Spotlight on Innovation Leaders
The University of Montpellier and its 15 partners in the I-SITE MUSE “Montpellier University of Excellence” project organized, with the support of the Occitanie Region, a networking event dedicated to innovation on Tuesday, September 7, 2021, at the Jardin des Plantes in Montpellier. In the presence of Hind Emad, Vice President for Economic and Digital Development at Montpellier Méditerranée Métropole, Philippe AUGÉ, president ofUM, congratulated the winners of the 2020 MUSE Innovation Award—researchers who have distinguished themselves in developing ideas that have opened up new economic, technological, or societal avenues for innovative applications.
The MUSE Innovation Award: Recognizing New Ideas
Since 2018, the MUSE project has established an Innovation Award to recognize researchers, faculty Professors at institutions within the MUSE network who are at the forefront of innovation initiatives.
The jury for the second edition of the Innovation Award, chaired by Christophe DERAIL, Vice President for Commercialization and Technology Transfer at the University of Pau and the Pays de l’Adour, met on Friday, October 16, 2020. A total of 21 applications were received from the five research clusters of Montpellier University of Excellence. Following deliberations, the jury selected the five most outstanding proposals based on the impact, innovative nature, and recency of the innovations presented.
The five winners of the “2020 MUSE Innovation Award” are:
- Claude GRISON, Director of the ChimEco Joint Research Unit, for her research on ecocatalysis—a key technology in ecology and industrial green chemistry—aimed at generating ecological, economic, and social value based on scientific findings.
- Franck MOLINA, Director of the Sys2diag Joint Research Unit (UMR), for his work on the development of diagnostic testing methods that do not require a laboratory, and more specifically for his invention of the first SARS-CoV-2 saliva test, EASYCOV.
- Mikhael BECHELANY, a researcher at the European Institute of Membranes (IEM), for his work on multifunctional inorganic membranes, particularly their applications in the fields of energy, the environment, and health.
- Philippe POIGNET, Director of the Montpellier Laboratory of Computer Science, Robotics, and Microelectronics (LIRMM), for his work in the field of retinal surgery, specifically through a medical device that incorporates a robotic assistant for microsurgery. This teleoperated macro-micro robotic platform enables surgeons to perform procedures with greater precision and safety.
- Simon de CHARENTENAY, Professor Center for Comparative Constitutional and Political Studies and Research (CERCOP), for his work on the legal theory and practice of blockchain.
The 2021 Innovation Awards Have Been Launched
This festive after-work event, organized to foster networking among researchers and key players in the innovation ecosystem, served as the occasion to announce the launch of a new edition of the Innovation Awards. Registration for the 2021 edition is now open, and applications can be submitted online via the I-SITE MUSE project website by October 22, 2021. Following a selection process based on the applications, five winners from the MUSE research clusters will each receive a personal prize of €3,000.