I-SITE Excellence Program

Awarded in 2017 and renewed in 2022, the I-SITE program of excellence brings together 16 institutions around a shared vision: to establish in Montpellier a thematically focused, research-intensive university that is internationally recognized for its impact on societal challenges such as food security, environmental protection, and human health. Over the course of a five-year pilot period, significant transformations have been set in motion across every major aspect of academic life. These initiatives, previously carried out under the Montpellier University of Excellence Foundation, are now fully integrated into the activities of the University of Montpellier’s administrative departments and services.

Scientific ambition and support for research

The program’s goal is to address three interrelated challenges:

1. promote environmentally innovative agriculture that contributes to food security and environmental quality;
2. encourage the transition to a society that manages its resources and environment sustainably;
3. improve human health in changing environments.

While the sciences dealing with agriculture, the environment, biodiversity, biology, and health are at the heart of the program, the goal is to continue transforming the way we work and to build new bridges between these fields and the other disciplines that make up the strength of the Montpellier campus.

The I-SITE Excellence Program funds the four extended Labex programs at the University of Montpellier (Cemeb, Agro, Entreprendre, NUMEV) and the two lab’UM programs, in chemistry and epigenetics, which will continue their activities until their conclusion.
It supports the structuring of research at the consortium level by contributing to the operation of the five Research Clusters Research their efforts to foster scientific engagement within their respective communities.
It aims to promote the submission of a greater number of proposals to the ERC by funding outreach, training, and support for the drafting of ERC project proposals.

The Excellence Program features an ambitious research support initiative and a clear commitment to enhancing itsscientific appeal.

Educational Transformation and Support for Innovation

The Training component of the Excellence Program is structured around several key areas.
As the first initiative launched in 2017, the University of Montpellier’s doctoral college continues its activities in line with the institution’s overall strategy for research-based training, benefiting all students in the relevant doctoral schools.

The program supports the development of the academic program at the consortium level, drawing in particular on the newly created academic councils to promote joint initiatives among the consortium’s academic departments, schools, and institutes, and to enhance the visibility and clarity of the academic offerings of the University of Marseille and its partners.

The program also supports educational transformation across all higher education institutions in the consortium by raising student awareness and providing training on the challenges of the ecological transition, enriching curricula and teaching practices, and offering support to Professors the joint Educational Innovation Support Service.

The I-SITE Excellence Program leads the initiative to support educational transformation.

Strategic international partnerships and support for international activities

International outreach is one of the key hallmarks of this forward-looking investment program. The University of Montpellier and its partners in the I-SITE program of excellence have chosen to foster thematic, institutional, and programmatic initiatives through close ties with universities in both the Global North and South in fields aligned with their scientific ambitions. Numerous strategic partnerships have been forged to explore opportunities for global-scale initiatives, such as the organization of Montpellier Global Days as part of the New Africa-France Summit, the MAK’IT Institute for Advanced Knowledge, and the Key World Initiatives focused on the consortium’s key themes (viruses and vectors, food systems, water).

The I-SITE Excellence Program oversees the EXPLORE international mobility program, the Key World Initiatives program, and the MAK’IT Institute.

Research and Innovation Marketing

The overall goal is to create more numerous, sustainable, and high-quality connections between the worlds of higher education and research and the socio-economic sector.
The I-SITE program of excellence brings together the consortium’s partners around a common strategy for partnerships with economic stakeholders to foster technological and societal innovations. Every effort is made to ensure that actors within the innovation ecosystem work in synergy and complement each other in areas such as skills development, innovation marketing, and process alignment…

The I-SITE Excellence Program supports the Companies and Campus Program and the Innovation Booster.

Student initiatives

In order to offer initiatives that complement existing programs, the I-SITE Excellence Program for Student Life is designed to promote intercultural understanding among students. This objective contributes to fulfilling one of the post-pilot-phase commitments of the MUSE project, which aims to promote the internationalization of academic programs. In this context, the goal is to offer students the opportunity to put their English skills into practice or improve them outside of their academic studies, while enabling them to develop intercultural openness.

The I-ISITE Excellence Program oversees the student initiative support program.

Scientific culture

This initiative focuses on strengthening efforts to share knowledge and foster dialogue, as well as to share scientific methods, results, challenges, and questions, specifically targeting young people and school-age audiences. Activities to promote scientific literacy will be carried out in conjunction with “ongoing research” within the consortium.

The I-ISITE Excellence Program oversees the program supporting initiatives to promote scientific literacy.