“Innovation isn’t a profit center; it’s 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 discuss the University of Montpellier’s innovation policy with Vice President François Pierrot
What exactly is innovation for a university that is constantly generating 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 initiatives, because innovation is not limited to the commercial world—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 allows for it, we don’t bring our innovations to market—or more broadly, to society—it’s a missed opportunity for everyone, and we’re failing in one of our missions.
Is economic development necessarily tied to academic research?
Most economic progress today is linked to scientific and technological innovations, and the world’s leading 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 from the academic world at the heart of the creation of companies that will become tomorrow’s leaders.
How do we go about bringing these innovations out of the university and into the 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 ownership.
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—key partners in innovation—have recently joined us. SAatt companies are equipped with 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 the University of Marseille (UM) put in place to ensure this identification?
This is the responsibility of both the departments in charge of corporate partnerships—which are in regular contact with research labs (at UM: 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,” we must persevere with pure research; if proof of concept is still lacking, we move toward pre-commercialization; if projects are well advanced, we move toward the SATT or the BIC.
What is the purpose of incubation?
If experienced leaders are not on board from the very start of the venture, the founding team must be trained: this 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 is responsible for this incubation in the Montpellier area?
We are fortunate in Montpellier to have several organizations that not only provide incubation services but also collaborate to offer co-incubation. SATT, of course, but also the Montpellier BIC, which is one of the best incubators in the world and which we will 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 generate revenue for the University?
Some might imagine that we do this with a focus on profitability, but innovation is not a profit center; it is a public service mission. The “profit” is found in the society around us, thanks to the jobs created and the progress that spreads. If you look at the University’s financial statements, you will of course see revenue, but the University has not turned into a “business” or a “financial institution”; we are a public service provider.
Last November, we were selected to become one of France’s five university innovation hubs, a PUI. Why us?
The government chose Montpellier precisely because we, together with our partners, demonstrated that we had moved beyond competition between institutions to reach 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 been allocated 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 socio-economic sphere and in society more broadly, we must map out these technological strengths and capabilities. To do this, we need to listen, and the PUI will enable us to do just that.
How?
By implementing new methods. The first is a long-term process known as ideation. For a given topic, we bring stakeholders together with researchers and have them work together for several weeks or even 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-off needs. This is neither the job of researchers nor that of research engineers; however, we could consider stationing engineers close to certain platforms who would be able to meet these specific needs. Some of our partners are, in fact, very proactive in this regard, particularly the CNRS.
In June, the University will host the Curie Conference. Is this an important event for innovation stakeholders?
The Curie Conference brings together hundreds of 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 label… 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 most to this mission and to show that it is possible to conduct excellent research and transfer it. Simply put, this award is here to say that at the University of Montpellier, we value innovators.