising awareness of the challenges of social and environmental responsibility (SER) among entrepreneurs. Incubagame is a free game, open to all, downloadable to computer, phone or tablet. Game experiences are unlimited and offer access to simple, ergonomic teaching resources. The aim of the game is to discover the key issues involved in setting up a business (matching the project to the creator, market positioning of the offer, legal and financial set-up), including parameters linked to taking CSR dimensions into account right from the project development phase.