ExposUM Institute: “Building 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 scientific community in Montpellier around a common theme by funding research programs and new training initiatives.
“With this launch, our primary goal is to announce our plans for the coming months and years, but above all, we want to foster a strong sense of community around the ExposUM Institute by communicating the values that underpin it,” explains Charlotte Boullé, a researcher on the TransVIHMI team and a member of ExposUM’s executive committee, “the codir.” The name was chosen in reference to the concept of the exposome, which refersto “the totality of exposures to external and environmental factors (diet, pollution, infectious agents, etc.)capable of affecting human health,” explains Eric Delaporte, professor of infectious diseases and also a member of the “codir,” which has a total of four members: Charlotte Boullé, Eric Delaporte, as well as Mircea Sofonea, an epidemiologist atthe PCCEI’ , and Aurélie Binot, an 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 been selected, along with ExposUM, as winners of the “Excellence in All Its Forms” call for projects under the Future Investment Program (PIA4). The prize: €23.2 million in state funding, matched by the Occitanie Region, for a total of a very substantial €46.4 million over eight years, for a project designed to mobilize all the University’s key players. “ This is an extremely unifying theme in Montpellier, ” continues Eric Delaporte, “it will allow us to bring together a wide range of topics as well as multiple disciplines such as oncology, nutrition, ecology, chemistry, and the social sciences…”
A 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, and education—as Charlotte Boullé points out, each pillar of the project is guided by a set of core values. “ Interdisciplinarity, a strong focus on the Global South, an integrated One Health approach, and interactions with societal stakeholders” are among the features that form the framework of the Institute. A joint, multidisciplinary Scientific and Strategic Steering Committee (COSS), chaired by Jacques Mercier, Vice President for Research at the University of Montpellier, guides its implementation.
First Call for Proposals
Following this, on December 9, ExposUM launched its very first call for proposals (CFP). With a budget of 2 million euros, its first theme is the emerging exposome. Winners will receive funding ranging from 100,000 to 300,000 euros to develop their projects over a period of 1 to 3 years. “A new call for proposals will be launched every year,” continues Charlotte Boullé. “We have chosen to operate through calls for proposals to ensure transparency toward the research community and have established a selection process designed to be as clear as possible.” ” Applicants have until April 7 to submit their applications before the COER (Research Orientation and Evaluation Council, also a joint and multidisciplinary body established for this purpose) and then the COSS ( ) render their decisions next July, with the program set to launch in September.
Another key initiative in the research component is the creation of “ExposUM fellowships,”which offer highly attractive research conditions. “These will be two-year contracts, renewable once, for fully funded positions; in other words, the researcher will have a budget for operating expenses and to cover payroll costs for up to three people,” explains the researcher. Six positions are expected to be created as a result.
Doctoral Nexus
Training is also central to ExposUM’s mission, as evidenced by the announcement that 60 doctoral dissertations will be funded over eight years as part of the doctoral nexus program. “The reality today is that we still do not place enough value on interdisciplinarity. We want to encourage future generations of researchers to embrace this approach by acclimating them to it starting at the doctoral level through the creation of these doctoral nexus programs,” explains Charlotte Boullé. Here too, calls for proposals will be issued. To apply, researchers will need to form teams to lead networks of three or four doctoral researchers in different disciplines but linked by a common theme. “We are taking into account the additional workload involved in this interdisciplinary approach by providing each doctoral student with funding for four years instead of the usual three. Each will also receive 20,000 euros over four years to cover the material costs of this collaborative work.”
Later this year, ExposUM also plans to help doctoral and postdoctoral students secure funding for internship and operational stipends so they can work with master’s students and guide them in becoming familiar withresearch supervision,“an important aspect of a research career for which we are not always well prepared,” notes the researcher. Finally, because the project aims not only to focus on the Global South but also to be open to international engagement, ExposUM seeks to promote training abroad. “Many researchers engage in informal teaching abroad during their travels,” Charlotte Boullé points out . “The UM Abroad program aims to support these efforts as part of the University of Montpellier’s outreach initiatives, providing small grants of 10,000 to 15,000 euros.”
Science activities
To reinforce this interdisciplinary vision, cross-disciplinary scientific events will be offered to members of the ExposUM research community to support them in their thinking at the intersection of disciplines with vastly different theoretical and methodological frameworks.“This initiative will lead to the emergence of new interdisciplinary themes, particularly by bringing together perspectives from the medical, environmental, and social sciences, both in future calls for proposals and in doctoral research projects,” states Aurélie Binot, the lead researcher for the “Interaction” research track within the co-directorship.
"Scientific outreach lies at the heart of the Institute’s mission, which aims to tackle another challenge: gaining a better understanding of the exposure issues faced by nonprofit, private-sector, and political stakeholders in orderto ‘convey these issues to researchers and foster “transdisciplinary” initiatives that bring together scientists and members of society to address shared challenges,’" concludes Aurélie Binot.
* CIRAD, CNRS, Ifremer, INRAe, Inria, Inserm, IRD, ENSCM, Institut Agro, Montpellier University Hospital, ICM, Occitanie Region.