Launch of the "IA Montpellier Méditerranée" association - A new major player in the artificial intelligence landscape

[Press release] - Published on September 18, 2025 in Press room, Major programs

On Thursday September 25, six founding members joined forces to create the "IA Montpellier Méditerranée" association, with the aim of driving forward a strong ambition in artificial intelligence for Montpellier and the Occitanie region. Announced last February at the IA Connect conference, this ambition is rooted both in the mathematical and computational foundations of artificial intelligence, and as a tool that is now indispensable to the fields of life and the environment. The six founding members are: Région Occitanie, Montpellier Méditerranée Métropole, Université de Montpellier, CHU de Montpellier, Digital 113 and French Tech Méditerranée.

On the same day, the University of Montpellier will bring together the university community and its partners for a day dedicated to the theme of "AI and health - global health in the AI era" to explore advances, challenges, frameworks for experimentation and concrete solutions in training, research and innovation. On the program (registration required): opening with official speeches, followed by several conferences and round tables throughout the day. A conference for the general public at 5:30pm, followed by the official launch of the IA Montpellier Méditerranée association at 6:30pm.

Major strengths in Montpellier and an exemplary alignment of players

The Montpellier site is characterized by a strong commitment to the digital sector and to interfaces with the living world, health and the environment. With its wealth of startups, companies, universities and research organizations, Montpellier is also the driving force behind the MEDVALLE initiative, which is closely aligned with the University of Montpellier's "Nourish, Care, Protect" projects.

Montpellier is recognized for numerous successes in research and innovation through its international rankings, whether for the university (top 200 of the world's best universities in the Shanghai ranking, first place for French establishments in THE Ranking Impact, 1st place for France in the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) "health and well-being" ranking) or for its BIC incubator (pioneer of technology incubators in France and Europe, ranked since 2014 in the TOP5 of the world's best public incubators in the UBI Global ranking). Montpellier University Hospital is a pioneer in transformation through generative AI. Following in the footsteps of the Occitanie Region, which took the measure of the AI challenge by adopting in 2024 a €60M plan for the period 2024-2028 to structure a responsible and reliable "AI Occitanie" industry, local authorities are investing massively in the digital and artificial intelligence sectors.

The players involved have been working together for many years, with recognized consistency, supported by government services, in particular the DREETS, which supports the structuring of strategic sectors and the dynamics of innovation and skills at regional level.

The alignment of the players is reflected in the constitution of the association's board, with Anne Laurent (University of Montpellier) as President, David Morquin (Montpellier University Hospital) as Vice-President, Arnault Ioualalen (French Tech Méditerranée) as Treasurer, Françoise Nauton-Inglis (Digital 113) as Deputy Treasurer, Manu Reynaud (Métropole) as Secretary and Marc Sztulman (Région Occitanie) as Deputy Secretary.

An ambition and a roadmap

The association aims to promote ethical, sovereign and responsible Artificial Intelligence (AI) projects.

It works for the benefit of all players on the site to: Promote Research and Development projects in AI, Develop actions linked to Education, Training and Awareness of AI and in particular the Science - Society link, Promote the AI Community and their events through the Halles de l'IA, Promote Collaboration in AI, Instill and disseminate a culture of Ethics and Regulation in AI, Support calls for projects from one or more of its members.

To achieve this ambition, the association is committed to continuing and amplifying its actions to coordinate players, to encourage the pooling of expertise around calls for projects and support for responses, and to contribute to animation, towards expert and non-expert audiences. The association is already supporting a number of flagship projects led by local players: Halles de l'IA, tools for complying with European AI regulations and AI testing (AICET, sandbox, etc.).

A call for participation in actions and memberships

All players are called upon to contribute to the strong dynamic present in Montpellier: contribution to collectively-led projects, contribution to specific working groups (e.g. for the pooling of intelligence on AI calls for projects), participation in Halles de l'IA events, event labeling...

Memberships are available for legal entities (research establishments, companies, associations, etc.). A reduced rate (50%) is applied in several cases. Memberships are subject to approval by the association's board.