Digital Sciences as a key Enabler for Innovation

Transcription

1 Digital Sciences as a key Enabler for Innovation INRIA: from research to technology transfer 3ODT LQQ DQJODLV LQGG

2 ÉDITO Bruno Sportisse, Director of Technology Transfer and Innovation The information and communication science and technologies sector is a key sector for the competitiveness of our economies as a whole. Active in the revolution information technology has undergone in the last 40 years, INRIA has acquired within its sphere of competence considerable experience in transferring the results of public research to the business world. In a new context particularly as far as facilities to foster innovation are concerned our institute wants to boost its transfer policy. Transfer of knowledge essentially takes the form of research partnership projects, within the framework of the deep relations developed with major strategic partners. Transfer of skills is achieved by sharing scientific expertise with enterprises or by staff mobility. Transfer of technologies takes various forms: licensing, distribution of Open Source software, standardisation activities, creating spin-off companies with our subsidiary, INRIA-Transfert. Our priority is to extend the transfer of knowledge, skills and technology to innovative SMEs, whatever the nature of the transfer. INRIA research centres, highly involved in regional research and innovation ecosystems, are capable of making this objective a success. Our priority is to boost technology transfer to innovative SMEs To consolidate this policy, we have identified five key transfer sectors: Health, life sciences and biotechnology; softwares and embedded systems; aeronautics, defence, space and security; energy, transport and sustainable development, and lastly telecommunications, networks and multimedia. The following pages outline possible areas of collaboration in each of these sectors. In the field of digital science it makes no sense to separate fundamental research from applied research. Since it was created 40 years ago, INRIA has been therefore fulfilling its mission by promoting the virtuous circle of research and of technology transfer - Economic actors submit research problems to us which give rise to innovations which present new problems to various fields of science Michel Cosnard, Chairman and CEO of INRIA

3 Health, Life Sciences and Biotechnology - A New Convergence Act I: Computer Sciences are becoming indispensable in the fi elds of biology, life sciences and medicine (modelling and simulation). Act II: Information and communication technologies provide innovative solutions in the fi eld of health data management and remote monitoring (home support services for the aged and the monitoring of chronic illnesses), robotics for the purpose of providing services to people (technologies to assist disabled people and offer them greater autonomy). This sensitive sector is witnessing the emergence of a market (digital medicine) which is now scattered and only partially standardised. Health and Life Sciences have been the subject of a special research effort since 2000, such as research jointly conducted with INSERM (the French National Institute for Health and Medical Research) and several French University Hospitals, initiatives at a national scale as well as European projects. Some twenty or so research teams (500 researchers) are working on issues such as: Modelling the heart and the brain and augmented medical imaging Genomics and molecular biology (Non-invasive) monitoring Medical information systems and their interoperability Health data management Medical robotics and man-machine interfaces (aimed at patients and practitioners) INRIA is currently strengthening its presence within the Medicen, Lyon Biopôle and Alsace Biovalley French competitiveness clusters A melting pot for innovation - Life Science Computing The first SME ecosystem built at the instigation of INRIA, Life Science Computing, promotes exchanges between players in the field of Bioinformatics - innovative SMEs, researchers, major technology and pharmaceutical groups and bio-industries. Indeed, it aims to boost innovation problems associated with accessing and using sensitive data, modelling and simulating biological phenomena and drug discovery. 3

4 Embedded Systems, Software and Security From software to systems From smart cards to rockets, trains or telephones, software is being embedded into an ever-increasing number of smaller and more complex objects. Embedded computer science covers a vast area that stretches across a number of sectors (the automotive industry, electronics, energy, medicine, home automation, etc.). SMEs or major corporations and businesses in these sectors have their own R&D teams likely to experiment with concepts or software from research to turn them into products. Embedded technologies, the security, reliability and criticality of software is directly or indirectly the concern of about 40 research teams. In order to develop bilateral partnerships as sources of innovation, INRIA is improving the readability of its offer and scientifi c expertise: Tools and methods of designing embedded systems or software (programming languages, formal code generation methods, etc.) Embedded system construction (architectures, infrastructures and protocols) Designing middleware and applications for embedded systems (environments, search engines, etc.) Monitoring and optimizing processes (scheduling, autonomy, etc.) A daunting challenge is the promotion of standards and international specifications, which are the only means to inspire confi dence in a world of communicating objects that have become intelligent objects. Which tools to help transfer technologies to SMEs? I-Labs, joint laboratories between SMEs and INRIA teams are being created by INRIA for the purpose of Involved in the embedded systems providing dedicated support to such partnerships in the activities of the largest French medium term competitiveness clusters (System@tic, The purpose of the INRIA SME Partner Club is to SCS, Minalogic and Aerospace Valley), spur on a network of innovative SMEs in the ICST sector. INRIA also plays an active role in the Lille-based Industries of Commerce cluster (PICOM). Information and communication technologies are indeed central to the future of commerce - embedded systems and RFID, the security of internet exchanges, the dematerialization of purchases (trials, fittings) or the semantic web and ubiquitous computing models for e-commerce. 4

5 Energy, Transport and the Environment - Technologies for Sustainable Development The sustainable management of energy sources, the future of transportation and measures to protect the environment all share a common factor - the need to compare large quantities of heterogeneous data and to have recourse to information and communication science and technologies. This is a matter that is of concern to both major industrial corporations and public authorities alike. This developing market is today witnessing the emergence of new usage patterns and new professions. The processing of geographic, geological, biological, agricultural and meteorological data actually requires comprehensive skills in modelling and simulation (forecasting and visual displays). This leads to a number of scientific and technological challenges in fields as varied as: Modelling to monitor pollution (water, air and land) Making optimal use of multimodal transport Decision systems to help users and transport network managers Designing intelligent and energy efficient buildings. Some of the French competitiveness clusters are explicitly green, but in many others an environmental dimension is being developed especially among those dedicated to ICST; INRIA plays an active role in this trend. Intelligent vehicles on Automated Highway Systems such is the challenge the IMARA team has been addressing for more than fifteen years. A research project stretching across several fields combining fleet management, recognition and itinerary planning technologies, IMARA is involved in a number of European projects and is forming partnerships with car makers, urban planners and ergonomists. The fruits of all these research efforts, the ultimate stage prior to the transfer of the technology - life-size tests are currently taking place in a number of cities from New York to Helsinki Boosting Technology Transfer INRIA is the first research organisation to have signed a SME Transfer Pact, with the Richelieu Committee (a group of high-tech SMEs) and OSEO (the French agency in charge of funding innovation), the founding act of a new bilateral partnership policy between INRIA and SMEs, facilitated by Research Tax Credits (which favour bilateral R&D contracts between a SME and a public research organization). 5

6 Telecommunications, Networks and Multimedia The Internet of the Future challenge The telecommunications sector, normalized and structured around major operators or equipment manufacturers and suppliers, is mainly the result of state-of-the-art public research which has made it competitive on a world scale. In terms of content, multimedia businesses abound with: IT services companies, software publishers, developers of games and applications and web services. And the ongoing challenge to build an Internet of the Future requires to design the best possible network (efficient, ubiquitous and reliable and secure) so that the best possible contents can be made available on it (rich, structured and mobile). In these fields, INRIA teams are conducting research projects in conjunction with academic and industrial partners which involve: Designing networks and mobile protocols Network (particularly peer-to-peer) architecture and performance Mobile multimedia applications Extended information systems Sensor networks and ubiquitous computing 3D interfaces and browsers Indexing and multimedia document searches The semantic web and recommendation systems INRIA is currently strongly involved in the Cap Digital, Images & Réseaux, SCS and System@tic French competitiveness clusters on these topics. The Challenge - To Establish Standards In order to further develop, the Internet and new on line services have to be based on sound standards. With its industrial partners, INRIA plays an active role to achieve this at an international scale. Keeneo is making surveillance intelligent Founded in 2005 by members of the ORION team, a relatively young company by the name of Keeneo is offering Intelligent Video Surveillance solutions, based on software for movement recognition in video images. Backed in its initial stages by INRIA-Transfert, Keeneo now employs fifteen persons in Providing services to key accounts (The Paris Airports, Toyota, Renault, etc.), the company has retained strong links with the research team it once emerged from. 6

7 Aeronautics, Space, Defence and Security Dual-edged Technologies In a sector where research is traditionally overseen by Government agencies, a multitude of civil technologies are currently being developed (applications, components, protocols). Innovative businesses are therefore emerging specialised in geo-localisation, software security, the design of real time systems, etc. They produce the many technological components, for civil as well as military purposes, which are used in major national programmes (weaponry, space, aeronautics). Within the framework of partnerships with key stakeholders and more selective collaboration with innovative SMEs, INRIA teams work on: Vehicles (and engines) design tools (meshing, simulation, prototyping) Optimizing fl ights (trajectories, aerodynamics, autonomy, etc.) Robotics and the design of new autonomous vehicles Fleet and traffi c management software Use of satellite data (cartography, localisation, etc.) Embedded systems Cryptography Surveillance technologies Systems of systems INRIA is involved in the French competitiveness clusters dedicated to aeronautics (Aerospace Valley, Pégase and ASTech), and also plays a role in several dedicated working groups of the System@tic cluster located in the Paris region. Scilab, an adaptable scientific software package Developed at INRIA, the Scilab Open Source software, dedicated to scientific computation, has been developed since A consortium set up by the Institute in 2003 to promote the software now has about 20 members (among them EADS, National Instruments, Renault, etc.). Scilab has more than 250,000 users worldwide. Which new challenges do the twenty or so engineers working on Scilab face now? To develop specific functionalities and expand the range of services to make Scilab the free reference in numerical computation. Toward a virtual Showroom for Research and Technology A number of exhibitions (for instance: movies about technological prototypes) are about to be gathered in a virtual showroom, accessible on line, in order to facilitate the access to research results and technological assets. 7

8 INRIA and Local Ecosystems Lille - Nord Europe Paris - Rocquencourt LANNION Rennes - Bretagne Atlantique Saclay - Île-de-France METZ STRASBOURG Nancy - Grand Est NANTES BESANÇON LYON Bordeaux - Sud-Ouest About INRIA PAU Contact us (first name.last name@inria.fr) Health, Life Sciences and Biotechnology: Philippe Gesnouin Software and Embedded Systems: Thierry Vareine Energy, Transport and Sustainable Development: Anne-Céline Lamballe Telecommunications, Networks and Multimedia: Bernard Odier Aeronautics, Space, Defence and Security: Brigitte Duême Competitiveness Clusters: David Monteau Key Account Partnerships: Olivier Trebucq INRIA Research Centers: Bordeaux Sud-Ouest : Salvatore Spinello MONTPELLIER MARSEILLE Grenoble - Rhône-Alpes Sophia Antipolis - Méditerranée INRIA is placed under the supervision of two French Ministries the Ministry in charge of Research and the Ministry in charge of Industry. Annual budget (2008): 190 M 20% of which comes from contracts with third parties. 2,800 researchers, working in about 170 project teams. About 100 spin-off companies created since Grenoble Rhône-Alpes : Philippe Broun Nicolas Jourdan Lille Nord Europe : Sylvain Karpf Nancy Grand Est : Philippe Schaeffer Catherine Lucquiaud Paris Rocquencourt : Amine Hassim Laure Aït-Ali Rennes Bretagne Atlantique : Jean-Loïc Delhaye Patrice Gelin Saclay Ile-de-France : Agnès Guerraz Sophia Antipolis Méditerranée : Marc Barret Patrice Prez Photos : p. 1 : a. INRIA / ASCLEPIOS ; b. c. INRIA ; d. INRIA / Projet TREC ; e. INRIA / Projet GAMMA. p. 2 : a. INRIA / Photo David Plas ; b. INRIA / Photo C. Dupont. p. 3, 4, 5 : INRIA. p. 6 : INRIA / Photo Kaksonen. p. 7 INRIA ex - 10/10 8