“Innovation is not a profit center; it is a public service mission.”
On April 20, the University of Montpellier hosted the Deep Tech Tour. The event was organized by the public investment bank with the aim of raising awareness about entrepreneurship among researchers and students. It provided an opportunity to take stock of the innovation policy at theUM with Vice President François Pierrot.
What exactly is innovation in a university that is constantly producing new knowledge?
The goal of university research has always been to acquire new knowledge. Innovation involves transforming some of this knowledge into new products and services—or even public policy—because innovation is not limited to the commercial sector, even though the connection is more obvious when we talk about patents or software.
Are French universities required to have an innovation policy?
The official missions of universities include education, research, and contributing to the country’s economic growth, so innovation is not an option for us. We are funded primarily by public money. Where does this money come from? From the economic activity generated by everyone’s work. If, when the knowledge we’ve acquired makes it possible, we do not bring our innovations to market—or, more broadly, to society—it is a missed opportunity for everyone, and we are failing to fulfill one of our missions.
Is academic research essential for economic development?
Most economic progress today is linked to scientific and technological innovations, and the world’s most prominent companies are those that have successfully bridged the gap between research, innovation, and industrial production. We see this around major American universities: the Boston area centered on MIT and Harvard, Silicon Valley centered on UC Berkeley and Stanford…In France, the spotlight on “Deep Tech companies” illustrates this commitment to placing technological innovation stemming from academia at the heart of the creation of companies that will be tomorrow’s industry leaders.
How do we go about taking these innovations out of the university and bringing them to market?
There is no single path, but certain elements are very often present: technology maturation, startup incubation, and the establishment of solid contractual relationships with private partners. Today, we benefit from our special relationship with SATT AxLR, a private-law entity (established by the government in 2012) with public shareholders.
Who are the shareholders?
The largest shareholders are the French government, the CNRS, and the University of Montpellier, but the Montpellier Region and the Montpellier Metropolitan Area—which are key partners in innovation—have recently joined us. The SAatt companies have the financial resources that allow us to contribute directly to the development process when we identify a breakthrough in our laboratories that could lead to intellectual property (patents, software, etc.), as well as to the incubation of startups that rely on our technologies.
And what measures has theUM put in place to ensure this identification?
This is the role of both the departments responsible for partnerships with businesses—which are in regular contact with laboratories (at theUM : the DIPA)—and specific initiatives, such as our “innovation booster”: the BIM (read BIM: A Springboard for Your Ideas). If projects are still very much in the “early stages,” it will be necessary to continue pursuing pure research; if proof of concept is still lacking, move toward pre-commercialization; and if projects are well advanced, move toward the SATT or the BIC.
What is the purpose of incubation?
If experienced leaders are not on board from the very beginning of the venture, the founding team must be trained: that is the role of incubation. In many cases, it is the researchers themselves who want to start a business. Concepts such as business plans, regulations, HR management, export strategies, and so on are often unfamiliar to them.
And who provides this incubation support in the Montpellier area?
We’re fortunate in Montpellier to have several organizations that not only offer incubation but also collaborate on co-incubation. The Satt, of course, but also the Montpellier BIC —one of the best incubators in the world, which we’ll soon have the opportunity to host on the Triolet campus—and finally, the University Incubator, currently operated by MoMa, which we hope to strengthen in the near future.
Not all researchers want to start a business— how do you foster relationships between researchers and companies that might be interested in their innovations?
These relationships need to be built over the long term, and that’s what we’ve been doing for the past three years through the Companies on Campus program. We help laboratories that want to host companies on their premises to conduct collaborative research. These partnerships can lead to future marketable products or services.
Does innovation bring in money for the University?
Some people might think we’re doing this for profit, but innovation isn’t a profit center—it’s a public service mission. The “profit” is found in the society around us, thanks to the jobs created and the progress that spreads throughout it. If you look at the University’s financial statements, you’ll of course see revenue, but the University hasn’t turned into a “business” or a “financial institution”—we’re a public service institution.
Last November, we were selected to become one of France’s five university innovation hubs, or PUIs. Why us?
The government chose Montpellier precisely because we, together with our partners, demonstrated that we had moved beyond competition between institutions and reached a stage of cooperation. All of our partnership and commercialization departments work together and have aligned their practices. We have created a large community of innovation experts in Montpellier.
This cluster has a budget of 2.5 million euros. What will this funding enable?
We are well aware of our scientific strengths, but we are less familiar with our technological assets; yet if we want to help solve the problems arising in the socioeconomic sphere and in society more broadly, we must map out these technological strengths and capabilities. To do this, we need to be attentive to these needs, and the PUI will enable us to do just that.
How?
By implementing new methods. The first is a long-term process; we call it ideation. For a given topic, we bring stakeholders together with researchers and have them work together for several weeks or even several months to identify a societal issue and then develop it into a research project.
And in the short term?
We have remarkable technological resources and expertise in our labs that could enable us to offer engineering services to companies for one-time needs. This is neither the job of researchers nor that of research engineers; however, we could consider stationing engineers as close as possible to certain platforms, capable of meeting these one-time needs. Some of our partners are, in fact, very proactive in this regard—the CNRS in particular.
In June, the University will host the Curie Conference. Is this an important event for innovation stakeholders?
The Curie Conference brings together several hundred innovation experts to exchange ideas, share insights, and advance best practices. It’s an opportunity for mutual learning and cooperation, and it’s a very warm and welcoming event for the community. What’s more, we’re fortunate to host this event in the year we’re celebrating the continuation of the I-SITE designation… and the “E” in I-SITE stands for “economy.” So it’s a wonderful coincidence.
Finally, since 2019, the University of Montpellier has been awarding an Innovation Prize. What is the purpose of this initiative?
There are ways to recognize excellence in research and, more recently, in teaching, but the government has not yet established an award to honor major innovators. This is a way for us to thank the teams that contribute the most to this mission and to show that it’s possible to conduct excellent research and transfer that knowledge. Simply put, this award is meant to say that at the University of Montpellier, we value innovators.