Acronyme du projet/ Acronym of the project

4.2.Collaborations existantes / Existing collaborations

As explained in detail in the following chapters, the NanoSaclay LabEx will create the grounds of powerful cluster with almost 60% of its partners located in the same geographical area. Moreover, it capitalizes on existing links already launched and supported by running initiatives such as CNano IdF or the RTRA "Triangle de la Physique". Hence, numerous fruitful collaborations already exist within the NanoSaclay partnership: around a hundred of active collaborations can be listed over the past 5 years. It is noteworthy that some of them concern long-term access to the nanofabrication facilities at LPN and IEF, and, to some extent, at Soleil (ca. 40% of the total). These figures clearly demonstrate that a "nano-community" exists in the Paris-Saclay Campus.



The table shows the existing relationships beween NanoSaclay partners (red), and the new ones already created by the three starting flagship domains.
It is however mostly limited to mono-disciplinary activities: many collaborative activities involving IEF, LPN, UMPhys or IRAMIS@Saclay actually concern nanophysics research, while chemistry partners are in parallel working together on nanomaterials synthesis and functionalization. So although precursors of efficient multidisciplinarity are already there, they still have to spread among our nano-community.

The NanoSaclay LabEx unambiguously plans to give a new impulse towards real multidisciplinarity. First of all, it gathers partners from different disciplines: physicists, chemists, biologists, engineers and even computing people, eager to work together. Second, flagship domains have been defined through discussions of the whole partnership, within which most projects will bring together partners of different disciplines who never worked together before.

For instance, the flagship project B "Nano-drugs for severe diseases" will bring together biologists, pharmaco-engineers, chemists and physico-chemists, and nanofabrication engineers. In particular, the links between partner PCPB and partners CEA-IRAMIS@NanoINNOV and LPS were created during the discussions that issued the project and will definitely enrich the newly born link between partners PCPB and ILF with physic-chemical approaches to functionalize surfaces of nano-carriers together with microfluidic solutions for synthesis and analysis.

Similarly, partner INRIA who works on computing architecture was so far fully disconnected from the nano-community. Thanks to Nano-Saclay project, partner INRIA will be deeply involved in flagship project A "Quantum and spin-based nanoelectronics", joining the pioneering efforts already launched a couple of years ago by partners CEA-IRAMIS@NanoINNOV and LIST on new architectural paradigms adapted to nano-devices. In the same trend, partner UMPhys, who will be leading that flagship project A, will engage new collaborations with partners IEF, CEA-IRAMIS@NanoINNOV, LIST, ICMMO and X-LPMC. Among those, many concern direct connections between physicists from UMPhys and chemists from IRAMIS@NanoINNOV, ICMMO and X-LPMC.

Flagship project C "NanoPhotonics: nano-objects for energy control" has also been built around multi-disciplinary collaborations. Hence, chemists from partners CEA-IRAMIS@NanoINNOV, ISMO, IdA and ILF will for the fist time be involved in projects concerning plasmonics and then collaborate with optics specialists from partners IEF, LPN and IOGS.

Finally, NanoSaclay will launch a transverse axis that aims at bringing together all the LabEx partners around common tools such as nanofabrication, nano-objects synthesis, nano-characterization and simulation. Through the federation and animation of a formidable reservoir of multidisciplinary expertises andtechniques, this transverse axis will also play a key role in the emergence of new projects (in particular among partners not yet involved in the starting flagship projects). Hence, new collaborations will undoubtedly issue from the LabEx daylife.

5.Description Scientifique et Technique du projet / Technical and scientific description of the project

5.1.Etat de l’art / State of the art (References in 7.1)

Nanosciences and Nanotechnology landscape in France

Nanoscience and Nanotechnologies (hereafter condensed in Nano) are widely seen as a critical source of Industrial Competitiveness for the future, with huge economic projections. Most countries launched initiatives to support research and innovation in Nano area in the last ten years.^1 France Nano program started in 2003 and public R&D absolute investment was at the 4^th world rank in 2005, after USA, Japan and Germany.^2 Besides the direct support of research bodies, national funding is provided through National Research Agency (ANR), with specific Nano programs selecting collaborative projects. A national network (RENATECH) was set up in 2003 to coordinate and update the large scale nano facilities. These facilities are hosted by IEMN (Lille), FEMTO-ST (Besançon), LAAS (Toulouse), CEA-LETI and FMNT (Grenoble), IEF and LPN in Ile de France.^3 This RENATECH network is complemented by 8 “proximity” smaller facilities. In order to foster the exchanges in the scientific community, 6 C'NANO centers of competences were also created in 2003.^4

In 2006, the French Ministry of Research set up a new tool to improve the local interactions between researchers on a given site: the RTRAs (Thematic Advanced Research Networks). These structures basically fund local collaborative projects through call for tenders, with a budget of the order of 4 to 5 M€ per year. Three of them have a nano component:

1. 
   “Triangle de la Physique, ^5(the triangle being Orsay, Palaiseau, Saclay), with an emphasis on nanophotonics and nano-spintronics, though the scope is much broader in physics.
   
2. 
   “Nanosciences aux limites de la Nano-électronique^6 in Grenoble, focused on physics and engineering in link with nanoelectronics.
   
3. 
   “Centre International de Recherche aux Frontières de la Chimie de Strasbourg,^7 with an emphasis on nano-chemistry.
   

French ministry of research led in 2009 a strategic analysis together with the scientific community and major R&D bodies (SNRI: National Strategy for Research and Innovation). Information, communication and nanotechnologies were identified as one of the three priorities of the government in the SNRI final document.^8

This strategy document identifies the following important topics:

-nanoelectronics offer new scientific perspectives through the exploitation of physical effects (quantum electronics, molecular electronics, spintronics, nanophotonics, etc.). This will turn into the development of new technological opportunities (low consumption electronics) and new applications (Systems on Chip, wireless systems);

-nanomaterials and materials structured at a nanometric scale exhibit new properties, thanks to their size and organisation (carbon nanotubes, fullerenes, etc.);

- nanobiotechnologies, resulting from the convergence between nanotechnologies and biology stimulate numerous applications in biology, medicine and agro-food.

It also identifies (as well as the European documents on nano^9) major hurdles to increase our economic strength in this sector, among which:

• 
  although EU (and French) Nano research is recognized at the top international level, with a high IP production rate, innovation (meant as transfer to industry) is comparatively much weaker that in other areas of the world. Recent European Commission (EC) studies identify a critical “Innovation gap” between proof of concept and demonstrator level.
  
• 
  strong industrial development might anyway be hindered by a shortage of skilled labor in EU, at all levels of staff.
  
• 
  convergence of disciplines should be the key for major Nano-based innovation, however such multidisciplinarity is hard to install and sustain, maybe because the research system was so far more organized around the major disciplines, or that research on Nano is too fragmented.
  
• 
  societal issues are important, as arising concerns about safety of nanomaterials and their regulation.
  

Recommendations at EU and French levels are very similar: decompartmentalize disciplines, fight fragmentation of research by ensuring critical mass, “move together forces … in physics, chemistry, biology, and also designers, manufacturers and users” (French SNRI 2009 document)^8, and bridge the gap between research and industry.

One important initiative was launched also in 2009 on this particular aspect, called NanoINNOV.^10 This plan focuses on tools to bridge the innovation gap, by the creation of “integration centers” in Saclay, Grenoble and Toulouse. These centers will gather in the same location academic researchers as well as industrial ones, with a special emphasis on nanosystems (integration of nano-objects in real systems or projects), training and safety.

With respect to all these national initiatives, Nanosaclay labex proposal is directly involved or in line with them:

• 
  Two partners (IEF and LPN, tomorrow gathered in C2N) host two of the national network of large scale facilities RENATECH. This constitutes a major advantage for nano research in Saclay Campus.
  
• 
  Most partners in NanoSaclay are active in C'Nano Ile de France (which they founded), as well as in the RTRA “triangle de la physique”, and several are actors of NanoINNOV-Saclay
  
• 
  The scientific project is in line with the national strategic plan for research (SNRI), in particular for joining multidisciplinary forces available in the same area.
  

Detailed assessment of Nano-related research and Innovation

The five pages imposed for this state of the art part would not be enough to describe the most recent initiatives in nano field. Here are a few examples of efficient proactive actions:^1

• 
  in USA (NNIN network, DOE network of multidisciplinary Nanoscience centres coupled to Large Instruments, ..), new NIST center in Gaithersburg, …).
  
• 
  in Germany (NanoSystems Initiative in Munich (www.nano-initiative-munich.de/about-nim/), Center for Functional Nanostructures in Karlsruhe (www.cfn.uni-karlsruhe.de/en/about-the-cfn),
  
• 
  in Netherlands (Mesa+ Institute Twente (www.utwente.nl/mesaplus/nanolab/),
  
• 
  in Spain (CIC Nanogune (Ref Nanogune)) ...
  

Nevertheless, one can draw some conclusions of all these national initiatives:

1. 
   All major research campus host a nanotech facility and research activities in the “nano” field.
   
2. 
   Creating the basis for a local interdisciplinary structure is a priority
   
3. 
   One of the major challenges for European countries is Innovation.
   

This last point is specifically true for France, where the number of companies involved in Nano remains (too) limited. Despite this fact, Ile de France cluster is at the 15^th rank in the number of nano involved companies. ^11

The necessary mapping of french territory through C'NANO or RENATECH does not mean that the research forces are evenly distributed in France: Ile de France represents 30% of the Nano publications and the Grenoble area 15%.

These figures follow closely the geographical partition of the about 5000 researchers (including post-docs and PHD students).^12

Ile de France area is the largest cluster for Nano in Europe (6^th world rank in 2005) following the Nanotrend study in 2008 and 2009 (France being at the 5^th world rank after USA, Japan, China and Germany). The regional authorities, aware of this local strength, identified nano as a priority and funded research projects in nanosciences in the last four years (C'Nano Ile de France being in charge of evaluating and selecting the projects)

Although regional analysis in terms of patent applications are not available, France world ranking is similar to that in publications (5^th rank in 2005, after USA, Japan, Germany and United Kingdom).

One should note that although this ranking was rather stable in the last ten years, the growth rates of Asian campus are much higher than the US or European ones (cf Figure below): launching a new dynamics is probably necessary to keep a leading position. This implies also that the birth of numerous labex in Ile de France do not compromise the numerous interactions between teams, which thus will be encouraged by the labex gouvernance.

State of the art and planned evolution in the Saclay area

Within Ile de France, the most important region for nano research in France, Saclay area represents about 45%, whereas Paris city counts for 40%: in terms of campus, Saclay is the most important concentration of researchers active in nano field on the french territory.

Saclay campus has thus major assets in this research field, which led the partners of the campus project to identify this domain as one of their ten priorities (Plan Campus, 2009), and a challenging role to play in the national strategy plan for research and innovation (SNRI).^8

Among the aforementioned initiatives, C'NANO Ile de France^4 and the RTRA “triangle de la physique”^5 already increased the level of interactions between local research teams (this does not mean that Nanosaclay partners are not active in ANR or European dedicated calls, as evidenced in other sections). Nevertheless, we are convinced that we can, with this labex, improve further the situation, with a better coordination between laboratories and teams and increase our competitiveness (interdisciplinarity, funding of emerging projects, innovation, formation,...).

The Saclay area, with its rich ensemble of world level academic and industrial research centres, can thus be seen as an ideal site to build a highly competitive Nanoscience and Nanotechnology Cluster, and this is the primary goal of this Nano-Saclay labex project. More than networking the currently active “Nano” teams, we target a lab-like organization for efficient transformation of the way multidisciplinary and industrial teams will work together. This will not substitute the other governance levels (as e.g. existing laboratories) which remain essential for a stimulating disciplinary environment, but will increase the coordination of these labs and teams with an expected leverage.

NanoINNOV initiative (Grenoble, Toulouse and Saclay)^10 to bridge the innovation gap will result in Saclay in the set-up of a new center, moving together in 2011 multidisciplinary teams (chemistry, physics, pharmacy, design) from CEA, Univ. Paris 11 (UP11) and CNRS in new buildings under construction near Ecole Polytechnique (X), Institut d’Optique (IOGS) and Thales RT. Most of these teams belong to the Nano-Saclay Consortium, with partners CEA-IRAMIS@NanoINNOV, PCPB (Paris11), and (in part) CEA-LIST (cf letter of support from French Président N. Sarkozy in annex 7.5). The other teams involved in this move belong to CEA-LIST and work on System Design, which will provide to Nano-Saclay partners more opportunities to enhance innovation.

A next major step will be the merge of partners IEF and LPN to found a major Nanoscience and Nanotechnology Centre (C2N) in the heart of the same area (cf Figure below). IEF and LPN are already 2 of the 6 members of the French National Network of Large Scale Nanotechnology Facilities, and this merge will create a lab with over 400 persons (including new teams on Bio and Chemistry), with a 3000m2 clean room open at National level with specific areas for training and industry. This clean room will be the largest academic one in France, and probably the largest in EU for Nano-related multidisciplinary academic research.

Ultimately, within the Plateau de Saclay initiative of the National Plan “Investissements d’Avenir”, most partners of this Nano-Saclay labex project that are not already in the Saclay/Orsay area are scheduled to move in Saclay within the next 10 years. This concerns partners ECP, ENS Cachan, with Pharmacy and Biology departments of Univ. Paris 11).

In terms of Nano-Saclay partnership distribution:

• 
  the group of partners Nano-INNOV-C2N that will share neighbouring new buildings represents a strong core of slightly over 40% of total personnel involved in the labex,
  
• 
  when including the very neighbour partners IOGS, UMR CNRS Thales, Thales RT, and Ecole Polytechnique (cf Figure) this core increases up to over 60% of the total Nano-Saclay personnel.
  
• 
  other partners are teams from nearby laboratories or organizations, that will open for the labex windows of privileged access to multidisciplinary expertises, as shown on the Figure below.
  

This promises a very efficient collaboration, if a dynamical governance is put together. The Labex structure is certainly excellently adapted to perform this task. It would make readily available to all partners the present and developing potential of the NanoINNOV-C2N initiative, generating a strong dynamics, overcoming the unavoidable uncertainties of the building agendas, and providing a first step towards the Saclay Nanoscience and Nanotechnology Cluster targeted.

Nano-Saclay flagship research domains, a logical choice

The scientific dynamics will be built around a limited number of multidisciplinary flagship research domains.

The choice of these flagship domains and related tools rely upon a critical analysis of our strengths and weaknesses, in the local, national and international contexts. We favoured the domains where the labex' partners excellence is established, which gather a sufficient critical mass and present a strong innovation potential. Bettering the integration of different disciplines teams and the use of existing facilities in material elaboration, technology, characterization and theory/simulation were additional important criteria. In each of these domains -charge and spin based nanoelectronics, nanomedecine and nanophotonics-, Saclay campus laboratories have international visibility and are collectively in the top three, in terms of publications, at the national level. Three flagship domains were thus defined:

1- Quantum and Spin-based nanoelectronics: at stake here is to understand and control charge and spin at the nano-scale, as both quantities will become more and more linked in tomorrow chips. First projects will study molecular and hybrid (oxides, semiconductors, metals) nano-objects and devices, with the objective to develop multifunctionality and low energy cost. The innovation field ranges from high sensitivity magnetic sensors (for transport, biomedical, reliability control) to breakthrough architectures for data storage and low power computing, such as neuro-inspired architectures, upstream of the information systems of the future.

Whereas it is difficult to perform a statistical bibliometric analysis of the overall nanoelectronics project, as it cannot be easily described by a keywords chain, we have performed such analysis with the single “spintronics” keyword, using the Web of Science tool. It reveals that the top 5 countries are USA (29% of items), China (17%), Germany (12%), Japan (11%), France (6%). Refining this study on the French contributions, we find that the top 5 affiliations are CNRS (27%), University Paris 11 (24%), University Paris 6 (11%), CNRS Thales (10%) and University Grenoble 1 (9%). Whereas the CNRS affiliation is not discriminant in terms of territory, these data clearly indicate the excellent position of south Ile de France at the national and international level. As additional proof, the teams involved in this flagship domain obtained 2 ERC Junior and 1 ERC Advanced in 2010, and gather 4 CNRS Silver medals (beyond Nobel Prize of Pr Albert Fert).

2- Nano-drugs for the treatment of severe diseases: At the starting point, the projects will take advantage of two novel and exciting nanomaterials (ie. nanoterpenes and nanoMOFs) to discover new and more efficient nanomedicines and nanotheranostics (ie. Nanodevices combining both treatment and imaging properties). Based on a multidisciplinary approach, including bioconjugate chemistry, physico-chemistry of supramolecular assemblies, drug delivery, cellular and molecular biology as well as experimental pharmacology, this proposal may led to improved treatments of severe diseases (cancer, infections), especially when they are resistant to current chemotherapy. In a more general way, it is expected that the research activities of this flagship will allow to translate research concepts into drug candidates for phase I clinical trials. This will be facilitated by the participation of partner PCPB to the forthcoming “Intitut Hospitalo-Universitaire du Foie” in Villejuif (Paul Brousse).

A swot analysis done by BIONEST for the" Leem-entreprises du médicament" (the french national organization of the pharmaceutical companies) has shown that the PCPB (ie. partner 7 of the Nanosaclay labex) was one of the three major academic players in the field of the nanomedicine, the two others being the LETI in Grenoble and the LAAS in Toulouse. The same study has pointed Bioalliance and Medsqual as companies using nanotechnologies for drug delivery purposes. These start-ups were set up on the basis of nanotechnologies conceived and developped by PCPB. As additional proof, the teams involved in this Flagship domain obtained 1 ERC Advanced and 1 ERC Junior in resp. 2010 and 2008.

3- Nanophotonics, Nano-objects for energy control: at stake here is to understand and control the interaction between light and matter (electroncs, phonos) at the nano-scale. First projects will associate chemists, material scientists and physicists to explore new interaction regimes on original structures, with the objective to absorb and emit light in an optimal way. Innovation will be developed on several aspects such as nanophotonics for telecommunications and on chip optical interconnections, or sustainable energy.

The NanoSaclay labex gathers an exceptional concentration of key players in the field of nanophotonics, as shown by two indicators : i) The 55 researchers involved in the nanophotonics project have authored more than 76 papers quoted more than 100 times, ii) Since 2006, they have contributed to 21 papers in Science and the Nature publishing group. Along with this contribution to cutting edge fundamental research, the activity of the groups has generated several applications resulting in the creation of companies (3 are operating and 3 companies are in the process of being created next year). Building on this recognized strength and the background diversity of the project members (semiconductors, chemistry, near-field optics, quantum optics, electrical engineering), the NanoSaclay excellence lab will support projects aiming at key challenges with particular emphasis on a multidisciplinary approach. An original aspect of the  Nano-Saclay project in the french landscape will be i) to promote the convergence between nanochemistry and nanofabrication in order to develop new tools for manipulating nano-objects at the nanoscale and ii) to encourage emerging projects in nanobioscience.

Nano-Saclay organisation and tools: mastering evolution

Specific research projects are then then proposed in each domain, also selected against similar legitimacy analysis. These projects are detailed in part 5.2.1 below.

If the flagship domains are expected to remain mostly stable during the 10 years life of the labex, the projects and innovation strategies are clearly on a shorter term. Along this idea:

• 
  projects will be defined on a 2+2 years time scale, with careful evaluation and possibly drastic reorientation at mid term. For maximal impact of the funding, projects will only involve a limited number of partners. We estimate at about 150 to 200 the optimal number of permanent researchers that should be involved in projects at a given time.
  
• 
  a privileged way of driving the scientific dynamics of the labex will happen through the support of emerging projects: highly original projects are often ill adapted to ANR and EU Calls, but quick initial support to obtain preliminary results can readily change this initial weakness in a major strength. This will also be an efficient tool to engineer multidisciplinarity within the labex. Hence a Call for emerging projects will be launched, on a one year or 6 months time basis. This call will be open to the participation of 2^nd circle teams, in particular for multidisciplinary support, hence participating also to the pull effect expected from a labex.
  
• 
  innovation will have its own tools and agenda on a shorter time basis, the speed from proof of concept to innovation being a critical issue for economic success. Of course, these tools will be open to participation of companies.
  

A key asset for the excellence of future evolution of the Nano-Saclay cluster is the wealth of scientific and technological expertise within the partners. This cannot be referenced in terms of domains or projects: nanotechnology, instrumentation, materials, theory and simulations, are basic to all. So a major action will be the creation of a “transverse axis” with the charge to inventory, organize and enhance the array of competences available through the 1rst circle of the labex, for optimal association to projects.

The resulting overall scientific organization of the labex is described in the Figure besides, together with its main interfaces to external world.

The governance of this organization, and the tools to be used to impulse and control the evolution of the labex, will be detailed in the next parts 5.2.1 to 6, starting by the description of the initial projects. These tools were conceived to contribute to essential aspects in the field of nano: training, easier access to platforms and facilities as well as dialog with society. Others are less specific to this domain, such as the funding of emerging projects on short term scale or the bridging of the innovation gap.