The document discusses creating innovation-based growth in France through stronger partnerships between publicly funded research and private companies. It notes that while France invests heavily in research and has notable research achievements, only 1.25% of funding connects researchers and businesses. The Pierre-Gilles de Gennes Foundation aims to facilitate these connections by providing an administrative framework and seed funding for partnerships between its affiliated research institutions and companies. The Foundation hopes to establish a culture where industrial partners share challenges with academic researchers, helping innovations to emerge and be successfully developed.

1. L’innovation,
autrement! *
* An alternative route to innovation
It’s the unknown that appeals to me. I’m always
looking for Ariadne’s thread each time I come across
a labyrinth”
Pierre-Gilles de Gennes
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2. The means exist for creating
innovation-based growth in France
 Notable and outstanding publicly funded research at the national level
 0.8% of GDP invested
 17 billion euros (40%) invested in 2006
 86,000 publicly funded researchers (vs. 195,000 in the U.S.A.)
 9 Nobel prizes in Science (in chemistry, physics, and medicine) since 1980, and 20% of the Fields Medals
 Companies and businesses in the health field that innovate, expand, create profits, and therefore invest
in R&D
 21 billion euros (50%) invested in 2006
Two engines of innovation that exist, and yet …
contact between them is only on the order of 1.25% …
 Because contact requires:
 An impetus (what is this partnership’s Risk Adjusted Net Present Value? )
 A downside risk (what is the risk of maintaining the current Business Model ?)
 An Operating Process
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3. The 2008 RTC* and the risk of the upstream phases
 The upstream phases of breakthrough innovation, from the initial discovery
through the invention, are phases fraught with risk.
(traditionally, 3% for a therapeutic treatment derived from a biotechnology innovation)
 In 2008, the RTC (Research Tax Credit) had a major effect on equity cost:
R&D Investment
Cost of the Public-private partnership 100,000 €
Decreased Tax on profit (34,400) €
Research Tax Credit (60,000) €
Equity Costs 5,600 €
 The equity cost for a profitable company falls to 5.6%,
 with a corresponding significant effect on the project’s rcNPV.
 In other words
 Based on a 20% actualization rate,
 Repayment of the RTC and reflection of the IS credit in year n+1
The rcNPV on the first two year is (21,3) cts pour (1) €
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* Since 2009, FPGG can directly give the doubled RTC

4. Obsolescence of the innovation paradigm …
− Less time between the emergence of a new technology
and its industrial application
− Increasing market-introduction costs
− Regulatory bottlenecks
− Accelerated product obsolescence
such that the three so-called “historical” innovation models
are no longer valid
Technology transfer
Incremental internal R&D Subcontracting
KNOW-HOW PRODUCT PORTFOLIO
KNOW-HOW PRODUCT PORTFOLIO
Feedback
« THIRD PARTY » PRODUCT PORTFOLIO
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5. … but not of a “discovery partnership” that
combines industrial know-how and academic
excellence.
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6. A culture yet to be developed
Because of the following requirements:
1. The industrial entity must convert its know-how into a
scientific challenge
2. It must have the courage to share its questions with a
partner whose mission is to spread knowledge
3. The academic researcher must meet this new
challenge
4. Both parties must find ways to overcome administrative
constraints
5. Simple rules must be defined for converting discoveries
into innovations and sharing the fruits of this
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7. The PGG Foundation is a Thematic Network
for Advanced Research. Its status is that of a
Foundation for Scientific Cooperation
organized under private law. It is comparable
to other foundations that are acknowledged to
be in the public interest.
The Foundation was created by the three
centers of excellence in the Montagne Sainte-
Geneviève district: the École Normale
Supérieure (ENS), the École Supérieure de
Physique et Chimie Industrielles (ESPCI),
and the Curie Institute.
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8. The Fondation Pierre-Gilles de Gennes :
serving the partnership
 The right size
140 research teams, with 1,450 researchers
The “intermediate scale”:
The locus of key events in the structure-activity relationship
 Development of conceptual and methodological tools in the interval between 100 nm and 100 microns
 The ability to resolve and model temporal and spatial phenomena
 An overall “translational” approach (molecular, cellular, in vitro, in vivo, and clinical)
Cancer, immunological deseases, and neurosciences as the predominant
Targets.
 Simplification of the administrative maze
 Installation of a single agent
 Identification and designation by the steering committee
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9. The Fondation Pierre-Gilles de Gennes:
serving the partnership
Three sequential stages in the secure establishment of partnerships:
Stage 1: Entry into the Foundation’s community
 Each partner company is an active member of the Foundation’s research community, participating in all
of its knowledge-dissemination activities and receiving assistance with the organization of its projects.
 Make use of the Extranet platform
Stage 2: The Foundation proposes to its partners the contracting of
research-project activities, from upstream discovery through proof of
concept.
Stage 3: The companies conduct the innovation, from the industrial
development of the discovery through its market introduction.
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10. The Fondation Pierre-Gilles de Gennes:
The academic side
 Establishment of a proprietary seed fund for innovationds for projects each year
 With capital of 20 million euros
 2.5 million euros in proprietary funds for projects each year
 Consolidation of an interdisciplinary and inter-institutional community
 A powerful extranet dedicated to project workflows
 Support for young team leaders through expert network management
 An extraordinary ability to create relationships
 Creation of an alternative source of inspiration and challenges for researchers
 Exploration of the area of industrial know-how, which often is not easily accessible
 Opportunities to work alongside an industrial partner on the conditions surrounding innovation
 Administrative organization of projects, and facilitated financing: extraordinary responsiveness
(less than one month between project submission and the committee’s decision)
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11. Organizational overview
Steering Committee
• Claude Boccara
• Janine Cossy
• Vincent Croquette
• François Doz
• Daniel Louvard
• Antoine Triller
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12. Key Technological Platforms
 Physics
 Bio-Informatics
 Lithography
 Chemistry
 Petide Synthesis
 Biology
 Solid state high yield sequencer
 Transcriptomic
 Proteomic
 BioPhenyx Platform for cellular morphology
 AFM
 EM
 Nikon Imaging Center
 IRM far small animal
 Drosophila
 Zebra fish
 murin model for transgenesis et gene invalidation – xenografting
 Clinical trials and physiology
 CURIE hospital (cancer)
 DEC (audition and vision)
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13. Foundation axis of synergy (1)
 Cancer : CR Curie + Hôpital Curie + ESPCI
 Theoretical and applied genotoxicology
 Epigenetic
 Systems Biology and Development Biology
 Innovative imaging methods development
(Imr+ MRE, OCT)
 Time reverse based real time imaging and treatment
 Specific drug discovery and vectorization
 Neurology andcognition : ENS +ESPCI
 Biophysical and biomolecular approaches of Neuronal plasticity and function
 New methods for micromanipulation through microfluidics.
 Study of Time Coding
 Pluridisciplinary study of the physiology of perception and cognition in animal and man
 Innovant Chemistry: ENS + ESPCI + Curie
 Femtosecond Chemistry and molecule-solvant modelling
 Advanced electrochemistry and microelectrochemistry
 Retrosynthetic analysis
 Peptide and carbohydrate expertise
 Cellular targetting
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14. Foundation axis of synergy (2)
 Cellular population dynamics : ENS + ESPCI +Curie
 Functional polymers chemistry – polymersoms
 Theoretical and applied surface physics (soft surface concept)
 Innovative approach for cell-cell interaction and collective motion
 Mathematiocal treatment and modelling.
 Microfluidics : ENS + ESPCI
 Micropatterning and surface design
 Neurosciences – axonal patch for neurone growth
 Cellular biology – in vitro tools for positionning/polarizing/micromanipulating cells and tissues
 Time reverse technologies : ESPCI + Curie
 Rapid evolution of both theoretical and experimental corpuses (from tumor treatment to the use of P MHz waves for
ulrtrafast echography)
 Specific design and synthesis of contrast agents
 Analysis of cellular targetting at the cellular level.
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