NExT I-SITE - Nantes Excellence Trajectory

I-SITE (Initiative - Sciences Innovation Territoire Economie) is a label of excellence awarded to universities that promote focused, distinctive, internationally recognised thematic scientific strengths, and leverage these as a driving force and cornerstone of their development strategy and partnerships with the business world.

Two major focuses for the Nantes I-Site: Industry of the future and Health of the future

The NExT excellence project is built upon two major focuses: Industry of the future and Health of the future, with a ripple effect across all disciplines and a strong involvement from the humanities and social sciences. It aims to establish an innovative trajectory in research, education and technology transfer, underpinned by ambitious campus life and international attractiveness policies.

The NExT Labex

In December 2024, the NExT I-Site granted its label to 5 Laboratories of Excellence. These Labex are interdisciplinary research projects that provide significant structure for the Nantes territory, with the objective of strengthening research excellence and outreach.

Labex DHOLMEN (Development in Hemato-OncoLogy and precision nuclear MEdiciNe)
Labex IMAF (Agile Manufacturing Industry of the Future)
Labex ImmuNE (Immunology Nantes Excellence)
Labex ORACLE (Offshore renewable energy ReseArch Center of excelLencE)
Labex SysMics (Towards Systems medicine based on multi-oMics)

NExT Governance

Members:

Partners:

NExT is one of the driving forces behind the implementation of Nantes Université, which came into being on 1 January 2022.
(Visit the page Governance & Leadership to learn more)

Project timeline

February 2017 - I-Site label awarded for the NExT project
December 2019 - suspension of NExT I-Site funding by the French government
2020 - development of the NExT2 action plan
January 2021 - institution-wide consultation to contribute to the drafting of Nantes Université's statutes
October 2021 - site visit by the international jury
January 2022 - final hearing before the international jury
March 2022 - definitive confirmation of I-Site label
July 2024 - adoption of the new NExT roadmap

In January 2022, an international jury chaired by Jean-Marc Rapp selected seven I-Site projects (Clermont-Auvergne, Lille, Pau, Montpellier, Gustave Eiffel, CY Cergy Paris, Nantes) and one IDEX (Université de Paris). This final wave of PIA3 brought the I-Site and IDEX award process to a definitive close. The international jury heard from a Nantes delegation comprising:

Carine Bernault, President of Nantes Université
Frédéric Jacquemin, Vice-President for Innovation and Partnerships, I-Site
Jean-Baptiste Avrillier, Director of Centrale Nantes
Gilles Bloch, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Inserm
Philippe El Saïr, Director General of Nantes University Hospital

Project stakeholders

Nantes Université members
- Université de Nantes (until 31 December 2021)
- Centrale Nantes
- Nantes' university hospital
- Inserm
- IRT Jules Verne
- Ecole nationale supérieure d'architecture de Nantes
- School of Art Nantes Saint-Nazaire
Consortium agreement signatories
- Université de Nantes (until 31 December 2021)
- Centrale Nantes
- Nantes' university hospital
- Inserm
- French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS)
- French National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and the Environment (Inrae)
- Nantes-Atlantique National Veterinary, Food Science and Engineering School (Oniris)
- West Cancer Institute (ICO)
Funding bodies
- French National Research Agency (ANR)
- European Union
- Pays de la Loire Region
- Nantes Métropole

Launched in 2017, the NExT project has already enabled:

Research
- the creation of 15 integrated research clusters
- the launch of 7 internal interdisciplinary projects
- the recruitment of high-level researchers through 17 NExT Talents Chairs and 4 Connect Talents Chairs
- the creation of 5 Laboratories of Excellence (Labex) in Health of the Future and Industry of the Future at the end of 2024
Education
- enhanced attractiveness of the educational offer through 29 Masters of Excellence, 86 incoming scholarships and a Bachelor of Excellence
- strengthened interdisciplinarity with 3 interdisciplinary Master's programmes and the inauguration of the interdisciplinary hub at Halle 6 Ouest
- the creation of the University's Educational Development Centre (CDP)
- the development of 4 educational innovation projects by Nantes Université's CDP
Innovation
- support for economic partnerships through 6 public-private projects, 4 industrial chairs and 3 joint laboratories
- a Deeptech Founders programme with 9 Deeptech projects or teams
- 3 proof-of-concept projects, 5 scientific resourcing projects, 2 incubators
- the creation of joint positions with IRT Jules Verne
International engagement
- 6 international research partnerships
- access to EUniWell, the European university with 11 partner universities
- 1 strategic partnership with the Indian Institute of Technology Madras

Research

Nantes Université is building on these achievements to strengthen its international excellence and visibility in Industry of the Future and Health of the Future by concentrating its recruitment on its two thematic focuses, developing its participation in external calls for projects through pooling and enhancing its support services, and preparing its entry into the main international rankings to reach the global top 300 in 9 categories of the Shanghai GRAS related to its two thematic focuses.

Education

Drawing on its unique composition, Nantes Université is building an innovative and attractive educational offer to open up exciting new opportunities for students, with interdisciplinary degrees and pathways between its internal structures (Engineering/Health, Architecture/Engineering, Arts/Humanities and Social Sciences, Engineering/Pharmacy, etc.), 4 Graduate Schools in Industry and Health (Triton), undergraduate programmes based on skills acquisition offering individualised learning pathways (NeptUNe), and a shared education offer across both thematic focuses.

Innovation

Nantes Université's innovation strategy takes its efforts to the next level by creating a comprehensive innovation ecosystem to strengthen our socio-economic impact on Health of the Future and Industry of the Future. Awarded the label on 10 July 2023, the Nantes' University Innovation Hub (PUI) brings together all the key players in the innovation ecosystem of the Loire-Atlantique/Vendée area—17 institutions in total, with Nantes Université as the lead partner. It aims to promote and accelerate the utilisation of research results through an ambitious policy in support of innovation and the creation of deeptech start-ups.

International

With its international development centre, Nantes Université is building on its strengths to open up EUniWell to all its internal structures and establish at least 6 comprehensive international partnerships by 2025.

Student life and campus life

Several initiatives have been launched to enrich student life and campus life, which Nantes Université is using as a foundation to implement an action plan for student life across all its colleges and schools, covering sport and culture, preventive medicine, health and well-being, social support, and an alumni policy for Nantes Université. Furthermore, Nantes Université is developing an ambitious sustainable campus policy to reduce its ecological impact and improve quality of life on its campuses, with the aim of reaching the global top 100 in the THE Impact rankings by 2025.

Human Resources

Nantes Université's common HR policies will help improve the quality of recruitment (recruitment charter, strategic HR reviews, joint recruitment operations), strengthen support functions (Nantes Université staff training school, shared staff mobility programme and quality of working life policy) and, more generally, build a stronger community united by a shared sense of belonging.

Over a period of 5 years, the IRC Clusters supported by NExT aimed to structure and significantly develop research, education and innovation on themes aligned with the site's scientific ambitions. These IRCs played a facilitating and catalysing role for new research projects and initiatives that were able to secure funding through other NExT mechanisms (international partnerships, interdisciplinary projects, new recruitment, Masters of Excellence, etc.) and external funding.

NExT benefits from French government funding managed by the French National Research Agency under the France 2030 Programme (reference ANR-16-IDEX-0007), and from financial support from Nantes Métropole, the Pays de la Loire Region and the European Union (FEDER).