Bruno Sportisse

Bruno Sportisse, Chairman and CEO of Inria, Member of the Advisory Board European Innovation Council (EIC), Chairman of the European node of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).

Bruno Sportisse was graduated from École Polytechnique and École des Ponts. He got a PhD in applied mathematics and a research habilitation in geophysics. After having created and headed a Laboratory for the numerical forecast of air pollution and industrial risks (Joint Laboratory EDF/École des Ponts), Bruno Sportisse was director of innovation at Inria, from 2008 to 2012. In 2012, he became the advisor to the Minister for Higher Education and Research, Genevieve Fioraso, in charge of innovation and digital affairs. Then, in 2013, he was the Deputy Chief of Staff to the Minister of Innovation, SMEs and Digital Economy, Fleur Pellerin; one major achievement was the design and the launch of the French Tech initiative, a major project for establishning a new mindset about startups and innovation. In 2014, he became the Deputy CEO of a French midcap Medtech company, Thuasne where he headed the digital transformation of the company.

In 2016, he created an AI-driven Fintech company, Skopai. In 2018, he was also commisioned by the French Ministers Bruno Lemaire, Mounir Mahjoubi, Florence Parly and Frédérique Vidal for proposing the implementation of a European Agency for disruptive innovation. After a joint work with Jean-David Malo from EU/DGRTD, this preliminary work led to the creation of the European Innovation Council, one major tool for the European innovation agenda. In the same year, Bruno Sportisse was made a Knight of the Order of Merit by the French Ministry of the Economy and Finance.

Scientific excellence must, of course, be at the heart of our priorities, because we are a research institute: by exploring the new frontiers of research, by positioning ourselves, through our choices, on the subjects of "tomorrow", by encouraging risk-taking by our researchers, especially our youngest ones, and by strengthening our attractiveness.