Acronyme du projet/ Acronym of the project

5.2.2Valorisation, transfert et expertise/ Exploitation of results, transfer and expertise

Scientific Communication on the LABEX projects

The coordinating partner, e.i. the Scientific Cooperation Foundation (FCS)²⁹ will act in support of the Labex and will provide its communication tools, developed for its website:

1. 
   Hosting web pages created specifically to each Labex project on the www.campus-paris-saclay.fr website. These will present the Labex (objectives, members, etc.) its publications, salient features, agendas of organised events, while also providing information about the proposed curricula and the competences to which they lead. Particular attention will be devoted to the disclosure of research results to the media and general public.
   
2. 
   Supporting the organisation of national and international events ("open house days", colloquia, etc.). When appropriate, events common to several Labex projects will be organised by the FCS.
   
3. 
   Providing an entry point for press relations (calls to journalists, assistance with the preparation of press kits and press bulletins, guided tours, etc.) through the Foundation.
   
4. 
   Creating communication tools such as descriptive leaflets.
   

These actions will be implemented in connection with the communication officers of each of the concerned institutions, in order to optimise their synergies.

Methods planned to protect result exploitation.

The participation of an industrial partner to this Labex project requires that partners will have to be settled up in a mandatory Consortium Agreement. This Consortium Agreement will be signed in the first year of the project. Nevertheless, the anticipated activities of the Labex will be based on a predefined set of rules. Particularly when a new common project is initiated, conditions for granting intellectual property and exploitation rights will be governed by the following principles:

• 
  All parties will preserve their property of the "prior knowledge" (information, technical data, whether patented or not, etc.) it has accumulated, prior to the project or independently from the work being carried out on the project, usually named as background and sideground.
  
• 
  The results obtained and produced by a single party within the project (own results) will remain this party's property.
  
• 
  The results obtained and produced jointly by several parties within the project (common results) will be the common property of said parties. They will be subject to co-ownership rules specifying the division of property, and its exploitation. Any exploitation by any of the co-owner parties will be subject to payment of license fees to the other co-owner parties.
  
• 
  If, in order to exploit its own results, one party needs access to the own results of another party, the latter will grant said former party a non-exclusive license subject to provisions which must be agreed upon between the involved parties.
  
• 
  If, in order to exploit its own results, one party needs access to background or sidegroud owned by another party, the latter will, subject to its previous commitments, grant said former party a non-exclusive license, subject to provisions which must be agreed upon between the involved parties.
  

Over 350 patents have been yet filed by scientists of the NanoSaclay consortium. In parallel, they have already contributed to the creation of more than 10 startup companies. These numbers demonstrate the high attention given to Intellectual Property valorisation by the Labex partners.

However, as a result of our multidisciplinary approach, ways of exploiting results vary drastically from a discipline to another. As a matter of fact, applications of nanomedicines (with long and costly clinical tests required before any commercial product) strongly differ from optical component development (with short delays to go from proof of concept to commercial product). Handling of publications is also drastically different in the two cases. Case of Nanoelectronics is also somewhat special: for instance sensors could find rapid commercialization through SMEs in a way very similar to optical devices, while new computational circuits require a much longer maturation before transformation to product due to the needed access to heavy production capacities. However, in this domain also fast transfer to SMEs or startups is sometimes possible through, for instance, commercialization of “core IP” of embedded architectures.

Hence we propose to synthesize this variety into two main “transfer management” approaches, adapted for the two extreme upper-mentioned cases of NanoDrugs and Nanophotonics, being understood that mechanisms will in any case be opened.

NanoDrugs

- Scientific communications

As usually, dissemination of the results will be done through publications in the best journals and by communications of the young scientists themselves at international meetings. All the partners of the NanoDrug flagship have already demonstrated their ability to publish in the more prestigious journals (Science, Nature Materials, Angewandte Chemie, PNAS etc.)

- Valorization

Looking for the concrete case of the NanoDrug flagship, technologies based on squalenisation/terpenoylation and metal organic frameworks for nanoparticle construction as well as their application in the biomedical field will be patented when the inventive level will be sufficient and if industrial applications are worth. Noteworthy, the partners of the NanoDrug flagship are accustomed to valorize their discoveries by providing intellectual property, as demonstrated by the patents they have already obtained concerning: squalene nanoparticles³⁰; nano MOFs³¹; or methodologies which will be used in the flagship³².

Patents resulting from the partner’s NanoDrug flagship will be licensed to pharmaceutical or biotech companies. The creation of start-up will be encouraged as already done by partner 7 in the past with BIOALLIANCE (65 employees, entering the stock market in 2005) and MEDSQUAL. Partner 4 has also a strong expertise in transfer to industry and has already created three startups (Alchimer and Alchimedics in 2001, PegasTech in 2009), all developing surface functionalization processes.

It is also expected that new and more efficient nanomedicines will be discovered and proposed as clinical candidates for the treatment of severe diseases (cancer and intracellular infections). Overcoming the resistance towards the currently available treatments using nanoformulations is another important expected result of the research program. The economical value is illustrated from the important interest of SANOFI-AVENTIS for the squalenisation technology. This company wishes to apply this platform to proprietary molecules.

NanoPhotonics

The major scientific stakes addressed by the Labex concern the fundamental opto-electronic properties of nanostructures and nanomaterials. This will favor scientific advances and thus naturally feed technological innovation. The actual position of the Labex at the front-end of the state-of-the-art already allows proposing breakthroughs in the applied fields of light detection (including solar photovoltaics) and biosensing.

The capitalization strategy is to "use" Ph.D. students as the main players in the projects and vectors for transfer to SMEs, or by the creation of a start-up. Recent experiences within Labex labs proved the advantages of this approach. From the point of view of the laboratories, the main advantage is the overall feedback: by maintaining this strong link, PhDs are associated with the capitalization and can then identify new directions for research from the initial feedback from users.

- Scientific communications

A key element of the capitalization strategy is the publication of the results in harmony with patenting constraints, i.e. a special care will be taken for the timing. As to the best dissemination, nanophotonics researchers are regular authors of prestigious journals (Nature Materials or Nature Photonics, NanoLetters, Physical Review Letters, etc) and are used to international communications.

- Capitalization

For the next few years, several research fields have been identified as sources of innovation, and have already generated patent applications in Labex labs. Among them: photovoltaics (design of high performance, low cost solar cells with EDF, Total, Saint-Gobain); imagery and spectrometry (cost- and performance-effective solutions with SAGEM, THALES, SOFRADIR); biosensing (reduction of the interaction volume between light and bio-chemical solutions,with GeneWave, GenOptics)…

General valorisation Activities

The mission of NanoSaclay is to answer challenging questions in nanosciences and nanotechnologies. To reach these ambitious scientific goals, NanoSaclay partners develop state-of-the-art instrumentation for imagery, metrology, diagnostic, control/command, new technological processes, circuit architecture, heterogeneous integration ... These innovative set-ups and initiatives are precious by-products also applicable to other academic or industrial fields, often realized in a short delay. So, NanoSaclay will concentrate a large part of its efforts onto these innovating set-ups and technology developments. The experience of partners is high, particularly in photonics, spintronics and nanomedicine. The goal of NanoSaclay is to create a “project factory” axis, encouraging the creation of responsive transverse project teams, to develop set-ups and concepts in a short delay. This axis will associate all the competences available in the Labex in terms of research, education and innovation, to amplify this societal wealth. It will benefit of the experience on innovation management of each partner, in particular CNRS, CEA, Onera, Univ. Paris-Sud 11, Ecole Polytechnique.

During the last three years, a global reflection has been initiated in the Triangle de la Physique, boosted by the emergence of a significant number of start-up companies (as Fastlite, Phasics, Leosphere, Genewave…). So, it has been decided to capitalise on this and thus to focus the efforts of NanoSaclay on the following process in order to promote the emergence of such start-up companies: (i) organisation of two calls for proposals per year opened to all the members of the Labex; (ii) selection of one project per call, with, if needed, identification of additional partners or improvements, (iii) systematic proposal to the project leader for the help of FIE³³ or other similar body³⁴ to give him/her all the additional competences required for IP, business models, …

The required output of the project will be: a prototype, a market study and a plan to transfer either to a spin-off or to the industry via tool as the IRT SystemX or others tools, such as IEED, SATT…

Project teams are constituted right from the start by all the competences required: theorists, experimentalists, specialists of innovation… and will benefit from the technological and experimental means of the labs.

This “project factory” will be managed by a bureau dedicated to valorisation and comprised of two colleges, one of specialists in innovation and one of scientists with experience in innovation with at least one member of each institution in each college. This bureau will benefit from advices of “scientific angels"³⁵ and from the help of national centres for innovation (CFI, …).

To ensure the efficiency of the process and based on successful transfer experiences, Labex NanoSaclay defines the following criteria of performances: patents and papers; licences; prizes and grants from institutional agencies; transfers to IRT, SATT and IEED; creation of academic/industry consortia; spin-offs creation; jobs creation.

At the end of each project, the leader will be interviewed by the bureau in order to capitalize on her/his experience, and ensure a feedback on the innovation process, and adapt criteria if needed.

A support from the Centre Francilien d'Innovation has been confirmed and we will benefit from their experience and professional networks as well as the possibility to attract additional fundings to support the valorisation actions.
Nanosafety

An important condition to promote transfers from nanotechnology research to industry and develop industrial applications is to guarantee the total security against toxic (nano)materials/particles at the workplaces where they are produced and manipulated. This is the goal of the NanoSafety project launched in 2009 by the NanoInnov steering committee following French Government recommendations.

The project is organized in three main tasks:

1. 
   Characterization of workplaces in the three NanoInnov sites.³⁶ Measurements and first analyses of risks are performed by technical teams constituted for this purpose. Detailed risks analysis are performed by experts from INERISⁱ.
   
2. 
   Protection of persons against nanoparticles/materials in all the workplaces where risks have been detected using appropriate protection equipments or environments.
   
3. 
   Implementation of a certification process for workers exposed to nanoparticles/materials. This process is developed by INERIS in a frame of voluntary certification according to the European Nano-CERT certification plan.
   

The different tasks are coordinated by a committee including representatives of three organisms (INERIS³⁷, CEA and INSTN³⁸) and three referent researchers or engineers, one in each NanoInnov Integration Center. One of us is the referent engineer for Paris-Saclay.

Many actions have been undertaken as constitution of a Certification Committee based on anlaysis of 100 workplaces, a website (NanoSmile) and propositions of training. This is detailed in a report³⁹ provided to ANR.

The Labex NanoSaclay will actively participate to this NanoSafety program. Several NanoSaclay members from different institutions, especially in charge of the implementation of security and protection rules (e.g., CNRS ACMOs), have already contributed to the first steps of this program. The characterization of workplaces undertaken with the Nanosafety program will be progressively extended to all experimental installations in the NanoSaclay area, where potential risks exist. A part of the NanoSaclay budget will be allocated to acquiring appropriate protection equipments, when this will appear necessary. NanoSaclay will also encourage researchers, engineers and technicians to engage themselves in the process of voluntary certification.

5.2.3Enseignement supérieur, Insertion / Higher education, Integration into the workplace

Academic programs

The Saclay area already benefits from a wide range of training and outreach possibilities. Education is organized within university and graduate schools with a strong involvement of the partners, in strong connection with the laboratories of these establishments and those of CEA and CNRS. This includes various research projects and internships conducted throughout the whole curriculum from L3 to M2 levels.The technological facilities dedicated to Nanosciences in the labs of Saclay area are exceptional research tools. These platforms will be also available for the practical training of the students from the labex establishments and also of other students who wish to acquire the grounding skills in this field. All students will have access to state-of-the-art technological platforms (material growth, lithography, etching…) and characterization tools (X rays, AFM, TEM, SEM…). In addition to initial training of students, continued training will be organized too, which will be an essential mission for the labex. It should be mentioned that in the future C2N, 200m² of clean rooms will be dedicated to training activities. Currently, 500 students follow a 1 to 10 day training programme in the clean room of IEF each year. More than 180 students have the opportunity to manipulate AFM and STM microscopes in the very new platform of near-field microscopy located in P11. To maintain the equipments in these two specific platforms at the state-of-the-art, the French government (through GIP CNFM, National Center for Training in Microelectronics and Nanotechnology) invests from 100 to 230 k€/ year dedicated for education purpose (e.g. purchase of three AFM microscopes this year, in response to NanoInnov call for proposals, including one dedicated to imaging of biological species in liquid phase). In the clean room of IEF, one engineer is in charge of all practical organization of training activities. Some professors involved in the research field of nanofabrication are frequently willing to teach other colleagues who have to teach students themselves. Each year, innovative training programmes are developed and proposed to the different tracks.

In the University P11, the education in the field of Nanosciences starts at L3 level with a specific professional licence at Orsay IUT (Licence; Couches Minces et Applications) and in the sciences faculty.

At the master level or graduate school curriculums several tracks are proposed in the field of nanosciences and nanotechnologies:

- at the master level, the Erasmus Mundus Master "nano- and bio-photonics for telecommunications and biotechnologies" (Monabiophot), proposed by ENS of Cachan, offers an original qualification in the highly innovative domain of molecular photonics for telecommunications and biology.

A strong benefit can be drawn from the relations with the speciality "Biotechnologie pharmaceutique et thérapies innovantes" of the master "médicaments et autres produits de santé" (Univ. Paris Sud 11).

- at the first year of master level Univ. Paris Sud 11, Ecole Polytechnique, Institut d’Optique Graduate School (IOGS) and ENS of Cachan also built together a new MS1 level of Physics (taught in English) called “Physics for Optics and Nanosciences”. This new track selects very good foreigner students for M2 highly nanosciences-oriented.

- at the second year of master level, two major specialities are proposed: “Quantum Devices, Material Science and Nano-Objects" (SMNO) (Univ Paris 6, ENS Ulm, ENS Cachan, Ecole Poytechnique, ENSCP, ESCPI), and in particular the speciality “Nanosciences” (Paris Sud 11, IOGS, ENS Cachan, Ecole Polytechnique, Ecole Centrale Paris, Supelec, Univ. Versailles Saint-Quentin).

This very new Master-2 “Nanoscience” specialisation (started in last September) is co-accredited by seven prominent scientific establishments, with strong overlap with the Labex Nano partners.

More than 100 researchers from 28 laboratories of these establishments teach in this M2.

The aim of this master and its curriculum have been defined between all partners. They rely on four cornerstones:

• 
  Nanophysics: the study of the phenomena and concepts induced by the extreme smallness of size structures, including fundamental physics and nanoscientific methodologies.
  
• 
  Nanodevices and nanotechnologies: study of Nanosciences through their applications. Conceptual and technological approaches in engineering sciences and also in Biosciences and Biotechnologies.
  
• 
  Nanochemistry: The purpose is to address the problems associated with the synthesis, characterisation and use of functional molecules and nanostructures.
  
• 
  International track in Nanosciences: courses given in English.
  

This year, only 15% of the applicants were accepted in this M2. 54 students started the training in September. Nearly 200 internship offers have been received.

Really, the creation of this new M2 strongly contributes to the structuring of education of Nanosciences in the Saclay area.

- at the graduate school curriculums, several tracks are available: "condensed matter and soft matter" at the Ecole Polytechnique, "micro and nano optics" at IOGS, "micro and nanoelectronic" at Supelec, "Physics and Applications" at Ecole Centrale de Paris in which the field of nanoscience and nanotechnology is strongly present.

The PhD students current working in the research groups of the Labex are mainly registered in 9 Doctoral Schools: Sciences et Technologies de l'Information des Télécommunications et des Systèmes (Univ. Paris Sud, SUPELEC), Physique de la Région Parisienne (Univ. Paris Sud), Ondes et matières ED288 EDOM (Univ. Paris Sud), Sciences et Technologies de Versailles (Univ. Versailles Saint Quentin), Science Pratique (ENS Cachan), Sciences pour l'Ingénieur (Centrale), Ecole Polytechnique ED447 (Polytechnique, ENSTA), Ecole doctorale Chimie de Paris-Sud (ED470) (Univ. Paris Sud), Innovation thérapeutique : du fondamental à l'appliqué (Univ. Paris Sud).

Proposition of a number of developments and innovations

A strategic goal of the Labex Nano Saclay is to increase the visibility of the nanosciences and nanotechnologies promoting a multidisciplinary approach within different scientific areas: Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Pharmacy. To this end, the members of Nano Saclay have a strong commitment to support the master and engineer levels and will naturally participate in the development of this education programme. Despite all efforts the corresponding tools can still be considered as internationally less attractive than compared offers from foreign Universities. In particular, a special effort should be done to start sooner the training of students inside the laboratories, as happens for instance in USA or UK.

We make here a number of proposals that will be benchmarked and adapted annually.

The Excellence Internship Grant Program

The expected result of this program is two-fold : i) we aim at increasing the collaboration at the international level at the undergrad level ii) we aim at increasing the attractiveness of the PhD program in nanoscience.

To this aim, the NanoSaclay labex makes a strong commitment to support the training program at the master level. Besides its strong involvement in the experimental and theoretical training program at undergraduate and graduate levels, the labex will develop an innovative M2 Excellence Internship Grant Program. Ten grants of an amount of 5 k€ will be given to students who are willing to perform a 5 months internship in a laboratory chosen within a cluster of external partners. Participation to this program will be open to students enrolling in a PhD program within the labex.

The different establishments involved in the Nanolabex develop several exchange programs and individual members of the labex have already organized students exchanges or professor exchanges (participation to summer schools) at the graduate level with European and American partners. These include ETH Zurich, Munchen CENs, Karlsruhe, Stanford. These grants will increase the way to attract the best students in M2 supported by the labex NAno.

The research professional training

The Master and PhD program is traditionally focused on the academic training. Yet, research requires a combination of skills that go beyond the pure academic training. The labex will operate a short program offered to PhD students working in the labs affiliated to the Labex Nano-Saclay. The program will cover several professional skills including:

- Scientific writing

- Oral presentation

- Proposal writing

- Intellectual property, introduction to patent writing.

Student chapter and innovative pedagogical project

A Nanoscience student chapter will be created, inspired from student chapter organization in international societies. IOGS and Ecole Polytechnique have recently founded OSA and SPIE student chapters that they operate in partnership. The nanosciences student chapter is aimed to create collaborative scientific activities between students from partner laboratories (Labex) as well as national and international collaborations with other students from selected institutes. Grants will give chapter access to more timely resources for student travel and exchange programs as well as for organizing events with a student focus. They will also facilitate student professional development opportunities. It is expected Master level students to be associated to the chapter, thus improving attractiveness of PhD curriculum in the partner laboratories. In the course of the PhD, student mobility within the network is strongly encouraged. Grants may also support student internships in foreign laboratories provided the students are willing to join a PhD curriculum in partner laboratories. Student activities may also include:

• 
  Organizing focussed lectures either by renown invited scientists or student-lecture series
  
• 
  Organize collaborative work and exchanges with students in partners institutes
  
• 
  Develop contacts with the economic and industrial sectors, including search for professional opportunities
  
• 
  Promote nanosciences and PhD curriculum to undergraduate students and pre-university students; supplement science education to the benefit of scholars.
  

The annual grant will be typically 2,5 k€. To have a significant impact, an overall annual funding up to 50 k€ is suited.

In order to prepare and to attract good students in these research labs it is important to surround them with modern equipments through top level experimentation. These Practical Works can take place in the laboratories of the labex nano Saclay by using the same high-tech equipment as at the international level of the research groups of the Labex. We thus propose to fund each year new Practical Laboratory works or projects with a high level of pedagogical innovation, which could be co-funded by the "Pôle Ile de France sud" of the GIP CNFM (Coordination Nationale de la formation en microélectronique et en nanotechnologies) or by the local PRES ((Pôle de Recherche et d’Enseignement Supérieur).

The annual funding will be typically 100k€.

International action :

Recently, all the Nano Saclay partners have been involved in a new major international programmes with the creation of the University of Sciences and Technology in Hanoï (USTH) and the export of French courses and diplomas. A "Materials Science and Nanotechnology" master with five specialities (Nanophysics, Nanochemistry) is slated to begin.

This constructive bilateral exchange between France and Vietnam was created. It is a strong benefit not only for the students, who manage to do all or part of their studies between the two countries, but also for the lecturer-researchers whose scientific collaborations are thereby enriched.

Doctoral Schools:

The creation of the Labex Nano Saclay will also be the opportunity to reflect on the evolution of Doctoral Schools in the field of nanosciences and nanotechnologies: sharing of courses (the opening up of all the classes offered by the different partners to all of the students) mutualisation in particular in the cases of the dual education classes (alternate) and languages. Other areas would include the creation of a new Doctoral School with perimeters which correspond to nanosciences and nanotechnologies.

Industrial visibility and links with the specific “plan campus” development tools

Nanoscience and nanotechnology are areas where start ups can be created by young entrepreneurs. In order to promote economic development in the nanoscience ecosystem in the Saclay area, we will organize a strong interaction with students at neighbouring engineering schools and universities.

In order to promote economic development in the Saclay area, the labex Nano Saclay will induce a strong interaction with the “Pôle de l’entrepreneuriat étudiant-Paris Saclay” which has been created to encourage and enhance innovation, with real support for students and researchers. This project is issued from very successful training programs previously developed by Ecole Centrale Paris, Institut d’Optique Graduate School and also Supelec. The frame of mind required to guarantee the continuum and the scaling up of the project (using the experiences already in place in the different establishments) needs to have a solid framework which is accepted by all of the partners. The framework proposed for this project is based on five modules, the titles of which are taken from enterprise games and often used by company directors to demonstrate the notion of pleasure necessary in entrepreneurship and the setting up of companies. Namely: the desire to play, the players point of view, the rules of the game, the game for real and in action and over to you.

The IRT, SATT and Carnot will partially contribute to the training courses, in association with the Higher Educational Institutions that deliver corresponding degrees, by offering specific contents and innovative tools directly aimed at students and at professionals in the form of additional courses and training throughout professional life.

The pooling of materials and human resources between different institutions involved in joint training courses (for example, with the help of the IRT SystemX) will be a decisive factor for both the visibility and consistency of the proposed courses, with a positive and synergistic mixing of students from these institutions.

Indeed, the future IRT SystemX will provide very useful tools such as:

• 
  an international observatory for jobs, training and student mobility;
  
• 
  a prototype laboratory for the development of emblematic training courses;
  
• 
  a dedicated space for cutting-edge student-company projects on “systems” issues.
  

As mentioned above, this last tool will be a particularly good opportunity for both academia and industry to work together on joint projects that will be multi-disciplinary, multi-level and multi-lecturer.

An Education Board will be in charge of developing and coordinating the Nano-Saclay effort on training, dissemination and social outreach. This committee will be represented by its head into the global Coordination Board of the project. It will comprise necessarily:

• 
  representative of the major Universities and Schools involved in the labex,
  
• 
  elected representatives from the students (M2, PhD)
  
• 
  representatives from the economical world. At this day, Olivier Acher, Scientific Director at Horiba Jobin-Yvon, and Bruno Foucher, EADS Innovation Works R&D Centre, have accepted to participate.
  
• 
  Given the importance of the Master-2 “Nanoscience” for the project, the head of this Master will be part of the Training Committee of the Nano-Saclay project irrespective of her or his scientific partnership to one or another Labex of the Sacaly area. At the moment, the position is held by Pr Elisabeth Dufour-Gergam, a specialist of MEMS related to the LaSI(p)S labex project.
  

5.2.4Gouvernance du Labex/ Governance

The Nano-Saclay labex is willing to take an active part in the development of the Campus Paris Saclay Idex, under the coordination of the FCS⁴⁰ providing the global governance.

Organisation of Governance for the Labex

The members of the core group that managed this proposal cumulate a wide experience of governing bodies at laboratory direction level and in steering committees of network-like bodies such as the local RTRA « Triangle de la Physique » and the Ile-de-France Nanosciences Network « C’Nano IdF ». Some of us also participate to scientific and steering committees of EU networks.

The governance we propose for the Nano-Saclay project is inspired by this expertise, keeping in mind two major objectives:

• 
  Obj. 1: create an efficient Nanosciences and Nanotechnology Cluster based on a major transformation of the area, with co-localization in new buildings of CEA, CNRS and Paris 11 teams in close connection with Polytechnique, IOGS, Thales as explained in part 5.1 above, and with scheduled arrival of ECP, ENS Cachan, and the Pharmacy/biology departments of Univ. Paris 11 on the plateau. The labex governance has to provide an efficient inter-organization tool to define the future strategy of this Saclay Cluster for nanosciences and nanotechnologies.
  
• 
  Obj. 2: achieve the specific targets of the labex Call such as nurturing excellence, developing international attractivity, and pull effect on the scientific and industrial environment. This makes mandatory the objective to open the Cluster to, and aggregate efficiently, other Nanosciences teams, through a governance including mechanisms beyond criticism to select and nurture excellence. In particular it is essential to create procedures complying with high standards of quality.
  

The governing organization we propose is based on the labex structure presented in part 5.1, with three flagship thematic domains, a transverse competence axis and different boards to manage higher education, innovation, dissemination, etc…. It comprises three main bodies:

1/ A Coordinator and Deputy Coordinator to run the Labex on a day-to-day basis, and to represent the project with external institutions. They are nominated for 4 years by the Steering Committee following a proposal made by the institutions listed in the table given on page 2-3 and table 3.1.

2/ A "Steering Committee", which will make decisions as to the actions to be carried out and coordinate with its partners. It comprises representatives of each of the institutions listed in the table provided on page 2-3 and table 3.1, together with a representative of the FCS, hence 14 members. The respective voting weight of the institutions should reflect their respective involvement in the labex, in particular in terms of permanent staff as well as direct and infrastructure funding. Each institution will designate its own representative for the committee. We anticipate about 4 meetings every year on average. The Coordinator and Deputy Coordinator report to the Steering Committee.

3/ A "Scientific Committee" involved in decisions pertaining to funding and to proposing research orientations. Members of this committee would be nominated following a proposal made by the "Steering Committee". It will be exclusively composed of scientists external to the network, with at least half foreign members. Given the multidisciplinary nature and objectives of the projects, special care will be taken to ensure a wide coverage of competences. We expect a very active role of this Committee, and in particular the President of the Scientific Committee will play a strong role through a direct link with the coordinator. This committee will count at least 10 scientists.

The size, partnership complexity and disciplinary range of the labex require an intermediate body to assist the management. A Coordination Board will be created comprising representatives of the various axes of the labex: the three flagship domains, different expertises in the transverse axis (namely: materials/nanotechnologies, nanocharacterization, theory/simulation), innovation (including coordination with the IRT⁴¹ SystemX), higher education and outreach (attractivity, society and communication). It will also ensure, as much as possible, a fair representation of the partners. This Board is nominated by the Steering Committee on proposition of the Coordinator.

The Coordination Board ensures a tight bidirectional link between the scientific and technical community and the main bodies. It meets on a monthly basis to monitor the advancement and organise the life of the project, and in particular prepare the reports and the meetings of the two Committees.

The table below lists the main type of projects with average characteristics and procedures:

	Timing/ Length	Funding by project	Call and selection procedure
Emerging projects	6/12m	≈50 k€	Originality and speed are important. 6-monthly calls/ 2 external referees nominated by the Coordination Board with at least one from the Scientific Committee / Final decision by the Steering Committee
Innovation projects	6/12m or PhD	≈100 k€	Speed and confidentiality are critical. 6-monthly calls/ Expertise by an Innovation Board comprising specialists (IRT SystemX, Innovation supporting bodies of establishments, etc.)/ Final decision by the Steering Committee
Flagship proj. (new project after 4 years)	2+2 yrs	≈200k€/yr	Highest scientific quality is targeted. 2-yearly calls/ Audition by the Scientific Committee every year/ Report of Scientific Committee/ Final decision by the Steering Committee
Flagship (review)	Every other 2 yrs		Highest scientific quality is targeted. Audition by the Scientific Committee and Steering Committee together/ Report of Scientific Committee/ Final decision by the Steering Committee
Chairs	4 yrs	600 k€	Highest scientific quality is targeted. Exact subject discussed with Scientific Committee/ International Call/ Audition of candidates by the Scientific Committee and Steering Committee together/ Report of Scientific Committee/ Final decision by the Steering Committee
Communication Projects		5-20 k€	Animation and attractivity are looked for. Proposed by the Coordination, no deadline / Decision by the Steering Committee
Education projects	Every year	10-100 k€	Efficiency for education is looked for / Proposed by the coordination after discussions by the education board / Final decision by the Steering Committee

The yearly schedule will then be driven by basic requirements such as the requirement to give decisions no later than early Spring for attracting the best Master or PhD students, or recruiting chairs that will have to participate to higher education and hire post-docs and students.

So a typical year of the labex will be scheduled as follows:

Nov.	Deadline for Flagship, Chairs, Emerging, Innovation proposals.
Dec./ Jan.	Flagships & Chairs proposals sent to Scientific Committee Emerging projects sent to experts Meeting of Innovation Board for relevant projects.
Jan.	Audition of Flagship projects and Labex advancement review by the joint Scientific and Steering Committees. Separate meeting of the Scientific Committee, issuing a report.
Feb.	Meeting of the Steering Committee for final decision on all projects
March.	Deadline for Emerging, Innovation proposals. Applications for Education grants.
Apr.	Meeting of Innovation Board for relevant projects.
May.	Meeting of the Steering Committee for final decision on all projects
June	Meeting of the Steering Committee for decisions on organization (call rules, calendars, etc.)

In preparation of the yearly review with the Scientific and Steering Committees, the Coordination will monitor a set of quality indicators, with clear objectives of growth compared to today:

Monitoring	Indicators	Objectives
		@4 yrs	@10yrs
Science	number of publications rise in average impact factor ( ) invited talks at major international conferences number of contracts (ANR, EU, …): funding	+2% +5% +5% +10%	+5% +10% +10% +30%
Multi-disciplinarity	number of papers signed by partners of different disciplines	+10%	+50%
Innovation	number of patents filed/granted/licensed, amount of industrial funding secured (direct funding) start-ups creation (number)	+5% +50% 2	+20% x4 10
Higher education	number of students enrolled in a PhD number of PhD defended	+5% +5%	+20% +20%
Attractivity	number of applications to the Master program in Nanoscience number of applications to excellence internship grant for foreign students.	+10% 50	+50% 50
Pull effect	participation of external teams too calls of the labex number of contracts involving companies	+5% +10%	+20% +50%

Organisation of governance on the campus

The campus will be coordinated through the Scientific Cooperation Foundation⁴², the new statutes of which provide for:

• 
  A governance system, which must be centred, on one hand, on a general assembly in charge of bringing together the founding institutions, staff representatives, and various qualified personalities and, on the other hand, on the Administrative Board, itself comprised of a dozen members who will closely and efficiently scrutinise the system. Furthermore, the foundation will obtain support from a Committee for the Scientific and Innovation Strategy.
  
• 
  Departments. The foundation will create between five and ten Departments specialising in major domains (societal implications, disciplines) in which it wishes to become a major driving force of transformation. The departments will be designed as structures providing guidance and coordination and will “host" different projects, including LABEX projects.
  

The inter-department coordination will be provided by a Board of Department Directors, which will be the place where transverse coordination will occur in order to inspire new synergies and provide dynamics for excellence.

The foundation's role as regards the LABEX projects includes:

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  The management of subsidies distributed to the LABEX members, once a project has been accepted by the LABEX Scientific Committee. As regards human resources, the Foundation may recruit people directly when a high speed of response is required. The Foundation, which manages an annual budget of the order of 8 M€ (see section 4.1.1), is accustomed to this type of practice.
  
• 
  Monitoring and management control of the LABEX project. Indicators and objectives set out by the LABEX need to be monitored, and corrective actions should be prompted by the "Steering Committee",
  
• 
  Providing support for specific subjects, in particular as regards to communication, to define an overall image of the campus,
  
• 
  Ensuring optimal integration of the LABEX project within the campus, links with the other LABEX projects, other planned means, such as the "Society for the Acceleration of Technological Transfers", or good practice exchanges,
  

The initiative for excellence

This new project is part of the Initiative for Excellence project of the Paris-Saclay campus, which will comprise three components, all linked to the present LABEX project.

A collective coordination: Its goal is to foster, through the intermingling of different scientific communities, the emergence of imaginative ideas, to promote new and transdisciplinary collaborations, to reinforce the site's capacity to exploit and convey new knowledge, and to link upstream with downstream work. This action will be "multiscale". It will involve:

• 
  The departmental level, with vast communities (sometimes a thousand researchers or teaching researchers), involved in programmes that are a link with society-related challenges or with large communities working in different disciplines,
  
• 
  Some sites of the campus, which will organise certain activities (for example the sites of Le Moulon or Palaiseau),
  
• 
  The LABEX projects. These appear to have the right scale for the interfacing of various communities with the campus, as an entry point into the knowledge generated here, and also into ongoing reflections, on one hand, and as a knowledge disseminator, on the other hand. The present LABEX already interacts with the LABEX projects PALM, 6S, LaSIPS, DIGITEX, as part of this collective coordination (see below)
  

Transverse projects. The campus participants would like to act in such a way as to generalise project operation, with flexible, collective and often time-restricted projects. These include scientific projects: funding of emerging ideas, teaching projects related to the dissemination of new knowledge, technological maturation projects. These projects will be assessed according to procedures of the same kind as those used for the LABEX projects (independent experts, separate scientific and management decisions). In this respect, the LABEX may be considered as "pre-funded project package" pertaining to subjects in which the campus participants have decided to invest.

Pooled tools

Certain activities may not be described in the form of projects, because they are recurring in nature. They should be organised in a professional and permanent manner, because they are an essential part of transverse projects. Among these structures, the Initiative of Excellence project includes:

• 
  LABEX support "cells" on issues such as: training (general aspects), international relations, equal opportunities, etc.
  
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  Other “instruments" of general interest related to the French Large Public Loan⁴³ (although not limited to this topic). This concerns in particular the EQUIPEX projects, which are pooled platforms. Special mention should be made of innovation, which is organized at the campus scale: the project for an Institute of Technological Research (IRT⁴⁴) will be the ideal place for the campus to interface with industry. Also, the SATT⁴⁵ project will be responsible for actions relating to the maturation of new technologies. One of the roles of the aforementioned scientific collective coordination will be to create a link between the LABEX projects and these objects.
  

NanoSaclay has already strong links with the IRT SystemX (supporting letter attached), and plans to benfit from the SATT structure for further maturation of its innovation actions. Besides,we are partners in several EQUIPEX projects such as TEMPOS, STRAS (both coordinated by Nano-Saclay members), UltrabasBruit, HIDONA.

5.2.5Attractivité/Attraction

Attracting the best students and researchers in NanoSciences from all over the world will be a constant ambition of NanoSaclay. For students at undergraduate and graduate levels, an Excellence Internship Grant Program will be developed (see § 5.2.2). For students at the master level, the recent creation of the NanoScience Master-2 will offer them a wide panel of courses and experimental training in physics, biosciences, nanochemistry and nanotechnologies. Courses given in English and the opening of an international section will cater to international students. More generally, researchers, assistant professors and professors from NanoSaclay currently teach in renowned master specialties of Paris region, thereby favouring direct interactions with the best students from different scientific disciplines in this region. Researchers and professors of NanoSaclay also use to giving talks and seminars in many other universities in France and foreign countries. This is a real opportunity for NanoSaclay to be in direct relationship with the students of these universities and with the professors who are in charge of selecting “outside” speakers in “Nanos”.

In this general frame, the Nanoscience and Nanotechnology Centre (C2N), which will be founded from the merger of IEF and LPN, will act as a center of teaching and training in nanotechnology. About 200 m² of clean rooms dedicated to formation and training will be open to all of the academic establishments in the Paris region. At this stage, it is worthwhile mentioning that clean rooms dedicated to formation will be also open to technicians, engineers and researchers issued from public institutions or private companies, which will pay for formation costs. Clearly, this and the NanoFormation program driven by CNFM, into which NanoSaclay participates, will offer a real opportunity for disseminating nanotechnologies in many professional and industrial areas.

NanoSaclay will devote another large part of its efforts to attract young and senior scientists of high level and potentiality in its fields of research. This is indeed the necessary condition for the renewal of scientific projects and scientific leadership in the Labex.

For this purpose, existing mechanisms for funding young and senior scientists through Chairs of Excellence (ANR, Triangle de la Physique, …) or European and International Grants (Marie-Curie, ERC ….) will be exploited. New mechanisms are also expected in the context of the Saclay’s Initiative of Excellence. More specifically, NanoSaclay will allocate an important part of its proper funds to financially support grants for young and senior scientists. The selection of projects and topics for these specific “Nano” calls will be an important point of strategy and decision for the Nano-Saclay Education Board (see 5.2.3) and Steering Committee with the help of the International Scientific Advisory Committee (see Governance in § 5.2.4).

Nanosaclay will also launch its own Excellence Chairs (see 5.5) which will propose a 4 years package with grants (3 years of post-doc, 1 PhD), equipment and consumables, to attract young experienced researchers (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 on the subject in the labex. Two relevant subjects are already foreseen: reliability of nanoproducts, and toxicity or nanomaterials. The positions will be announced through international websites, and the recuitement process will be conducted by the Scientific and Steering Committees together.

Funding is clearly the first important point for attracting young and senior scientists in a lab. This includes not only the salary, but also and mainly the money allowing them to develop their activity independently, and pursue their scientific goals. However, there are other aspects, either of scientific or of administrative nature, which are of importance to motivate high-level scientists to come in a lab. One obvious and practical aspect for potential candidates is to be aware of the grant and job offers as well as of the scientific “life” in the lab. In addition to its website publicity, NanoSaclay will make special efforts to directly inform national and foreign campuses about its grant and job offers. One solution can be to transfer grant and job offers to career centres of universities. Special Labex funds will be oriented to increasing the Labex’s attractiveness and international visibility in research and education through regular coordination meetings (workshops, thematic schools) as well as training and education events. Facilitated access to expensive facilities like C2N clean rooms will be another source of attractiveness for scientists. NanoSaclay will also give researchers the opportunity to create their own start-up from their research results. Help in this domain can take several forms including, for instance, a financial support and an easy access to consulting services and administrative assistance.

NanoSchool for a future generation of citizens and researchers in Sciences:

While developing the attractiveness and international visibility of NanoSaclay for students and researchers appears to be “natural” for a Labex project, a long-term vision in research also needs, in our opinion, to prepare younger generations in high schools and even primary schools to scientific research and learn them to argue about the social impact of sciences and technologies. These are the main goal of the NanoSchool project into which a few voluntary members of NanoSaclay are involved. NanoSchool started in 2009 with the French NanoINNOV initiative. In a certain sense, NanoSchool parallelizes the project “La main à la pâte” originally launched by the Nobel Prize Georges Charpak, but with the additional desire of including “nanos” in future high-school programs. One original feature of “nanos” is their interdisciplinarity, which can help to provide schoolgirls and schoolboys with a global vision of sciences (Phys/Chem/Bio/Math/ Computing/…). Another interest in “nanos” stems from the tight interrelation between nanoscience and nanotechnology. Schoolgirls and schoolboys can then be brought to a better understanding of the technological choices that our society has to do at a certain stage of its development.

In brief, the four main objectives of NanoSchool are: 1) to introduce the background of interdisciplinary science at school by means of innovating pedagogical experiments (see hereafter), 2) to introduce knowledge about “hot” technologies and their interrelation with fundamental sciences, 3) to facilitate the access to “nano-equipments” (clean rooms, microscopes, etc.) for young people and allow them having a direct contact with researchers and 4) to learn schoolgirls and schoolboys to argue about the social impact of sciences and technologies.

Nanoschool is experimented in four regions in France around four scientific poles: Grenoble, Lille, Paris-Saclay and Toulouse. Experiments are based on a tight collaboration between researchers and teachers in high schools and primary schools. The ambition is that after three years, the project be generalized in all regions in France with the approval of the French Ministry of Education. Extension of the project to other countries in Europe is envisaged. Collaborations with other national resource centres for the development and improvement of experiential education programs like NSEE in US (National Society for Experiential Education) are also regarded with attention.

In this context, the NanoSaclay Labex will develop and stabilize the NanoSchool project in Paris-Saclay, which has been launched for 15 months within the nanoINNOV initiative. As briefly illustrated from the first actions engaged by the NanoSchool group (next paragraph), there is a need to send motivated “nano” scientists in high schools: one durable solution will be certainly to find a recurrent support to a young researcher for this mission. Making NanoSchool a durable project will require, in parallel, to train high-school teachers in nanosciences and nanotechnology. After the probatory period launched within the nanoINNOV initiative, a tight partnership with French board of Education will be needed to extend NanoSchool beyond the four sites selected by NanoInnov. Help from CNFM will be also of great interest for that purpose. NanoSaclay will decide an annual budget to build a strong basis of transportable nano-equipments such as AFM, SEM, etc. to practical demonstrations on the high school premises, and also to train high-school teachers in “nanos”.

For its first year experience, the Nanoschool group in Paris-Saclay has chosen to teach nanoscience and nanotechnology while keeping a strong link with existing programs at school. For this purpose, cooperation has been engaged between researchers in “nanos” and researchers from the STEF Lab. (ENS Cachan) involved in pedagogical projects for education and training. Cooperation has also been established with teachers from the Blaise Pascal high school located at Orsay. Typical actions in high schools take place in three half-days. 1) The first half-day is dedicated to teaching nanoscience and nanotechnology with the help of education movies and mini-workshops where schoolgirls and schoolboys can manipulate nano-demonstrators. Mini-workshops allow young people to understand the colours of Nanoworld (pigmentation versus material structuring), the synthesis of gold nanoparticles as well as magnetic liquids, hydrophobe surfaces, various microscopy techniques with nanometric resolution… In turn, mini-workshops allow researchers to probe the validity of nano-demonstrators already available from European companies. Specific school nano-demonstrators are being realized in the frame of the NanoInnov project for a better pedagogical efficiency. 2) The second half-day is dedicated to the visit of nano-experiments in laboratory and of large scale facilities at IEF and LPN. 3) The third half-day is devoted to a debate on “nanos” starting either from the visits that young people have done in laboratories or from a particular question that they want to treat. Young people in high school are invited to prepare a documentary analysis on the selected questions before the debate meeting..