ExposUM Institute: “Creating a strong sense of community”
The goal of the ExposUM Institute, launched on Tuesday, March 14, is to better identify and analyze external environmental factors that can affect human health. One year after securing $46.4 million in funding from the French government and the region over eight years, the team is presenting an ambitious program: to bring together the entire Montpellier scientific community around a common theme by funding research programs and new training initiatives.
"With this launch, our primary goal is to announce the program for the coming months and years, but above all, we want to create a strong sense of community around the ExposUM Institute by communicating its core values," explains Charlotte Boullé, a researcher in the TransVIHMI team and member of ExposUM's executive committee, known as the "codir." The name was chosen in reference to the concept of the exposome, which refersto"all exposures to external and environmental factors (food, pollution, infectious agents, etc.)that can affect human health," explains Eric Delaporte, professor of infectious diseases and also a member of the four-person executive committee, which includes Charlotte Boullé, Eric Delaporte, Mircea Sofonea, epidemiologist atthe PCCEI ( ), and Aurélie Binot, anthropologist and agronomist at Astre.
A unifying theme
Let's go back a few months. In November 2021, the University of Montpellier and its partners* learned that they had won, along with ExposUM, the "Excellence in All Its Forms" call for projects from the Future Investment Program (PIA4). The prize was €23.2 million in state funding, matched by the Occitanie Region, for a total of €46.4 million over eight years for a project designed to mobilize all the university's resources. " This is an extremely unifying theme in Montpellier, "continues Eric Delaporte, " it will enable us to combine a large number of themes but also multiple disciplines such as oncology, nutrition, ecology, chemistry, social sciences, etc."
One year later, after countless meetings, video conferences, messages on various collaborative platforms, and more, the founders of the ExposUM Institute are presenting an ambitious program. Research, science-society interaction, training—each aspect of the project, as Charlotte Boullé points out, is guided by a set of values. " Interdisciplinarity, a strong focus on developing countries, an integrated One Health approach, and interaction with societal actors" are among the features that shape the Institute's framework. A joint, multidisciplinary Scientific and Strategic Advisory Board (COSS), chaired by Jacques Mercier, Vice President of Research at the University of Montpellier, guides its implementation.
First call for projects
Following on from this, on December 9, ExposUM launched its very first call for projects (CFP). With a budget of €2 million, its first theme is the emerging exposome. The winners will receive funding of €100,000 to €300,000 to develop their projects over a period of 1 to 3 years. "A new call for projects will be launched every year," continues Charlotte Boullé. "We have chosen to operate through calls for projects in order to ensure transparency for the research community and have set up a selection process that is as clear as possible. " Applicants have until April 7 to submit their applications before the COER (Research Guidance and Evaluation Council, also joint and multidisciplinary, set up for this purpose) and then the COSS ( ) make their decisions in July for a launch in September.
Another important initiative in the research area is the creation of ExposUM fellowships,which offer very attractive research conditions. "These will be two-year contracts, renewable once, for positions in the surrounding area, meaning that researchers will have a budget for their operating costs and to finance the salaries of up to three people," explains the researcher. Six positions are expected to be created.
Doctoral nexus
Training is also central to ExposUM's plans, with the announcement of funding for 60 theses over eight years as part of the Nexus doctoral program. "The reality today is that we still do not sufficiently value interdisciplinarity. We want to encourage future generations of researchers to embrace this approach by acculturating them to it from the doctoral level onwards with the creation of these doctoral nexus programs," explains Charlotte Boullé. Here again, calls for projects will be launched. To respond, researchers will need to form groups to lead networks of three or four doctoral researchers in different disciplines but linked by a common theme. "We take into account the additional workload involved in this interdisciplinary approach by granting each doctoral student funding for four years instead of the usual three. Each student will also have €20,000 over four years to cover the material costs of this collective work."
During the year, ExposUM should also help doctoral and postdoctoral students finance internships and operating grants so that they can surround themselves with master's students and support them in familiarizing themselves with supervision, "an important aspect of a research career for which we are not always well prepared," notes the researcher. Finally, because the project is not only focused on the Global South but also open to international participation, ExposUM wishes to promote training abroad. "Many researchers undertake training abroad informally during their travels," Charlotte Boullé points out . "The UM abroad program aims to promote this as teaching by the University of Montpellier outside its walls, with small funding packages of €10,000 to €15,000."
Science activities
In order to reinforce this interdisciplinary vision, cross-disciplinary scientific activities will be offered to members of the ExposUM research community to support them in their thinking, at the crossroads of disciplines with very different theoretical and methodological frameworks."This outreach effort will result in the emergence of new interdisciplinary themes, bringing together perspectives from the medical, environmental, and social sciences, both in future calls for proposals and doctoral nexuses," says Aurélie Binot, lead for the "Interaction" axis within the co-direction.
Scientific outreach is central to the Institute's approach, which aims to tackle another challenge: gaining a better understanding of the exposure issues faced by associations, private entities, and politicians in orderto "communicate these issues to researchers and incubate 'transdisciplinary' actions that bring together scientists and members of society to tackle shared challenges," concludes Aurélie Binot.
* CIRAD, CNRS, IFREMER, INRAe, INRIA, INSERM, IRD, ENSCM, Institut Agro, Montpellier University Hospital, ICM, Occitanie Region.