CORDIS Archive

With almost 9,500 public researchers, working in 400 laboratories and 8,000 people employed by companies (R&D staff), PACA is a French region with outstanding research potential. The presence in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region of six universities, the main large research bodies (CNRS, CEA, INSERM, INRA, etc.), numerous engineering colleges and scientific activities in the majority of research disciplines, all helps to reinforce this research capacity.

At the heart of the euro-mediterranean zone, the whole of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region is home to a vast network of technology centres and academic institutions as well as the structures for supporting and transferring technology.

The six technology zones provide a network of skills centres, focussing on more specific topics:

Food at the Avignon Agroparc; The environment at the Europôle Mé diterrané en de l'Arbois (Aix-en-Provence); Engineering and optical sciences at the Technopôle de Château-Gombert (North Marseille); Life sciences at the Parc scientifique et technologique de Luminy (South Marseille); Marine technologies at Toulon Var Technologies (Var); New information and communication technologies and life sciences at the Technopole de Sophia-Antipolis.

The regional R&D strategy

Financing research within the PACA region

Universities and national research bodies (CNRS, INRIA, INSERM, INRA, CEA) are mainly financed by the state (the Ministry of national Education, Research and Technology, etc.) and regional organisations. The State-Region five-year plan contract is involved in the creation of regional skills areas, based on a multi-disciplinary scientific approach and reinforcement of the link between research, higher education and industry. The Ministries (Industry and Research), ANVAR (the French Agency for Innovation) and the State-Region five-year plan contract support financing of R&D in small and medium sized businesses and industries.

Regional R&D policy and the five-year plan contract

Since research forms a key element of the region's policy, economic, technological and social development in the region is closely linked to the skill levels of the men and women of Provence- Alpes-Côte d'Azur, as well as to the quality of research undertaken by laboratories and its use for the benefit of the economic and social fabric of the region.
In a region where job creation is an avowed priority, research can actually be seen as a real force in the economic development and scientific policy of the region and should, by basing itself on high quality research, encourage innovation and the creation of activities by regional research laboratories.

Four major approaches to help achieve this objective:

• assisting the creation of visible regional skills centres on the basis of improved synergy between higher education, research and the economic fabric of the region,
• improving the use of research and the transfer of technology for the benefit of the regional economic and social fabric,
• encouraging the spread of knowledge and the promotion of a real scientific, technical and industrial culture,
• increasing European, Mediterranean and international cooperation between universities and science establishments,

A Regional Consultative Committee assists the Regional Council in its study and canvassing activities. It is made up of 48 people from the university, research and socio-economic sectors.

Assisting in the creation of skill centres

The Regional Council supports investment operations (building and equipping educational establishments, research laboratories, acquiring research equipment), which are mostly individualised in the 2000-2006 five year plan contract. Outside the five-year plan contract, the region mainly supports, on education and research campuses:

1) Operations that involve the linking up of inter-organisation and inter-university research teams as well as structuring operations.

2) Assistance for projects that are not contracted with the state, undertaken by regional laboratories and including industrial partners, where applicable, under the terms of several year target agreements that link the region with research organisations and universities.

Increasing the use of research and the transfer of technologies.

The Regional Council, which wants to make innovation and the transfer of technology a key to the creation of business, is involved in:

1) the financing of regional mechanism for transferring technology: regional innovation and technology transfer centres, technological centres and coordination structures;

2) the financing of technology transfer coordination structures, which act as an interface between the scientific fabric of the region and small and medium sized businesses: Mé diterrané e Technologies, the Technological Diffusion Network;

3) the financing of regional mechanism of bursaries for innovation, comprising three types of bursaries, which always involve a socio-economic partner:

• Research bursaries: doctoral bursaries,
• Research contracts for senior technicians (CORTECHS),
• Long term placements in companies.

To benefit from a bursary, students must be enrolled with a regional establishment.

Encouraging the spread of knowledge and scientific and technical culture.

The Regional Council provides its support for the organisation of scientific conferences and events which help to increase the international dimension of research.

In another regard, the Regional Council has undertaken, alongside the state, to create a new regional cultural technical, scientific and industrial network as well as to publish reviews to generate scientific recognition for the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region.

Increasing the international dimension of public research.

To encourage the opening up of laboratories to international scientific cooperation, the Regional Council supports two types of activities that are based on regional skills and knowledge:

• Scientific cooperation programmes twinning laboratories in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region with foreign laboratories;
• Post-doctoral bursaries for foreign researchers in the region's laboratories.

The Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region is also becoming increasingly interested in decentralised cooperation, as a progressive area of Southern Europe and Mediterranean France. Its geographic position, history and culture and the ethnic origins of its population make it a region that should play a leading role in cooperation between Europe and Mediterranean countries.