Five researchers receive the "Montpellier Université d'Excellence" 2021 Innovation Awards
The jury for the 3rd edition of the "Montpellier Université d'Excellence" Innovation Awards, chaired by Franck Molina, Director of SyS2Diag and winner of the 2020 Innovation Award, has decided to honor 5 researchers from the site who are involved in innovative initiatives opening up new economic, technological or societal avenues for new uses.
François Pierrot, Executive Director of the I-SITE MUSE and Magali Roubieu, Administrative Director, surround Franck Molina, winner of the 2020 edition and President of the jury for the 2021 Montpellier Université d'excellence Innovation Awards.
A total of 24 applications were received. At the end of the deliberations, the jury selected the most outstanding entry in terms of impact, innovation and recentness for each of the 5 Montpellier Université d'Excellence research clusters. The winners will receive a personal prize of €3,000.
The five 2021 Innovation Awards are :
Magali GIES, Post-doctoral researcher at CIRAD (UMR Qualisud)
Agronomy - Environment - Biodiversity Division
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)
Chemicals Division
Habib Belaid is a post-doctoral researcher at theInstitut 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, Lecturer at the University of Montpellier (UMR LIRMM - Montpellier Laboratory of Computer Science, Robotics and Microelectronics)
Mathematics, Computer Science, Physics and Systems Division
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, Department of Subaquatic and Underwater Archaeological Research.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.
About the Innovation Awards
The "Montpellier Université d'Excellence Innovation Awards", launched in March 2019, aim to highlight researchers, teacher-researchers and staff from the MUSE consortium's establishments and organizations who are at the heart of innovation initiatives in each of the 5 MUSE research clusters, around projects of a particularly innovative nature, particularly in terms of expected impacts. A call for applications is sent out to all staff, and applications are evaluated by a jury made up of personalities from the worlds of higher education, research and the socio-economic world.
- Video review of the 2020 Innovation Award on the Université de Montpellier Youtube channel