IDEX UGA

Finalising the creation of the target university, Université Grenoble Alpes

The year 2019 has marked a key step in fully implementing the IDEX project and following the recommendations formulated by the jury in 2016 to “transform with unshakable determination certain planned commitments (§3.6 and tab Q.) into achievements”. Indeed, the partner institutions have designed, on the basis of a wide consultation process, the political principles and the bylaws of the target university, Université Grenoble Alpes. Following the opportunities opened by the December 2018 ordinances, the target university now includes ENSAG, Grenoble INP and SciencesPo Grenoble as “component institutions” and its academic structure relies on 6 newly designed academic divisions.

Continuing the academic and community initiatives funded by the IDEX

Beyond the institutional trajectory, the IDEX Steering Committee continued to supervise the implementation of the various initiatives funded by the IDEX, as started since 2016, and organised within the 5 “IDEX Executive Commissions”. As for the previous years, the objective was to use IDEX funding as seed-money to encourage initiatives which could contribute to excellence in research and teaching, international visibility and feeling of belonging, and interfaces with socio-cultural and economic partners. The highlights of the actions implemented in 2019 are briefly summed up below:

Research and transfer

The 17 Cross-Disciplinary Projects launched in 2016 and 2017 have continued their course and started to plan their next steps past the initial seed-funding phase. They have also continued to generate publications, to raise funds (private collaboration and public calls for projects), and to further develop international collaborations. All 17 CDP have also been involved in the design of the SFRI call for project, in order to develop highly visible, transversal graduate programs.

The Global Challenges Science Week has been organised in June 2019 and provided the opportunity to showcase the results of the CDP and to create new contacts. It gathered more than 1000 registered participants from 18 different countries taking part in 15 scientific workshops, 6 plenary lectures, 1 Keynote conference, and many other activities and networking opportunities, including 8 PhD Awards.

Regarding research transfer and innovation activities, 3 new pre-maturation projects have been supported and 3 new LabComs have been set up.

Education

Regarding initiatives to boost attractiveness and international visibility, the Master fellowship program was continued, in order to attract international students to Grenoble, with 216 awarded fellowships. The PhD Alumni network has been created. Then, to showcase the teaching & learning innovations developed in Grenoble, the FormIDEX event in November 2019 enabled c. 400 participants from France and abroad debating and exchanging about best practices.

The support to innovative projects and practices continued, with many previously funded projects continuing in 2019. In 2018/2019, those projects directly involved a third of our academic staff, with approximately 1 project in Humanities and Social Sciences for 2 projects in Sciences, Technology and Health. A new call for project has been launched, following the recommendations of the International Scientific Committee, with the objective of testing new course modules tackling either multidisciplinary, closer integration with research, or internationalisation. 26 projects were selected, with 46% from the Humanities and Social Sciences.

Finally, support to student entrepreneurship was also successfully continued, with 9 start-ups created in 2019.

International relations

Another edition of the “International Strategic Partnerships” call for project was launched in 2019, with a total of 22 PhD and postdoctoral fellowships selected, amounting to 1.5M€.

Strategic partnerships progressed significantly, with both further development of existing partnerships and establishment of new collaborations. Thus, the program Campus in Campus with Tsukuba University developed, with more than 900 courses from UGA now available (Jukebox). Workshops and meetings were organised with our partners from the Rhône Alpes and Swiss alliance (Campus Rhodanien), Swansea University, and the FAPESP in Brazil. New strategic partnerships were signed with Mitacs (Canada), McMaster University (Canada), Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Universitat Politecnica de Madrid (Espagne), Keio University (Japon) and several delegations have been hosted in Grenoble. A Steering Committee has been set up with Oxford University to explore possible paths for collaboration and a future global agreement. It involves representative from ENSAG, the H&SS research department, the Laue Langevin Institute Director, the Director of the institute for advanced biosciences and a representative from Institut Fourier.

Finally, four projects have been supported through a call for projects for internationalisation aiming at improving mobility, information and services for incoming students.

Student and campus life

To improve our capacity at monitoring student services, a continuous analysis has been set up with the help of the Observatory for Student Life: it provides an overview of the existing services and the satisfaction of students, so as to better orientate future developments.

Efforts have been made to prepare specifically for the creation of the new university: several functional mappings have been completed to support the organisation of student life activities. New services have been developed, and integrated within the multi-service card (including European hologram and QR code). An application has been developed to provide an easy, integrated access and information about the various services, and is available in French, English and Mandarin.

In order to support the development of a feeling of belonging and of a strong identity, the creation of several alumni associations has been supported, and communication actions developed to highlight alumni profiles.

The student-artist scheme has been running for the third year with a growing popularity: 134 students have been selected (out of close to 200 applications), and dedicated training courses have been organised for those students (e.g. musical Master Classes).

Finally, the call for projects “Brisez les frontières”, which has been running since 2016 to support the involvement of students within initiatives with local partners, has continued, fostering student initiatives in various areas.

Socio-cultural outreach

Since 2016, the IDEX has been supporting the development of projects from the academic community and/or in collaborations with the local partners (local authorities, associations, cultural institutions, etc.), to support emergent initiatives for the diffusion of scientific culture or cultural activities. A few examples of initiatives supported by the call for projects include: the Grange des Maths, the Scientific Game Jam, the Tour Perret 4.0, the Théâtre Numérique Populaire.

The partnerships established with local institutions enabled us to create dedicated networks for the preservation of the academic scientific and artistic heritage, a cultural initiatives network in Valence, the set-up of a digital culture platform with Grenoble Alpes Métropole, etc.

Contributing both to socio-cultural outreach and to the development of the identity of the university, “High Profile Conferences” have continued in 2019, with a confirmed success and measurable impact outside the university itself.

The support to musical ensembles continued, with two new musical ensembles created.

Finally, 2019 saw the achievement of two projects concerning scientific publishing: the Mersenne service platform for communities publishing with LaTeX, and the publishing service UGA éditions.