The "Moment-UM" project supported by the University of Montpellier funded to the tune of over €3.6 million over 10 years
As part of the fourth France 2030 investment plan for the future, the Agence Nationale de la Research (ANR) has launched a call for projects entitled "Accelerating the development strategies of higher education and research establishments" (ASDESR), with the aim of helping higher education and research establishments to increase their own resources in order to deploy innovative projects led by their staff and teams, thanks to the additional resources thus obtained. Establishments were invited to apply in a number of areas (lifelong learning, sponsorship, European funding or heritage enhancement). The University of Montpellier was one of the 44 winning institutions, with its Moment-UM project receiving funding of 3.6 million euros over 10 years.
Another success for the UM as part of its future investment program. This project is part of the collective dynamic of the Montpellier site, which has been reinforced since the I-SITE label was awarded, with successes in calls for projects such as "Structuration de la Formation par la Research " (SFRI), "Inter Disciplinary In Lab" (IDIL), "Intégration et Développement des IdEx et des ISITE" (Idées), "ExcellenceS sous toutes ses formes" with the ExposUM project, and more recently by becoming a Pôle Universitaire d'Innovation.
This funding will be used to launch two initiatives, as the Moment-UM project, with its "Europe" and "Lifelong learning" (FTLV) components, will promote the influence of UM laboratories in the European research arena and strengthen the regional lifelong learning offer. State aid is concentrated on human resources, to enable the recruitment of staff with specific skills. A total of 14 new staff will be recruited at the UM, 8 for the "Europe" section and 6 for the "FTLV" section.
A strategy towards Europe: submit more European projects
The main objectives of this initiative are to increase European funding for research projects, boost participation in them, and encourage French universities and their scientific communities, through partnerships at site level, to raise new funds to develop their activities and influence on the national, European and international academic scenes. The European component of Moment-UM will be closely coordinated between the UM and three national research organizations based in Montpellier: CNRS, INSERM and IRD. Moment-UM will create a new dynamic by providing greater support for researchers, both upstream and downstream of projects, and by sharing best practices more widely, thereby increasing the number of projects submitted to Europe and improving the success rate. The 10-year objective is to increase the success rate of European projects from 15% to 25%.
A strategy for "Lifelong Learning": meeting new needs
Lifelong learning is the second lever emphasized in this call for projects to promote a policy of sustainable development of own resources. With Moment-UM, the development of tailor-made training courses to meet the specific needs of companies will be reinforced by the recruitment of a team of experts who will identify motivated trainers, in order to rapidly develop and implement the courses. This change of approach should enable the Continuing Education department to better position itself in the competitive vocational training market, and as such, generate additional own resources for the University of Montpellier. This part of Moment-UM, leading to "Plus de formation continue", will be fully managed by the UM.
Find out more about ASDESR