Acronyme du projet/ Acronym of the project

5.5.Effet d’entraînement potentiel/ Pull effect

In the description of the Nano-Saclay Governance, we have defined quality indicators for the labex, and proposed targets of development @4 and 10 years. Related funding objectives will appear in the financial part of Document A. These targets have been evaluated from our estimation of the pull effects of the Nano-Saclay project. This can happen grossly through several mechanisms.

First, we will be open to increase in the Nano-Saclay consortium. The motivations could be for instance:

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  the objective of generating multidisciplinary research will be for the labex partners a strong incentive to collaborate with new teams from other disciplines. This should be the main incentive for developing the consortium.
  
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  the project is centered around one of the key SNRI objective, which has a strong incentive character. This should attract research groups, which are not working in the field at the moment, but develop expertise likely to orient their future research and develop links with the Nano-Saclay partners.
  
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  the progress in technological research within the labex will open more possibilities for outside groups to propose and develop new, highly original research subjects.
  

The “emerging projects” calls of the labex could be a mechanism of choice to prepare such aggregations of new teams/researchers, as they will indeed be open to participation of external teams (under coordination of partners). However participation to emerging progress is neither a pre-acceptation nor a mandatory condition. For instance, the technologies developed within C2N will remain available to teams nationwide within the RENATECH network or French large scale nanotechnology facilities.

In any case, changes in the consortium will have to be validated by the Scientific and Steering Committees, on proposal from the Coordination.

Increased research funding is another strong mechanism.

First, it is expected that the visibility around the Nano-Saclay consortium as well as the increasing development of the links between the partners will result in an increased efficiency of their ability to attract funding at the national (ANR, etc.), European and even International level. One key objective of the labex along that line will be to develop strong links with international Nanosciences clusters as exist in Germany, Netherlands, USA, etc… (cf 5.1 state of the art). The strong structure of the labex will without doubt favour the establishment of such contacts at the governance level, beyond the already strong scientific collaborations between teams or partners.

Second, development of industrial involvement is a key issue to tackle by the labex, in line with the objectives of the Lisbon European agenda of reaching 3% of PIB in R&D funding (against 2.4% today, essentially due to insufficient industrial effort). This will be pursued through increase in direct labex-industry R&D projects, or opening our technology platforms to SMEs and start-up companies.

Outreach to society is a last key issue. The NanoSchool project in particular should contribute to attract more students to Nanosciences, thus increasing the number of PhDs in Nano-Scalay partners. But we must also increase our involvement on societal issues such as risks associated to Nano-products, associated regulations, etc. A part of this effort will be made through collaboration with the 6S labex project, but we will also seek direct collaboration with local political bodies to start focused projects.

Finally, creation of co-founded chairs is certainly one mechanism of choice to develop the labex. Such chairs would propose a 4 years package with grants (4 years of post-doc, 1 PhD), equipment and consumables, to attract a young experienced researcher (PhD+5 years typically) to Saclay to develop research in R&D areas where industry or society needs are critical, and existing local strength limited. Co-founding would be actively looked for, and in case of success such chairs would then be stabilized at one of the Nano-Saclay partners (similar to chairs already existing at Ecole Polytechnique for instance), and become the nucleus for efficient growth of R&D activity n the subject in the labex.

Based on our analysis of current situation and trends, we can already propose two subjects:

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  “Reliability of Nanoproducts”
  

This is an example of key action to start a research domain on a subject that directly interest companies and should attract large support. Industry measures the maturity level of components on scale of Technology Readiness Levels (TRL) from 1 to 10. Proof of concept achieved by laboratories doesn’t exceed 2 on this scale, while industry (in particular for transport, space) would wait for 5 or 6 before considering products for development. Reliability is a key issue for a technology to increase in its readiness level. This applies as well to sensors, new chips or computing devices (such as developed in Flagship domain Nanoelectronics) as to Photonics components (Flagship Nanophotonics) or even devices for health monitoring (Flagship domain Nanodrugs). In this respect, nanodevices suffer from many drawbacks such as large dispersion of characteristics (on an array), unknown aging with time, enhanced breakdown mechanisms, etc. Developing a strong research theme on reliability issues in nano, based on a chair, thus seems one important mean to overcome the nano-innovation gap, while being a strong incentive for pull effect of Nano-Saclay towards industry.

• 
  “Toxicology of Nano-objects”:
  

Bringing answers on such issues is indeed a critical step for societal acceptance and diffusion of nano-products. However, our recent experience with the C’Nano IdF network showed us that there is definitely a lack of teams working on the subjects, and particularly in the Saclay area. Many approaches are concerned. Special attention has to be paid to the safety of nanoparticles. Researchers in the field of the nanomedicine are already attentive to the need to develop safe, biodegradable and biocompatible materials since nanodrugs has to fulfill the same legal requirements than usual medicines before commercialization can occur. A high benefit to risk ratio has to be demonstrated. In this view, both in vitro and in vivo explorations have to be performed with special attention to hepatic and pulmonary tissues because they are the more exposed tissues in the medical field (most of the anticancer nanodrugs are given intravenously and concentrate into the liver tissue) as well as in the environmental toxicity (inhalation of nanoparticles is probably the more aggressive route of administration). Apart from the nature of the materials used in the design of nanoparticles, their size and morphology are likely other key parameters for toxicological issues. In this view, both relevant in vitro cell culture models as well, as co-cultures (ie. endothelial cells and astrocytes or calu3 and alveolar macrophages) and in vivo animal models have to be developed to evaluate the safety/toxicity of nanomaterials together with their ability to translocate epitheliums and endotheliums. Special attention has also to be paid to oxidative, inflammatory and pseudo-allergic response, which is already documented in pre-clinical and clinical investigations. In the more general frame of NanoInnov, the NanoSafety project (Cf. § 5.2.2.4) intends to develop protection tools against nanoparticles whether they are organic or inorganic. This includes not only specific protections at the workplaces where nanoparticles are produced and manipulated, but also protections against their dissemination outside these places with all ecotoxicological aspects of relevance. Research works are carried out in parallel to develop specific biomarkers and thus implement long term monitoring for persons who may have been non-intentionally exposed to nanoparticles and nanomaterials produced in NanoInnov sites (detailed report provided to ANRⁱⁱ). Finally, we plan to intensify links between NanoSaclay researchers and eco-specialists in the IEED CLAIRE project (climate and environment) of the Saclay Campus. Developing a strong research theme on this subject, based on a chair, thus seems one important mean to overcome the, while being a strong incentive for pull effect of Nano-Saclay towards society and political bodies.

We give here only a general view of what could be the subject of the chairs. Final decision will be taken by the Scientific and Steering Committees of the labex.