Acronyme du projet/ Acronym of the project

5.4.Relation avec le monde socio-économique/ Connections to the socio-economic world

Club of Supporting companies

The private company Thales is partner of Nano-Saclay through its corporate R&D center Thales RT. The instrumentation company Horiba Jobin-Yvon is currently building its new production plant and R&D centre in the immediate neighbourhood of the NanoINNOV-C2N site (cf Figure in part 5.1). Horiba J-Y has already strong links with Nano-Saclay partners for commercializing instrumentation developed in academic labs (LPICM in particular, with new projects about to start with IEF, LPN, …). We are currently discussing how Horiba’s nanocharacterization equipment that will be installed in their new R&D centre can be made accessible to Nano-Saclay partners. Although it declined to become a partner, Horiba is very supportive of our project (support letter in Annex 7.6 to this document).

Other companies have already motivated their support to our project: Alchimer, BioAlliance, EADS Innovation Works, Ethera, Ethypharm, Guerbet, Medsqual, PSA (support letters in Annex 7.6 to this document). Meeting this companies on a regular basis to exchange on our current advances and on their needs, or more generally on the market pulls in our research domains, will be organized.

More generally, we have held discussions with the Centre Francilien de l’Innovation (CFI) who will support our valorisation activities (support letter in Annex 7.6 to this document).

Nanosciences and Society

The relation between Nanosciences, Nanotechnologies and Society is a complex problem, of potentially high impact, that must be treated in parallel with the technological and scientific project. In agreement with the 6S labex project coordinator Pierre-Paul Zalio, this will be the field of a specific collaboration between our two projects, through instruments ranging from specific joint calls to twin evaluation of emerging projects or joint workshops."

Nanosciences and Society

Research in nanosciences and nanotechnology has already allowed important transformations of our fundamental knowledge of the material world. NanoSaclay obviously intends going more deeply in this direction. Such developments will offer, in our opinion, extraordinary promise in translation of basic knowledge into concrete applications. This being, we are conscious that our society is more aware than ever of the need to protect the environment and human health. Progress in a fundamental scientific knowledge with the perspective of new industrial applications can no longer be dissociated from a preliminary analysis of the social impact of these applications: What are their benefits? What are their costs? Research works have also to be conducted in the highest transparency for our society while maintaining the fragile freedom of the research enterprise itself. Recent debates in France on “nanos” have indeed revealed that unfounded fears caused by the development of nanotechnologies cannot be simply dissipated using a “positive” vision of the scientific progress.

These are the reasons why nanotechnology research efforts undertaken in the frame of the French NanoInnov program also include research on societal issues. Through a network of social scientists, economists, lawyers, philosophers and nanotechnology researchers in the three scientific poles of Grenoble, Paris-Saclay and Toulouse, the NanoSociety project of NanoInnov addresses social and educational issues of nanoscience and nanotechnology. Several researchers in NanoSaclay are participating to this project. One of us (J-M. Lourtioz) coordinates the project over the three poles. Briefly, the main objectives are: 1) to inform the general public about the regular advances in the field of nanosciences and nanotechnology, 2) to analyse societal questioning about nanosciences and nanotechnology, 3) to apply a cost-benefit analysis for some emblematic applications of nanotechnology, 4) to develop interactions with similar networks in the world, especially in Europe.

An additional, but non-negligible objective is to ensure durability of the different teams constituted in the three poles Grenoble, Paris-Saclay and Toulouse. In the Paris-Saclay region, the NanoSociety project is carried out with the help of C’Nano Île-de-France, who has previously invested in societal aspects of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology. Clearly, members of NanoSaclay will actively participate to this NanoSociety project already driven by NanoInnov and C’Nano Île-de-France. In contrast, it would not be constructive for the community that NanoSaclay engage actions separated from this context.

Among the actions either engaged or planned in the Paris-Saclay region, the most important ones aim at informing people about “nanos” with a simultaneous analysis of societal questioning. Mobile exhibition stalls are used to present “emblematic” and/or pedagogical experiments or demonstrators in “nanos” to the general public. Researchers take the opportunity of very popular events such as “La Fête de la Science” or “La Nuit des Chercheurs” to do their presentations. These events also give them the opportunity to debate about “nanos” with many people of different age, profession or culture. A partnership between C’Nano Île-de-France and the “Cité des Sciences et de l’Industrie” in Paris will also allow a permanent exhibition of nano-experiments and demonstrators in the Tech’galerie space of the Cité all year 2011 along. Five exhibition stalls are envisaged: one dedicated to environment aspects with an illustration of nanoparticle synthesis, another dedicated to human health where debates will be organized about ethical issues of nanotechnology, a third one dedicated to communication aspects with the organization of debates on human rights and freedom, a fourth one dedicated to the most important (fundamental) discoveries in “nanos” and a last one entitled “nanos for spare-time activities” where for instance, carbon nanotube rackets, nanostructured powder for eyelids, anti-tag walls, etc. will be shown to introduce a debate on economical aspects of nanotechnology. An invention space will be also reserved to show nano-prototypes which were at the origin of recent start-ups. Other pedagogical demonstrators will be especially fabricated for the exhibitions. For example, a large-scale model of direct and inverse opals will be realized with ping-pong balls to easily illustrate and explain the diffraction of light by a photonic crystal. A /2 goniometre will be constructed for this purpose. Public debates will be analysed in parallel by societal researchers. The same team will also investigate the possible modifications that controversial debates could produce in the activity of nanotechnology researchers.

In summary, the NanoSaclay Labex will contribute to the durability of the NanoSociety project in Paris-Saclay through an active participation of its members to the different actions coordinated by NanoInnov and C’Nano Île-de-France. As illustrated above from first actions engaged or planned in Paris-Saclay, there is a need to send “nano” scientists in a number of public exhibitions and build pedagogical nano-demonstrators for some of these exhibitions. There is also a strong need to stabilize the project team whose interdisciplinarity is an essential condition. This will require an annual budget to build transportable equipments as well as to pay young researchers and post-docs for short missions. In the context of the NanoInnov/C2N cluster in Saclay, a visitor space is also envisaged to favour meetings, exhibitions and debates with the general public. In the perspective of the Saclay Initiative of Excellence, fruitful interactions are also expected to take place between the NanoSaclay and 6S (Saclay School “Sciences, Social Sciences and Societies”) Labex about societal aspects of Nanotechnology.