Various modes of collaboration

There are several modes of collaboration between IRISA and the industrial world, ranging from the creation of start-ups to collaborative research projects (CIFRE, response to a call for projects, joint laboratory ...). The creation of start-ups is the most visible but least representative part of our mission.

A large part of our transfer strategy consists in supporting companies in their innovations.

  1. Bilateral research collaboration: CIFRE mechanism, joint laboratory, service provision and consultancy
  2. Collaboration within the framework of a call for projects
  3. Collaboration through industrial chairs

Bilateral research collaboration

allows a company to call upon the laboratory to assist in the development of existing technology or to develop radically new solutions. There are several devices in this type of collaboration:

  • The CIFRE (Convention Industrielle de Formation par la Recherche) scheme enables companies to benefit from financial aid to recruit young PhD students and place them at the heart of a research collaboration to detect new areas of expertise, explore technological breakthroughs and new markets. The company pays its "young CIFRE" a salary. For the three years of the agreement,  an annual lump-sum is granted from the French National Association for Technical Research (ANRT) and the company also benefits from a research tax credit.
    Some references: No less than thirty doctoral students are currently hosted at IRISA under this scheme with major industrial groups or SMEs. We support many companies in the development of their technologies, such as Keolis (where we study the design of intelligent urban transport simulators), or Orange, Thales, Ouest France, Lamark – Imatag, …
  • The aim of the joint laboratory is to initiate long-term joint partnerships on a general theme between a company and IRISA. It can be funded either by both parties from their own funds or through the ANR's "LabCom" national call for projects.
    Example of joint laboratories: LabCom Script & Labs: Eric Anquetil (INSA professor and head of the Intuidoc team) and the company Learn&Go. Script & Lab innovates around digital learning, for the active learning of writing and geometry.
    LabCom "CineViz": Marc Christie (assistant professor University of Rennes1 and member of the Mimetic team) and the company SolidAnim. CineViz allows to preview scenes in 3D virtual environment before shooting them.
  • Service provision allows the scientific community and economic actors to use our state-of-the-art infrastructures for the realization of a commissioned study, among others by using our technological platforms ImmerStar, GenOuest, Grid5000, RobStar, etc
  • Consultancy (by a research team or researcher). A research team or a researcher in a personal capacity carries out a consulting activity for the benefit of a company according to the terms of a contract. This service is strictly intellectual (bibliographical research, work analysis, technological watch, advice ...). ) and does not require any experimental laboratory work or additional research work likely to create new knowledge.

The collaboration can also be done within the framework of a call for projects.

  • European: Horizon Europe (2021-2027 European framework program for research and innovation) through RIA Research and Innovation Actions, European Research Council grants (ERC), Fast Track to Innovation (FTI), EIT Digital, etc.
    Some references : Adapt, Drive Trust, Games of Trawls, Projet Rudi, Prometheus, Read-it, UAV Retina...  
  • National : National Research Agency (ANR/PRCE), BpiFrance via the Industrial Projects of the Future (PIAVE)
    Various specific calls: French Ministry of the Armed Forces (RAPID-Regime d'APpui à l'Innovation Duale scheme), ADEME, National Center for Space Studies (CNES), etc.
    Some references : Dissocie, Idealg, IDFraud, Mihmes, Opmops, Pegase ...  
  • Regional : Structurig research and development projects towards competitiveness (PSPC), FEDER
    Some references : Alamo, Cartam, Credoc

Research collaboration through industrial chairs

It involves a perennial collaboration between a research institution and companies in an area of high priority and strategic importance for the parties involved.

The mission of the Industrial Chair is on the one hand to carry out fundamental and applied research, and on the other hand to disseminate the knowledge produced through forums and seminars.

Examples of industrial chairs at IRISA:
- Chair of Mobility in a Sustainable City, François Bodin (Professor at the University of Rennes and member of the Logica team)
- Chair Cyber CNI, Marc-Oliver Pahl (research IMT Atlantique and member of the Ocif team)
- SAIDA (Security of AI for Defense Applications) chair co-funded by the Agence Innovation Défense (AID), Teddy Furon (Inria researcher and member of the LinkMedia team)
- MULTISHARED Shared-Control Algorithms for Human/Multi-Robot Cooperation, Paolo Robuffo Giordano (research director CNRS, head of Rainbow team)
- DeepCIM (Deep learning for computational imaging with emerging image modalities), Christine Guillemot (research director Inria, head of SIROCCO team)
- OTTOPIA (Earth Observation with Optimal Transport for Artificial Intelligence), Nicolas Courty (associate professor Université de Bretagne Sud, member of Obelix team)

Software, patents and start-ups created from the technologies resulting from our research

In the transfer of research to industry, there is the creation of start-ups and software, which is the visible part but is certainly only the tip of the iceberg.
Researchers, nourished by insatiable curiosity, seek and explore new ideas that lead to new technologies and potential applications, some of which reach the market. The result of this long upstream research work is:

Contact :  valorisationatirisa [*] fr (valorisation[at]irisa[dot]fr)