Inria centre at Université Côte d’Azur

The Inria centre at Université Côte d'Azur was established in 1983. It has developed along with Université Côte d'Azur on the Sophia Antipolis and Nice sites. It also has a branch in Montpellier, where it is developing alongside Montpellier University.

Key figures

35

Research Teams

10

European Research Council grants

15

Startups from project-teams

1

Ambitious site policy

Inria has 35 project teams at Sophia Antipolis and Nice, half of which are joint teams, and in 2021 it has 4 joint project teams on the Montpellier site, which opened in 2003. The centre also has a team in Marseilles, in Bologna in Italy and another with the University of Athens. Its activities occupy 560 people, scientists and research and innovation support staff, including 55 different nationalities.

Positioning & Strategic issues

Scientific priority areas

Develop the theme of artificial intelligence in conjunction with the structural 3IA Côte d’Azur project, focused on a number of priority subjects: (i) biology-health, including medicine, neuroscience and bioinformatics, (ii) the links between AI, geometry, heterogeneous data and modelling, and (iii) collaborative robotics for open and dynamic environments;
Develop research activities in the ubiquitous computing field, in particular on the themes of software engineering, software security, reliability and certification.

Strategic lines of development

Participate the success of the Université Côte d’Azur IDEX (UCAJedi) and the securing of its future;
Reinforcement of partnerships with the economic actors in the region through the success of the 3IA Côte d’Azur (interdisciplinary AI institute) or Inria's responsibility for the digital dimension in the setting up of the Innovation and Partnerships Institute of the Université Côte d’Azur;
Scaling up to enable the creation of DeepTech startups.

In addition, the centre will be supporting the development of the Inria branch on the Montpellier site, whose objectives are:

To develop a branch with about ten project teams;
To develop relations with industry and involvement in the startup ecosystem;
To have the branch specialised in medicine, environment and agronomy.

Ecosystem & Partners

The centre is a founder member the UCAJedi IDEX and member of the MUSE I-SITE. The "Montpellier University of Excellence" (MUSE) project, in which Inria is one of the partners alongside Montpellier University, has been granted I-SITE status (for Initiatives-Science-Innovation-Territories-Economy) with the aim of meeting three major challenges for the 21st century: feed, protect and treat, thanks to its expertise in the life sciences, the environment and agriculture.

The centre also has numerous partnerships, with:

Public research actors: CNRS, INRAE
Innovation ecosystem: pôle SCS Eubiomed, Cluster SAFE, OPtitec Telecom Valley Incubateur PACA Est, SATT Sud Est, Sophia Club Entreprises, Educazur, CCI Côte d’Azur, French Tech Côte d’Azur ;
Local authorities: Région Sud-Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur, département des Alpes Maritimes, CASA (communauté d’agglomération de Sophia Antipolis), Métropole Nice Côte d’Azur, Région Occitanie
Major groups:
- PME-ETI :
- Grands groupes : amadeus, Thales, Orange....
International academic partners: Université de Bologne, Université d'Athènes (NKUA), ERCIM - European Consortium for Informatics and Mathematics.
Other partners hosted: Ercim, EIT ICT LABS, W3C

Recruitment at the Inria centre at Université Côte d’Azur

Scientists

Would you like to work on challenging projects in an international, innovative and interdisciplinary environment? Every year, Inria recruits interns, doctoral students, post-doctoral fellows, research fellows and research directors, either through a competitive process or on contract.

In order to ensure that young researchers are able to carry out their work in optimal conditions from the moment they arrive, a "Welcome package" is offered to each research fellow (CRCN) and Inria starting faculty position (ISFP) newly recruited to the center. A complementary grant from the Université Côte d'Azur, including a thesis grant as well as a €60,000 operating budget, can be added to this if the research theme concerns strategic subjects for the site.

Technology development

Inria offers a unique environment for many talented people in the field of technological and software development. The research engineer is the key player in supporting and guaranteeing the production of knowledge and value by research teams.

Become an Inria engineer

Research support

Inria calls on talent in more than forty research support professions in order to achieve its ambitions, from human resources to administrative assistance and financial management, not to mention communications... The 900 women and men in the support services who accompany research and innovation activities are a source of pride for the Institute and form the backbone of Inria.