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Investments for the Future The Investments for the Future program amounts to 35 billion euros, of which 22 billion euros are earmarked for higher education and research to strengthen France’s competitiveness on the global stage. Of these 22 billion euros, nearly 18 billion are allocated through competitive calls for proposals. The University of Montpellier is heavily involved in this program through numerous projects in which it serves as the lead institution or a partner. Learn more ERC Grants The European Research Council coordinates and funds scientific projects “at the frontiers of knowledge” within the European Union through grants that reward scientific excellence. This program is open to all disciplines. Current European Research Council projects: ERC Starting Grant Erika Burioli (Host-Pathogen-Environment Interactions Laboratory) with the HYPERCAN project, which focuses on transmissible cancers in mussels.Profile of Erika Burioli Paul Antonio (Géosciences Montpellier) with the UBEICH project, which proposes a new experimental method to refine the dating of the Earth’s inner core.Profile of Paul Antonio ERC Advanced Grant David Mouillot (MARBEC), whose BLUE-AFRICA project will enable transdisciplinary research to assess the potential of coastal marine resources in reducing poverty and emigration in rural regions of East Africa affected by land desertification. Read the press release ERC Synergy Grant Daniele Di Pietro (Alexander Grothendieck Institute in Montpellier) with the NEMESIS project, which aims to understand how to overcome current technological barriers in numerical simulations of complex physical problems. Profile of Daniele Di Pietro Past ERC Grants Sara Cavaliere (Charles Gerhardt Institute of Montpellier) with the SPINAM project, which focuses on electrochemical devices for hydrogen energy conversion and storage. Video report with Sara Cavaliere Key Initiatives To continue its strategy of supporting the scientific communities that define the site’s unique identity, the I-SITE Excellence Program (PEI) designated five new key initiatives in April 2024. Three of them are internationally oriented and funded by the UM2030 project under the France 2030 program – IDéES “Integration and Development of Idex and I-SITE,” while the other two, funded directly by the PEI, aim to bring together communities from various Montpellier research institutions around interdisciplinary themes to give them greater visibility. Key UM 2030 international initiatives: Foods: Nutrition and food systems Vect-OH: Infectious risks and vectors in a One Health approach Water: Water Key PEI initiatives: KIPPT: Public policies for transition CLAPAS: Local collaborative research actions on plant and agrosystem health

Contemporary societies face numerous, complex, and cross-cutting challenges that call into question the viability of our development model, its sustainability, and our ability to function as a society. Whether these changes are environmental and climatic, demographic, political, or technological (particularly in the digital realm), they challenge our ways of life, as well as our models of development, production, consumption, work organization, education, healthcare, urban planning, and mobility. These changes bring opportunities but also generate risks, particularly for the most vulnerable populations. They thus pose risks of social, political, and economic disruption that directly challenge the governance of our societies. Supporting the transition toward new, more sustainable and equitable development models has become a challenge for public actors. To address this challenge, the Montpellier campus offers a dynamic, high-level social science research environment across various disciplines: economics, law, political science, geography, education and training sciences, management, and sociology. The objective of the Key Initiative on Public Transition Policies (KIPPT) is to enhance visibility and foster local, national, and international interactions among researchers at the Montpellier campus whose social science work relates to public transition policies. On the one hand, this involves bringing researchers together and establishing a sustainable network. The KIPPT will thus help to drive and stimulate exchanges and synergies and to highlight the collective expertise of the Montpellier site on public transition policies. On this basis, the KIPPT also aims to foster a “science/society” relationship by acting as a bridge between researchers working on transition policies and public and civil society actors. To this end, various partners—such as local authorities (notably the Occitanie Region and Montpellier Méditerranée Métropole), businesses, and associations—are involved in the project. A broad and multidisciplinary definition of public transition policies KIPPT supports a broad definition of public transition policies, centered on the three pillars of I-Site—feeding, protecting, and caring—and beyond. It approaches public policies, public action, and governance from a multidisciplinary perspective. It brings together numerous laboratories within the I-Site Social Sciences cluster around three main axes: Axis 1: fostering exchanges between laboratories and disciplines around key sectoral themes on the site, such as climate/energy, ecological, digital, agricultural, and food transitions, as well as mobility/transport and health… Axis 2: Fostering reflection on the coherence and articulation between public transition policies and integration issues. Particular attention is paid to the cross-cutting issue of inequalities on the one hand, and to territorial projects as vectors of integration to address, in particular, the tensions between sectoral and territorial logics on the other. Axis 3: Address cross-cutting issues related to the governance of transitions. Issues related to the design of public transition policies (PTPs), their public debate, and their evaluation. Issues related to the implementation of PTPs: cooperation among actors, sectors, levels of government, financing, citizen/civil society participation, etc. Issues of conflict and acceptability of transition policies Issues related to the methods and instruments employed: cost-benefit and multi-criteria approaches, incentive and regulatory instruments, pricing, planning, trajectories, etc. Issues related to changing perceptions, opinions, and behaviors of stakeholders regarding transitions Initiatives to foster the creation of a scientific community A call for multidisciplinary and multi-laboratory research projects “Structuring” Projects “Impulse” Projects A platform dedicated to KIPPT link Project monitoring and promotion Resource center for the community Three scientific days

A researcher at the Laboratory of Mechanics and Civil Engineering (LMGC) in Montpellier, Katerina Ioannidou was awarded the CNRS Bronze Medal in 2024 for her work in statistical physics on porous concrete. Her research contributes to the development of materials capable of storing energy and sequestering carbon.