Annual report 2024 - Inria - English version.pdf

Contents
3 Editorial
4 An Institute Undergoing Transformation
6 The Digital Program Agency
8 Accelerating the Impact of Public Research
10 The Challenges and Transformations of Artificial Intelligence
13 Digital Twins for Multiple Applications
14 Robotics: a Fresh Dynamic Thanks to AI
16 Inria Defence and Security, at the Heart of a Digital Ecosystem
17 Inria Startup Studio: Supporting Technological Entrepreneurship
18
2024: Sport and the Olympic Games in the Spotlight
20
Managing the Impact of Digital Technology via the Humanities
21 Our ERC Prizewinners
22 Researchers Honoured in 2024
24 2024 Financial Report
27 2024 Key Dates
Publication director: Bruno Sportisse - Editor-in-chief: Ariane Beauvillard - Graphic design layout:
Sophie Barbier - Editorial project managers: Iris Maignan, Anne Alfano - Editorial secretariat: Marie-
Lætitia Gambié.
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© Inria / Photo B. Fourrier - p. 7: © Inria / Photo B. Fourrier – © special collection - p. 8: © Inria
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collection - p. 11: © Inria / Photo M.Génon - p. 12: © Inria / Photo B. Fourrier - p. 14: © Tristan
Reynaud - p. 15: © Inria / Photo B. Fourrier - Inria / Photo H.Raguet - p. 16: © Inria - p. 17: © Inria /
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IRIF - p. 22: @ R.Pak - @ Fondation L’Oréal / Photo C. Losfeld and R. Pak - @ L. Jacq - @ L. Ardhuin -
@ special collection - @ P. Kitchmacher - © Inria / Photo B. Fourrier - © Inria / Photo L. Moreno - p.
23: @ special collection - © Inria / Photo B. Fourrier.

Editorial
2024 was a highly dynamic year for Inria: in research, in innovation, in
partnerships of all kinds, with public and private stakeholders, in France,
in Europe and internationally, thanks to the commitment of all those
who make Inria what it is.
2024 also saw new milestones reached for Inria’s place and positioning
within its ecosystem: in March, the HCERES published its evaluation
report on our strategy since 2018 and its implementation, carried out
by a committee of international experts. The report highlighted the
relevance of our strategy, the quality of its implementation and the
need to adopt a long-term vision. The ten recommendations were used
as a basis for drawing up our Contract of Objectives, Resources and
Performance (COMP) with the French government for 2024-2028. Our
new COMP was adopted by the Board of Directors in December, and again
sets ambitious goals for France, the government, our partners and Inria, in line with the challenges
ahead.
Because Inria’s primary mission is to contribute to France’s digital sovereignty through research and
innovation, we must, in partnership with our entire ecosystem, assume responsibilities at a national
level. These responsibilities took concrete form in 2024 with the launch of the Digital Program
Agency (Algorithms, Software and Usage), which had been under development since 2021. More than
ever, giving ourselves the means to achieve digital sovereignty based on research at the highest
level, while coordinating the national level, the European dimension and international alliances,
requires an integrated strategic vision of digital technology, in which stakeholders in the sciences
and technologies at the heart of digital technology and its uses take on new responsibilities, building
bridges between disciplines and considering their actions in terms of impact.
On account of our history, our project-based organisational structure and the transformations we have
undertaken since 2018, Inria is a key agent in this ecosystem, which also encompasses a broad range of
regional ecosystems, with universities at their heart. We must strive to maximise the collective impact
of these ecosystems: this is what the Inria Centres at Universities are all about.
In the coming years, we will continue to shape an Inria that is both a Program Agency and a National
Institute for Research of the highest standard. These two components are complementary and
mutually supportive. To quote our long-held motto, scientific excellence and transmission, in and
through digital technology, coordinated for and with our ecosystem within the Program Agency, and
through our own projects within the French National Institute for Research. I am convinced that this
diversity in the way we carry out all our missions is the key to the future.
Digital technology lies at the heart of many of today’s political, democratic, economic and climate
crises and transformations. We need to work with our partners to ensure that digital technology is
not part of the problem but part of the solution, to create new paths that our society must maintain
control over, in keeping with our values. We are developing our sense of responsibility, our openness
and our multidisciplinary approach as we move forward, and this is what will enable us to meet these
challenges.
Bruno Sportisse, CEO of Inria.
Rapport annuel 2024 - 3

An Institute Undergoing Transformation
Why evolve?
Sandrine Mazetier: Digital technology is evolving
rapidly, and so are our societies, expressing expectations
and questions on different issues and at different
scales. And as a result, logically, we are evolving with
and for our ecosystem, our partners and society.
Our actions are guided by the questions they raise:
how can we give citizens, industry and academia the
keys to understanding, getting to grips with and
developing safer, more inclusive and more useful
digital technology? To answer these questions, we must
constantly explore new avenues and question ourselves
so that we can use research to address the issues we can
anticipate - such as the positive and negative impacts of
digital technology, those that can be planned for - which
are listed as priorities in our COMP 2024-2028, but also
those that arise urgently. But we are not evolving alone!
We are working with our ecosystems, with partners:
research cannot be developed in isolation. The creation
of the Digital Program Agency in 2024 is undoubtedly
the most significant step forward: it illustrates the
desire to coordinate the ecosystem within and through
digital technology, but also the new governance model
we are putting in place with our partners. Within
this context, our role as coordinators of the higher
education and research component of the national AI
strategy is crucial. This development also benefits local
communities thanks to the dynamic approach of the
Inria Centres at Universities. We are evolving to work
better together, with ever greater impact.
What difference do the Inria Centres at Universities
really make?
Jean-Yves Berthou: The creation of the Inria Centres at
Universities in 2021 meets one of the major objectives
of our 2019-2024 Objectives and Performance
Contract (COP), reaffirmed in the 2025-2028 Contract
of Objectives, Resources and Performance (COMP):
to contribute to the development of major research
universities through and for digital technology, in their
capacity as leaders in higher education and research in
their regions.
By creating the Inria Centres at Universities, Inria places
itself at the heart and at the service of the universities’
local strategy. The institute has become an integral
part of this strategy, strengthening its links with the
component or associate institutions of the universities.
In this way, Inria contributes to strengthening the
autonomy and attractiveness of universities in all their
dimensions.
In practical terms, this results in enhanced and regular
dialogue with university governing bodies, for example
on the creation of project teams, particularly with
disciplines other than mathematics and computer
science, the implementation and management of
European projects and international collaborations, and
the coordination of our transfer activities. It is also a
way for the regions to contribute to national requests
from recently created program agencies. In Brittany, for
example, links have been created between the Marsouin
scientific interest group and research professors with
the Digital Program Agency. Another example is the
connection made between the University of Rennes’
law laboratory and LaborIA, as a result of the dynamic
development of the Inria Centre at the University of
Rennes. Universities are also involved in the Agency’s
foresight work and the development of strategic
priorities through regular exchanges with Inria Centres
and Inria as a Program Agency.
Does this have any implications for the overall
organisation of the institute?
Benoît Laroche de Roussane: Since 2018, Inria has
been undergoing a profound and rapid transformation:
the institute has repositioned itself to increase the
collective impact of our ecosystems, those of higher
education, research and innovation, and of digital
technology. The first step was to reaffirm our strong
differentiating factors to secure our place as a world-
class national research institute: project-focused
organisation, support for risk-taking, whether scientific
or entrepreneurial, and a genuine technological culture
– that of software. This transformation is accompanied
by conscious investment choices: in quantum
computing, in ambitious projects at the interface
between health and the environment, in projects with
public partners and companies, in reinvestment in
long-neglected but strategic sectors such as systems
and microarchitecture, and in strategic European and
international partnerships. This evolution has also
Jean-Yves Berthou (Deputy CEO for Territorial Strategy)
Benoît Laroche de Roussane (Deputy CEO for Administration)
Sandrine Mazetier (Deputy CEO for Public Affairs)
4 - Rapport annuel 2024

involved the work towards creating the Digital Program
Agency, which began in 2021, and which we have been
officially promoting since the initiative launched by the
French President at the end of 2023, with the arrival of
Sophie Proust as Executive Director of the Agency within
Inria’s senior management team.
There has been a lot of talk in recent years about
supporting public policy: is this our role as a research
institute?
Sandrine Mazetier: Support for public policy has
been an integral part of Inria since its creation, given
that the Institute was founded to meet a highly
specific policy in the framework of the Plan Calcul, a
programme established to endow France with strategic
scientific and technological independence. This has
grown exponentially in recent years. On the one hand,
because digital technology affects absolutely every
area of society and the economy, and on the other hand
because it has been the subject of national strategies
defined by the government (National AI Strategy,
investment and acceleration strategies such as France
2030, etc.), in which it plays a leading role, in line with
the place it now occupies in our society.
Inria is therefore naturally committed to supporting
public policy, because digital technology is changing
and is bringing about change, and because public
policy needs to work more closely with public research.
Among these public policy issues, the priority since
2020 has been our closer relationship with the Ministry
of Defence, through the major role of Inria Defence
and Security, our joint governance structure with the
Ministry of Defence, headed by Frédérique Segond.
But supporting public policy also involves developing
joint projects with public policy stakeholders, the likes
of LaborIA with the Ministry of Labour, and supporting
the digital transformation of government agencies
through training and knowledge sharing.
On a day-to-day basis, in a centre, how does
territorial strategy benefit scientists and projects?
Jean-Yves Berthou: Being a researcher at an Inria Centre
at a University means that you are closely integrated
into the University and are able to participate in its
operational and management bodies. At some sites,
this means that all permanent scientists at the Centre
are given the status of associate or adjunct professor,
making them full members of the University faculty.
This is the case at Université Paris Saclay, the University
of Rennes, ENS Rennes and Université Grenoble Alpes,
to name but a few.
In return, the creation of the Inria Centre at the
University opens up new opportunities for university
research professors, who are given access to the
facilities operated by Inria. For example, a research
professor can submit their start-up project to the Inria
Startup Studio; or a deeptech training course using
university software can be proposed for inclusion in
the Inria Academy continuing education programme.
A research professor can also receive support from the
PIQ programme of the Inria Program Agency in the case
of a disruptive project.
Do we have the resources to meet our ambitions?
Benoît Laroche de Roussane: The budget is where
ambitions, strategy, resources and stakeholder
involvement are brought into alignment. Between 2018
and 2024, Inria’s workforce grew by more than 30%
and its expenditure increased by more than 40%, as
approved by the Board of Directors, with the support
of government representatives. This growth trajectory
demonstrates the government’s confidence in our
strategy and has made us stronger in the face of the
current uncertainty. Our budget for 2025 is based on
the very ambitious COMP 2024-2028 vision. This COMP
has enabled us to legitimise our budget and look to
the future, to support our ambitions over the long
term. Is our trajectory sustainable? As we have always
managed to do since 2018, we must define our financing
model: the important thing is to proceed in the right
order, have a strategy and then develop the channels to
finance it. But we must also heed demands for frugality
in public spending, especially in times of crisis. On the
strength of the long-term strategy set out in the COP
2019-2023 and the COMP 2024-2028, we will continue to
move forward while making the necessary efforts.

The Digital Program Agency
In January 2024, the Digital Program
Agency - Algorithms, Software and Usage,
headed by Inria, was created following the
French President’s speech on research on 7
December 2023. Sophie Proust, the Agency’s
Executive Director, presents the Agency’s
missions and priorities.
What are the missions of the Program Agency
launched by Inria?
Inria was naturally chosen to head the Digital Program
Agency, given its core values of “scientific excellence
and transfer” and its experience since 2021 in managing
programmes integrating research, innovation and
training. Our mission is to have our ecosystem achieve
collective impact, within and through digital technology,
whether scientific, technological or economic, through
innovation.
The challenge is to strengthen our ability to develop
and steer national digital research and innovation
strategies, by bringing the ecosystem together and
catalysing public/private dynamics.
We are developing collective strategic intelligence with
our committee of partners representing the higher
education, research and innovation ecosystem.
How is the Agency structured?
Firstly, the Agency is organised around nine
programmes, developed in line with France 2030 in the
key areas of digital technology: six are theme-based
(post-exascale scientific computing, cybersecurity,
network and cloud systems, assessment of AI, quantum
computing and virtual worlds); three are application-
based: digital technology and health, digital technology
and the environment, and digital technology and
learning.
Each programme is at a different stage of maturity with
its own specific objectives that reflect the Agency’s core
missions:
1. Mapping and anticipation.
2. National operational action.
3. Action at a European level.
4. Action at the international level.
In addition, two cross-cutting programmes also support
all the actions mentioned above:
- the programme supporting high-risk research: PIQ
(Inria Quadrant Programme), a programme launched
in June 2024, which provides funding for scientists
carrying out disruptive, high-impact projects;
-the Apollo programme, focusing on the development
of software infrastructure to support public policy.
We are engaged in the process of creating a Digital
Program Agency to support national and collective
ambitions, and a research institute of the highest
international standard in digital science and technology.
The eleven existing programmes and their results are
the most convincing expression of this.
What are the Program Agency’s priorities for 2025
and how will they be implemented in the regions?
In 2025, we will continue to develop our coordination
with the Inria Centres at universities and their
ecosystems, as outlined in our new COMP (Contract of
Objectives, Resources and Performance). These centres
will manage the Agency’s regional deployment and
propose actions to be carried out by the universities
in line with each site’s specific digital strategy and
European initiatives.
Our 2025 road map orchestrates an integrated vision of
digital technology, with our role as national coordinator
of the ESR component of the national AI strategy, which
requires knowledge and understanding of the entire
digital continuum.
We will be focusing our efforts in this direction, in order
to:
- rethink the way in which secure and interoperable
hybrid infrastructures and the applications that will run
on them are designed, programmed and administered;
- remove the scientific barriers to these complex
applications while ensuring the reliability of results,
data confidentiality and replicability;
- evaluate new AI services that benefit from data
sharing, and invent new methodologies.
We want to develop and think about digital technology
for a constrained and sustainable world, taking into
account the social and economic impact of these
transformations and contributing to France’s digital
sovereignty through research and innovation.

Maxime Dénès, Director of the Apollo
Programme
The Apollo programme of the Digital Program Agency,
launched in 2024 and set to be rolled out more
extensively in 2025, supports projects that aim to solve a
difficult problem (requiring scientific and technological
expertise from public research) through a technological
deliverable (software), which is reviewed and supported
by public policy makers.
In doing so, it promotes a specific form of project-
based interaction between public clients with explicit,
ambitious and clearly defined objectives and a public/
private consortium that produces a technological
deliverable that addresses a problem by mobilising
public research.
The programme will involve all public research bodies
in an effort to strengthen the digital sovereignty of
public policy through research and innovation.
There are a number of objectives:
→ Develop the technological foundations that will
enable the French government (and beyond, Europe)
to take full advantage of the digital revolution, without
relinquishing its sovereignty.
→ Boost industrial ecosystems by conducting
innovative projects tailored to the digital and software
cycles in particular.
→ Contribute, through the Apollo project leaders’
collective and the flow of people, to meeting
the nation’s growing need for experts in digital
technologies.
For example, the programme is supporting the Catala
pilot project, which aims to transform law into code in
a reliable and explainable way, using critical software
methods. In collaboration with the DGFiP and the CNAF,
this project is experimenting with an application for
calculating income tax and social security benefits.
Neil Abroug, Director of the Quantum
Programme
The Digital Program Agency’s Quantum Programme
supports the French quantum strategy, which aims
to guarantee the State’s strategic autonomy and
strengthen its economic leadership in the development
of universal, first-generation quantum computers.
France also aims to become a world-class supplier of
quantum technology building blocks, both hardware
and software, such as robust qubit design tools, error
correction codes and advanced compilers.
In conjunction with the entire French and European
quantum ecosystem, Inria has structured and sustained
public research efforts around major projects aimed at
creating leaders in quantum computing technologies
in France and Europe:
→ by supporting initiatives such as the Proqcima
programme, the Agency is helping to develop a clear
roadmap for the development of universal quantum
computers;
→ through national programmes such as PEPR
Quantique, jointly steered with the CEA and CNRS, HQI
and Qloop, the institute supports research into new
disruptive concepts, while deploying the technologies
developed within the industrial fabric;
→ through structuring partnerships with leading
European players such as the Novo Nordisk foundation.
The 2025 International Year of Quantum Science and
Technology, proclaimed by the UN, recognises the
strategic importance of quantum technologies. Inria
will be playing its part, accelerating the development of
open and interoperable software stacks, designing fault-
tolerant machines, training talent and disseminating
design and verification tools so that the ecosystem
can benefit from an industrial and sovereign software
environment.

Accelerating the Impact of Public
Research
What was the background to the creation of the
Digital and the Environment Programme?
Inria has long been committed to research activities
on issues relating to digital technology and the
environment, particularly environmental modelling
and simulation. At the same time, the environmental
impact of digital technology has emerged as a topic
of public debate in recent years, and the development
of AI tools has intensified this debate. These factors
led to the creation of the Digital and the Environment
Programme in 2022, with the aim of providing the best
possible support for several major projects led by Inria,
promoting the work carried out, and encouraging and
setting up new projects.
What does the Digital and the Environment
Programme consist of?
The Digital and the Environment Programme is made up
of six components:
→ Alt-Impact: this part of the programme is run jointly
with ADEME and the CNRS, and aims to measure, assess,
reduce and control the environmental impact of digital
technology.
→ PEPR Agroecology and Digital Technology: this PEPR
is run jointly with INRAE, and aims to mobilise digital
technology to accelerate the ecological transition of
agricultural systems, through responsible innovation.
→ Transitions 2060: this forward-looking initiative led
by ADEME analyses the role of digital technology in
ecological transition scenarios for 2060.
→ AgriTEF Agriculture of Data Partnership: in
partnership with INRAE and a number of European
organisations, this programme provides robotics
technologies and data for the agroecological transition.
→ Digital Twin of the Regions: Inria, IGN, Cerema and
1Spatial are building a digital twin of the whole of France
and its regions, in particular to meet the challenges of
ecological planning and development.
→ PEPR Responsible Digital Technology: this PEPR was
approved in early March 2024, and aims to develop
digital technology for a constrained and sustainable
world (eco-design, labels, rational use, low-tech, digital
commons).
What are the programme’s priorities for the coming
months?
Environmental issues are sometimes denied, often
neglected, but they remain present and even urgent.
At a time when resources are limited, developing a
low-carbon and resilient digital sector is an asset in
terms of performance, particularly from an economic
perspective. Working on participatory tools to shed light
on certain uses and practices is also a priority for the
programme.
The Digital and the Environment Programme
Inria’s Digital and the Environment Programme aims to support initiatives and major
projects addressing digital challenges for the environment, and also to address the issue
of the environmental impact of digital technology. Interview with Jacques Sainte-Marie,
Director of the Digital and the Environment Programme.

The Cloud PEPR, for significant advances
in cloud infrastructure and services
The priority research programme on the Cloud, co-
directed scientifically by the CEA and Inria, aims to
deliver significant advances in the performance,
security and frugality of cloud infrastructure and
services, while focusing on the transfer of innovative
solutions from research to industry.
The cloud is the foundation of our digital economy,
and presents a dual challenge of digital sovereignty
and economic competitiveness. The aim of this PEPR is
to consolidate the position of French research at the
international level, while guaranteeing dual sovereignty
in terms of technology and operations.
PREMYOM, improving treatment for
myopia
The PREMYOM research project (Myopia Epidemic
Slowdown and Disease Management by Medical Optics)
aims to prevent and slow down the development
of myopia in children and adults, by establishing a
therapeutic benchmark for the personalised treatment
of myopia based on unique expertise and rigorous
research, development and innovation. PREMYOM is a
multidisciplinary consortium of partners from industry,
healthcare and research: Essilor Luxottica, Hôpital
Fondation Adolphe de Rothschild (via the Institut
Français de Myopie), InSimo, Institut Mines-Télécom,
Institut de la Vision and Inria.
The PTCC: accelerating technology
and knowledge transfer in the field of
cybersecurity
The Cyber Campus Transfer Programme (PTCC) is funded
under the national strategy to accelerate cybersecurity,
and as part of the Cybersecurity Programme of the
Digital Program Agency. It aims to foster and support
the transfer of knowledge, skills and technologies
from academic research to real-world applications and
industry.
The programme is operated by Inria on behalf of the
entire academic community, and is organised into
four components: transfer, continuing education,
entrepreneurship and services to the community. The
PTCC ensures the presence of ESR within the National
Cyber Campus and draws on the network of regional
Cyber Campuses to promote joint projects between
academic and industrial stakeholders, in support of
universities.
AI Factory France: France at the cutting
edge of AI
The AI Factory France project, coordinated by Genci and
Inria, and a recent winner of the EuroHPC programme,
is consolidating France’s position as a key player in the
development of AI in Europe. The aim of this initiative
is to combine the Genci Alice Recoque supercomputer,
which is tailored to AI needs, with a range of ecosystems
and services (training, support, data warehouses,
models, European and international collaborations,
etc.). Inria, as coordinator of the “Higher Education and
Research” component of the National AI Strategy (SNIA),
plays a key role in bringing together and coordinating
the contributions of the SNIA’s major research and
innovation players and projects with AI Factory France.
PIQ, the programme
supporting high-risk research
As part of France 2030, the French government
wanted to set up a programme to support
high-risk research. The Inria Quadrant
Programme (PIQ) is the response provided
by Inria and executed by its Program
Agency. Its aim is to encourage and support
scientists working on high-risk, high-impact
projects in all higher education and research
establishments.
The notion of risk covers, for example, projects
that are uncertain, exploratory, aimed at major
developments, multidisciplinary (but not
exclusively so), without an identified scientific
community, breaking with the state of the art
or redefining the theoretical foundations of a
subject.
Alexis Gendronneau, Frédéric Malicki and Paul Benoit at the launch of
the Cloud PEPR.

The Challenges and Transformations
of Artificial Intelligence
Inria has been coordinating the research
component of the National AI strategy
since 2018. This work is carried out in
close coordination with Guillaume Avrin,
the National AI Coordinator, and with
all the ministerial players involved in its
implementation.
How can we attract talent and develop cutting-edge
companies?
Fabien Le Voyer: The French government has launched
an unprecedented initiative to provide public support
for strengthening and creating new AI training
programmes. For example, €360 million has been
earmarked specifically for setting up nine AI clusters,
which will be centres of excellence for AI research
and training. This funding supports holistic, multi-
stakeholder projects (universities, grandes écoles, public
and industrial partners, etc.) with the aim of increasing
the number of students at all levels of education. All
of the stakeholders supported have demonstrated
considerable creativity by drawing on their own
strengths (research, industrial clusters, etc.), resulting
in a wide range of complementary training programmes
offered at a national level. Inria is responsible for
coordinating these actions to increase the visibility of
these programmes and develop skills.
Guillaume Avrin: France attracts talent by pursuing an
ambitious innovation policy that combines scientific
excellence and direct support for businesses through
initiatives such as calls for projects for generative AI,
embedded AI, trustworthy AI and frugal AI, which have
mobilised more than €300 million since 2023 under
phase two of the National AI Strategy (SNIA). This
integrated strategy has enabled the rapid emergence
of French champions such as Mistral AI, Dust, H and
Poolside, and positions France as the leading European
hub for generative AI, fostering an ecosystem where
talent, start-ups and industry work closely together.
How can France gain a competitive edge in AI?
FLV: France boasts historic investments in the key
resources needed to develop AI: an exceptional pool of
talent from French mathematics schools and cutting-
edge supercomputing infrastructure such as Jean Zay
and the future exascale supercomputer at the Alice
Recoque Very Large Computing Centre (TGCC).
GA: These assets are complemented by active support
for the deeptech industrial ecosystem and by measures
to facilitate rapid market access for French companies,
thus guaranteeing their competitiveness on an
international scale, abundant and low-carbon energy
thanks to nuclear power, as well as structured archives
rich in open data that showcase the country’s cultural
heritage.
How is France contributing to clean energy?
GA: France relies on low-carbon nuclear energy to
sustainably power the digital infrastructure essential to
AI, such as public supercomputers (Jean Zay, the future
exascale supercomputer at the TGCC), that are equipped
with optimised technologies and cooling systems to
reduce their environmental impact.
On top of this, the SNIA actively supports the
development and dissemination of frugal AI with
initiatives such as a call for projects dedicated to local
authorities for regional demonstrators combining
digital innovation and ecological transition.
How is this national strategy being implemented at
European level?
GA: The National Strategy for AI (SNIA) is fully aligned
with the objectives of the European Coordinated Plan
on AI, aimed at strengthening Europe’s technological
sovereignty while promoting responsible innovation.
Within this framework, France is steering key European
initiatives, such as ALT-EDIC, which brings together
19 Member States around a centre of expertise in
generative AI, and is actively participating in the
European Testing Experimentation Facilities (TEFs),
EuroHPC and AI Factory initiatives. This approach
champions European cultural and linguistic diversity
while ensuring that businesses have privileged access to
the strategic infrastructure and resources they need for
their technological development.
FLV: Inria is leading a number of national projects under
the National Strategy, involving the entire research
community and working closely with the National AI
Fabien Le Voyer (left) and Guillaume Avrin.

Coordinator. In addition, Inria, together with PEReN,
LNE and ANSSI, under the leadership of the DGE and
the SGDSN, have launched the National Institute for
AI Assessment and Security, which aims to provide
tools and methods to market surveillance authorities
at national level, by directing a science and technology
front towards reliable methodologies for assessing AI
systems in light of the requirements set out in the AI
Act. This expertise is also intended to support the AI
Office in its role as the European authority.
INESIA: uniting the ecosystem for
trustworthy AI in France and Europe
Led by the General Secretariat for Defence and National
Security (SGDSN) on behalf of the Prime Minister and
the Directorate General for Enterprise (DGE), INESIA
brings together the work of four public bodies with
complementary skills: the French Cybersecurity Agency
(ANSSI), the National Laboratory for Metrology and
Testing (LNE), the Digital Regulation Expertise Centre
(PEReN) and Inria. INESIA’s work focuses on analysing
systemic risks in the field of national security,
supporting the implementation of AI regulation,
and assessing the performance and reliability of AI
models. This regulatory, scientific and technical work
will support the government by providing tools and
methodologies to facilitate the implementation of the
AI Act.
Understanding the impact of AI on work
Created by the Ministry of Labour, Health and Solidarity
and Inria in 2021, LaborIA is an action research
programme focused on analysing the impact of
artificial intelligence (AI) on work, employment and
skills. After two years of surveys in collaboration with
Matrice (a student innovation institute studying the
social effects of AI), LaborIA “Explorer” published
groundbreaking results on human-machine interactions
and the challenges of AI adoption in the workplace. It
also makes recommendations on the deployment of
AI, the resolution of the rationality conflict between
managerial logic and the logic of real work, and the
reconfiguration of work and management processes.
LaborIA then embarked on its second phase, focusing on
the impact of generative AI on specific sectors (cultural
and creative industries, logistics), the analysis of AI
solutions used for recruitment, and the development
of tools to raise awareness and support a number
of stakeholders (companies, administrations, local
authorities) in the deployment of AI systems. The aim
of this new phase is to assess the real impact of AI on
employees in the field, drawing on multidisciplinary
scientific expertise in the humanities and social
sciences to formulate recommendations on how to
support the deployment of AI systems in companies,
administrations and local authorities. LaborIA will also
help to identify training and skills prospects based on
an analysis of this impact on pre-identified sectors of
activity.
Open source software for trustworthy AI
How can we mitigate the societal biases inherent in
machine learning algorithms? Michaël Perrot and
Gaurav Maheshwari, members of the Magnet project
team at the Inria Centre at the University of Lille,
have proposed a solution: FairGrad, open-source
software designed to correct inequalities related to
“resource allocation”, in other words, the opportunities
available to each individual. Software that measures
and mitigates bias throughout the machine learning
process... Or another contribution to the goal of fairness
in AI.
AI and sovereignty
P16 is an ambitious project that aims to bring together
a wide range of research stakeholders and foster
collaboration between academic and industrial
ecosystems in order to enrich software libraries across
the data lifecycle and meet the diverse needs of users.
The roadmap for the P16 project is being implemented
by Inria’s AI programme and a spin-off from the
institute, the start-up Probabl, a “mission-based
company”. The first few years of the project are focused
on the pre-industrialisation phase, to bring the first
software building blocks identified to the practical stage
of software production. The first building block in the
project, developed with Inria since 2007, is scikit-learn, a
benchmark in statistical learning libraries.
As for P16 @Inria, a call for expressions of interest,
widely open to the research community, has already

led to the selection of an initial library dedicated to
time series, developed at the University of Rennes.
Workshops are also being organised with data scientists
from Inria’s partners in order to refine the identification
of needs and guide the development of the libraries
supported by the project. Training is another key focus
for P16, with a view to facilitating the adoption and
dissemination of pre-industrialised solutions.
For its part, Probabl is piloting the development of its
first MVP (minimum viable product), to be released in
2025. In addition, the company is working on setting up
professional services, support, training and certification
with the libraries it supports, to provide better support
for users and data scientists of the open source libraries
it maintains.
Inria steps up its commitment to
international cooperation in AI with a
dedicated centre of expertise
In December 2024, Inria announced the evolution
of its approach to supporting the global governance
of artificial intelligence. The new centre of expertise
dedicated to international cooperation marks a new
step in supporting international collaboration and
strengthening France’s role in global discussions on
AI, particularly with a view to ensuring that AI is used
in a way that respects human rights and democratic
values. This European centre, led by Inria in France,
has formalised a network of centres of expertise for
international collaboration in AI, with the Montreal
International Centre of Expertise in Artificial Intelligence
(CEIMIA) in Montreal and the National Institute of
Information and Communications Technology (NICT)
in Tokyo. As part of a renewed partnership with the
OECD, the three centres draw on a multidisciplinary and
international network of nearly 150 experts to carry
out joint projects addressing the economic and societal
challenges brought about by AI.
AI for the climate: pushing the boundaries
of climate modelling and analysis through
machine learning
The ARCHES project (AI Research for Climate Change
and Environmental Sustainability), led by Claire
Monteleoni at the Inria Centre in Paris, focuses on
the use of artificial intelligence to address climate
change and promote environmental sustainability.
The team is developing machine learning algorithms
and tackling tangible problems to improve scientific
understanding of how the climate system is changing,
design social impact and support decision-makers with
decision-making tools. Studying how to accelerate the
ecological transition is one of the team’s priorities,
with a particular focus on renewable energies, as
demonstrated by its partnership with EDF. This
partnership aims to understand and predict the
impacts of climate change on EDF’s energy production
infrastructure. For example, the collaboration is looking
at changes in wind patterns and their consequences
for wind turbines in terms of location, technology and
operational management.
Selma Souihel and Yann Lechelle at the launch of
the P16 @Inria project.

Digital twins for Multiple
Applications
Digital twins to simulate the spread of
epidemics
ICI is tool for simulating the spread of epidemics,
launched and coordinated by Denis Talay (from the
ASCII project team at the Inria Centre in Saclay) and
developed by a multidisciplinary team of scientists from
Inria, IGN, Inserm-Hôtel-Dieu, École Polytechnique and
the CNRS. It uses digital twins of geographical areas
and their populations, as well as large-scale stochastic
simulations of social interactions and contamination
between individuals, with the aim of enabling public
health authorities to assess the effectiveness of health
policies in response to epidemics in a differentiated
manner, estimate their effects in a targeted manner by
area and sub-population, steer health decisions with
precision and prepare healthcare services adapted to
future pandemics.
ICI has been selected as a priority case for the
“Preventing epidemics effectively” component of the
national programme “Digital Twin of France and its
Regions” led by Inria, IGN and Cerema.
Maritime transport: a LabCom
supporting the energy transition
One of the major challenges facing the maritime
transport sector is controlling its energy and
environmental footprint. The sector has committed to
reducing its CO2 emissions by 70% compared to 2008
and hopes to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. To meet
these ambitious targets, the maritime industry must
ramp up its efforts to accelerate its energy transition.
The joint laboratory “MATritime” was created against
this backdrop, bringing together the naval architecture
agency Bañulsdesign, the CNRS, École Polytechnique
and Inria. The laboratory is funded by the French
National Research Agency (ANR), and aims to support
the transition of the maritime sector by pooling the
expertise and skills of all its partners.
Health: a European ecosystem for
human digital twins
The European programme EDITH (European Virtual
Human Twin) aims to build a sustainable ecosystem
around the human digital twin. Its objectives are to
establish a common roadmap based on a global vision,
create a federated cloud repository and propose
a simulation platform architecture to improve
personalised medicine in Europe. The SimbiotX project
team at the Inria Saclay Centre is actively contributing
to this project, particularly in terms of setting up the
ecosystem. For example, it organised the first EDITH
workshop open to all stakeholders in the ecosystem
at the Institut Polytechnique de Paris in January 2024,
which was attended by nearly 200 people from all over
Europe.
Meditwin
Supported by France 2030, the Meditwin consortium
involves Dassault Systèmes, Inria, seven University
Hospital Institutes, the Nantes University Hospital and
associated start-ups.
The aim of this project is to create personalised
virtual twins of organs and pathologies to improve
understanding, diagnosis and treatment. New medical
practices will be developed based on these virtual twins,
particularly in the fields of neurology, cardiology and
oncology, improving the quality of care for safer and
more accessible healthcare for all.
Twinical: the SatNav for
surgeons
The start-up Twinical, which emerged from
the Inria Startup Studio in early 2024, is using
digital twins to revolutionise surgery. By
accurately modelling the anatomy of patients,
it offers surgeons the possibility of using a
virtual reality replica of an organ before and
during an operation. This digital model can be
used to improve the planning and successful
outcome of an operation.
The digital twin of France and its
regions
IGN, Inria, Cerema and several industrial companies
are working on an ambitious project to create a virtual
and dynamic digital replica of the regions, based on
geolocation data, simulation tools and visualisation and
interaction services.
The project focuses on four main areas: creating a
shared, open and secure technical platform; creating
a digital repository of thematic geospatial data;
organising an ecosystem of applications and analysis
and simulation services; and promoting a science forum
to encourage scientific and industrial cooperation.

Robotics should not be seen solely as an
application of artificial intelligence, though it is
a major one. More than a simple embodiment of the
potential of AI, robotics offers an additional dimension
through the combination of perception and action
capabilities. New applications and markets for robotics
are emerging for all types of physical environment,
whether structured or unpredictable, indoors or
outdoors (including space and the deep sea), through
exploration and confrontation with the physical world,
which form an essential part of the development of
knowledge and cognitive functions.
Multimodal artificial perception augmented by means
of action (perception embedded in mobile robots
or integrated into manipulation devices) opens up
the possibility of advanced cognitive capabilities for
perceiving environments, understanding instructions
and situations, reasoning regarding missions and
tasks, adapting to changes and improving human
collaboration with equipment: natural communication
through language and non-verbal signals, safer
operations, and optimisation of activities (mobility,
manipulation, perception) of single and multi-robot
systems. Hardware/software co-design also makes it
possible to build systems that combine physical and
cognitive capabilities in order to achieve optimal and
adaptive behaviour in response to dynamics and the
need for interaction with the environment.
While the convergence between AI and robotics
is a defining feature of the current technological
acceleration, innovations in robotics are also the result
of significant advances in hardware components such
Robotics: a New Dynamic Thanks to
AI
Catherine Simon, Industrial Digital Advisor, General Secretariat for Investment
as embedded electronics, sensors, actuators, materials,
batteries and connectivity networks. AI and robotics are
“General Purpose Technologies” that have the potential
to radically change societies through their impact on
economic and social structures. It is therefore crucial
that we develop and master the innovative capabilities
and tools needed for our transformation, but also that
we reclaim their industrialisation and integration into
solutions that are aligned with our social models and
cultural values.
Levels of French and European investment are modest
compared to those announced by the United States
and China. Strategic differentiation is essential.
Our approach must strengthen the expertise and
competitiveness of our industries, while guaranteeing
and securing sovereign solutions for our critical sectors,
such as infrastructure (water, energy, communications,
logistics and mobility) and life sciences (biology,
pharmaceuticals, health, agroecology). A reflection on
the interplay of civil and military aspects has become
necessary. We need to remove the barriers to the
development of “AI-native” robotics and perirobotics
that will be premium in terms of performance,
autonomy, physical and cybersecurity, etc., as well as
efficient in terms of energy and resources, sustainable,
modular and interoperable so that they can be adapted
to the right needs at the right cost. Retrofitting and
circularity must be considered from the design stage
onwards.
Nothing can be achieved without the strategic
alignment of French and European political and
industrial drive for coherent investment in innovation,
or without coordinating our excellence in research
with the dynamic energy of our entrepreneurs and the
strength of our major companies. Finally, as an absolute
priority, nothing can be achieved without developing
and attracting talent and expertise to bold projects for
our common future.

Robotic cochlear implants: an extension
of the surgeon’s hand
Surgeons already have robotic tools at their disposal
for certain operations. But in the future, the implants
themselves could be mobile and controlled to facilitate
their insertion. The Robocop collaborative company
research project (PRCE) is a first step in this direction: it
has developed the first prototype of a robotic cochlear
implant. This project is led by the Defrost project team
at the Inria Centre at the University of Lille and funded
by the French National Research Agency (ANR). It brings
together the Laboratory of Polymer and Interface
Physicochemistry (LPPI), the Institute of Electronics,
Microelectronics and Nanotechnology (IEMN), Inserm
and the hearing aid specialist Oticon Medical, which has
since been acquired by the world leader Cochlear.
TIRREX: accelerating French research in
robotics
The TIRREX project brings together around twenty
robotics laboratories, including three Inria project
teams (Defrost, Rainbow and Willow), to share cutting-
edge equipment and software. This open infrastructure
is aimed at developing faster and more accurate robots
for a variety of sectors such as surgery, logistics and
construction, paving the way for the robotics of the
future.
Upkie, an open source robot opening
up new avenues for training and
collaboration
Developed by Stéphane Caron at the Inria Centre in
Paris, Upkie is an open-source bipedal robot designed
to be assembled using components available online and
3D printed parts. It is designed to improve the training
of young scientists in robotics and encourage scientific
collaboration, making robotics more accessible.
Flexible robots heading towards
industrial applications
Compliance Robotics, a start-up which emerged from
the Defrost project team (jointly run by the CRIStAL
laboratory - Centrale Lille, CNRS, University of Lille, Inria
Centre at the University of Lille), is developing flexible
robots made from polymers and silicone. These robots,
which are able to deform and resist over the long term,
are particularly well suited to industrial applications
requiring the manipulation of delicate objects or access
to restricted spaces.
ViSP: towards ever more efficient robots
The ViSP open source platform, designed by Inria
researchers, facilitates the development of new robotics
applications using image processing and simulation
techniques. It brings together a set of modular software
building blocks, enabling the efficient control of robotic
systems in various industrial and research contexts.
Humanoïds 2024.

How does Inria Defence and Security address the
issue of disinformation with its partners?
There is now talk about hybrid wars: in other words,
conflicts affecting both states and citizens are
now taking place in cyberspace. In such a context,
disinformation has become a major issue for both the
armed forces and the Ministry of the Interior. It is a
comprehensive democratic and digital problem, which
also involves the challenge of the resilience of citizens
and the development of responses by the different
nations. We have therefore laid the foundations for a
partnership with Viginum with the aim of helping to
detect the manipulation of information originating
from foreign countries.
In the same vein, we are working with the Ministry of
the Armed Forces on the entire chain of disinformation,
from the analysis of manipulated content to its impact
and the way it is disseminated. It is very important
to address the issue in its entirety: when does the
manipulation take place? Who is it aimed at? What
is the geopolitical and cultural context? What is the
desired outcome (propaganda, fraud, etc.)? What can
be produced in response? Our joint work enables us to
study the targets and methods of disinformation, to
assess its real impact and to propose counter-attacks.
Disinformation is one of the three priority subjects of
AMIAD, the new ministerial agency for defence AI, which
is opening the way to multidisciplinary collaboration
(ethnology, sociology, geopolitics).
What other challenges does Inria Defence and
Security face?
Other topics covered by the institute are of interest to
the armed forces, such as space technology through
hyperspectral image processing for space observation
and surveillance, decision-making, AI embedded in
drones or robots, digital twins and quantum technology.
This year, we consolidated our agreement with the
French Directorate of Military Intelligence (DRM)
Inria Defence and Security, at the
Heart of a Digital Defence Ecosystem
focusing on IntelLab, and launched new projects such
as the data hub for the armed forces, which produces
annotated data of interest to the armed forces (such as
entities, locations and events) to train AI systems and
evaluate their performance.
The INDAGO software, developed by the MASSAI project
team at the Inria Centre at Université Côte d’Azur, is
now used by various departments of the Ministry of
the Armed Forces: it analyses both the connections and
the content of messages in a communication network,
enabling, for example, the detection of weak signals,
while processing large volumes of data. We also have
a joint project with the General Staff, the Directorate
General of Armaments and ANSSI, which involves
securing information on conventional networks that
cannot be shared with allies (Special France), so that this
type of information no longer has to be processed on
specific networks.
Defence also overlaps with other areas. These include
energy, to support efforts to control the energy balance
of systems or to anticipate the effects of climate change
on armaments and infrastructure. The health sector
is also involved in the work of the NERV project team,
which is working with the armed forces’ health service
on the treatment of haemorrhagic injuries, while the
Lacodam project team from the Inria Centre at the
University of Rennes is collaborating with the same
service on the treatment of post-traumatic nightmares.
How does Inria work within an ecosystem on defence
issues?
We meet with our partner universities to broaden the
range of subjects and collaborative work. This allows
Inria to share its knowledge of the armed forces’ needs
with its entire ecosystem so that we can better respond
to these needs together.
Our links with industry are also very strong, with
a number of partnerships being developed with
Sopra Steria, Safran, Airbus and Naval Group. These
collaborations have also given rise to new joint project
teams such as Astral at the Inria Centre at Bordeaux
University with Naval Group, or GammaO at the Inria
Centre in Saclay with ONERA.
This ecosystem is also expanding at European level:
Inria Defence and Security, for example, is involved
in the European EICACS project as part of the EDF
(European Defence Fund) programme coordinated by
Dassault, which focuses on aeronautical standards. Inria
Defence and Security is in charge of the work package
dealing with AI sovereignty for embedded aeronautical
software. We have produced a matrix with Dassault that
lists the criteria for sovereignty in Europe, as the issue
cannot be considered solely at national level.
Frédérique Segond, Director of Inria Defence and Security

Inria Startup
Studio: Supporting
Technological
Entrepreneurship
Pulse Audition: smart glasses for the
hearing impaired
Founded in 2022 in Sophia Antipolis by Manuel
Pariente and Thibaud Moufle-Milot, Pulse Audition has
developed “Pulse Frames”, intelligent hearing glasses
incorporating AI to improve speech intelligibility in
noisy environments. In January 2024, the start-up was
recognised by Business France at the CES in Las Vegas,
receiving the “Health Tech” award for this innovation.
In January 2025, EssilorLuxottica announced the
acquisition of Pulse Audition, strengthening its presence
in the field of AI-based hearing technologies.
Skyld: improving the security of
embedded AI
Founded in 2023 by cryptography expert Marie
Paindavoine, Skyld is a start-up specialising in improving
the security of artificial intelligence algorithms
embedded in devices such as smartphones and
connected objects. After a year at the Startup Studio,
in May 2023, Skyld joined SkyDeck, the accelerator at
the University of California in Berkeley, renowned for its
high standards.
DeepHawk: frugal AI for reliable industrial
quality control
Founded in 2022 in Rennes by Gilles Allain and Tomas
Crivelli, DeepHawk is revolutionising visual quality
control in the industrial sector thanks to frugal
artificial intelligence. The start-up was incubated at
IMT Atlantique, and benefited from the support of Inria
Startup Studio to develop its patented technology,
which is capable of detecting anomalies in real time
with exceptional accuracy, while requiring little training
data and reducing the carbon footprint compared with
traditional solutions. In December 2024, DeepHawk
raised €1 million in pre-seed funding from The Moon
Venture, consolidating its position in the industrial
quality control market. The start-up is already working
with major stakeholders such as Stellantis and plans to
expand its presence internationally.
Hope Valley AI, an AI start-up dedicated
to early breast cancer detection
Hope Valley AI, a CEA-Inria-Université Paris-Saclay
spin-off, is developing an innovative technological
solution using artificial intelligence to rapidly detect
early warning signs of breast cancer or its recurrence.
In October 2024, Hope Valley AI , supported by the
Inria Startup Studio, launched “Mammope®”, an
intelligent hybrid medical device with embedded AI,
dedicated to AI-assisted pre-screening, capable of
processing multimodal breast images to detect breast
abnormalities at an early stage and characterise the
variation in predictive risk markers. This variation is one
of the characteristics of weak signals that are precursors
to the incubation of breast cancer. The Mammope®
prototype went on display in January 2025 for a period
of twelve months at the Paris-Saclay Technology
Showroom. More recently, Hope Valley AI presented its
HOPE® application, designed as an intelligent digital
breast health clinic for smartphones, which will be
available for Breast Cancer month in October 2025 in
several languages to all women aged 25 and over.
Eight entrepreneurs supported by
Inria Startup Studio win awards in
the Bpifrance i-PhD and i-Lab 2024
innovation competitions
The i-PhD winners: Prakriti Saxena for her
OptiWise project; Yasser Mohseni for his LabSae
project; Hugo Miralles for his Mantaproject .
The i-Lab Winners: Raphaelle Taub for her
Matricis.ai project; Justine Bonnot for her
WedoLow project; David Sabbagh for his
AlphaBrain project; Christian Duriez for his
Compliance Roboticsproject, which also won a
Grand Prize; Hervé Mathieu for his Denergium
project.
The start-up Pulse Audition was present on the Inria stand at Viva
Technology 2024.

What were Inria’s main projects and contributions to
the 2024 Olympics?
Inria became involved very early on in projects related
to the 2024 Paris Olympic Games through the PPR
(priority research programme) for high-performance
sport, either leading or as partners in several major
initiatives. In particular, we worked on the PerfAnalytics
project, which brought together a number of partners
focusing on the issue of 3D movement measurement
and in situ biomechanical analysis, and on the REVEA
project , using virtual reality to prepare Olympic teams
for competition. We also took part in the BEST-Tennis
project , which focused on improving performance
during tennis serves, and the Neptune project, on
improving swimming strokes.
As well as these major projects, Inria played an active
role in the CNRS Sport research group, organising
summer schools and webinars. We also strengthened
our partnership with INSEP through a four-year
agreement which is currently being renewed. This
trust-based alliance enabled us to make preparations
for the Olympic Games in excellent conditions, taking
advantage of INSEP’s facilities while providing them
with our technological expertise.
Finally, 2024 was marked by awareness-raising
initiatives, such as the Fête de la Science devoted to
sport, organised in Paris and the regions, as well as the
Sport Unlimitechevent, which we organised in Rennes in
June 2024.
What do you take away from this very special year?
The key takeaway from 2024 is the closer relationship
between the world of research and high-level sport.
In my 25-year career, dialogue has sometimes been
2024: Sport and the Olympic Games
in the Spotlight
difficult because of differences in language and time
frames. Thanks to the PPR projects, this gap has been
significantly reduced: we now know how to listen to the
needs on the ground, and Olympic sports federations
have appointed scientific advisors to facilitate the link
between sport and research. This is a valuable legacy.
Today, Inria is clearly identified as a major player in the
field of sport. This paves the way for future innovations
in this sector, but also in others. In particular, the
Olympic Games have contributed to the emergence
of new scientific topics, mainly concerning sport and
health, and have helped to address complex issues such
as compliance with GDPR constraints in data analysis, or
the design of sensors capable of withstanding extreme
conditions (cold, rain, snow, etc.) or that are simply
accepted in competition. The prediction of injuries,
statistically seen as rare events, or the measurement of
performance in real competition conditions, are other
promising areas of research.
How does Inria plan to capitalise on this experience
to advance its research in sport and other fields?
The real challenge today is the legacy of the Olympic
Games: how can we ensure that everything that has
been developed does not disappear after the event?
We have forged excellent relationships with federations,
coaches and athletes, and created a real need. We need
to sustain this momentum over time, and to ensure
that this link between scientists and those involved
in sport continues. Exchanges are easy today, but
without financial support, this link could weaken. We
are currently discussing the implementation of a PEPR
2. We are also looking at launching a joint project team
with INSEP to coordinate this collaboration in the long
term. Finally, we are considering working with industrial
partners to ensure the maintenance and long-term
viability of the solutions we have developed.
Finally, we have co-created CORPS, a strategic group
in alliance with the CNRS, Inserm, Inria, C3D STAPS,
INSEP, Agence Nationale du Sport, Sciences 2024, APHP,
Université Aix-Marseille, the humanities and MESRI.
Our aim is to define strategic actions across a range of
fields (sport, health, society) and act as a driving force
behind proposals for the legacy of the Games. And to
start looking further ahead, towards the next Winter
Games, and the 2028 Olympic Games.
Franck Multon, Director of Research at Inria and Head of the MimeTIC
project team, Inria Centre at the University of Rennes
Test day for the PerfAnalytics project.

Digital technology and sports
performance: research for athletes
Research in the digital sciences is revolutionising
training for top-level athletes by offering advanced
performance analysis tools. Numerous research
projects led by Inria project teams are working to
develop sophisticated data analysis methods specifically
adapted to sports, based on machine learning, statistical
modelling and signal processing to extract valuable
information from the data collected. In football, for
example, scientists from the MimeTIC project team at
the Inria Centre at the University of Rennes designed a
simulator now used by the Stade Rennais football team
to optimise the placement of free kick walls and train
goalkeepers to better monitor the game in the run-up
to a shot on goal.
Sport and digital technology: preventing
injuries for athletes
Musculoskeletal injuries, such as sprains and tendonitis,
are common among top-level athletes, leading to
prolonged periods of inactivity and complicated
rehabilitation. To anticipate these injuries, a number
of Inria scientists have been working alongside
stakeholders from the world of sport to develop
algorithms and tools dedicated to preventing them. For
example, in partnership with the M2S laboratory, the
MimeTIC project-team ran BEST-Tennis PPR, a project
to support players from the French Tennis Federation
(both able-bodied and wheelchair users), to help them
optimise their serve and return performance. The goal is
to improve their performance while reducing the risk
of injury.
Science and concussion in sports: towards
a safer return to the game
After a concussion, an athlete can only return to the
game once their clinical symptoms have disappeared.
However, physiological dysfunctions can persist despite
the absence of symptoms, increasing the risk of relapse.
By analysing avoidance behaviour, Anne-Hélène Olivier,
a lecturer at the University of Rennes 2 and researcher
in the VirtUs project team at the Inria Centre at the
University of Rennes, has found that players who have
suffered concussion in the last six months make riskier
or more inappropriate decisions than those who have
not. To refine these observations, the team is now
using virtual reality, which enables standardised and
reproducible tests to be carried out, in order to monitor
the progress of concussed athletes over the long term
and better assess their recovery, for a safer return to the
game.
Cycling and extended reality: using AI to
anticipate breakaways
The European ShareSpace project, headed by the
M2S laboratory at the University of Rennes 2 and in
partnership with the MimeTIC project team from the
Inria Centre at the University of Rennes, uses virtual
reality to help cyclists detect the signs of a breakaway
in a peloton, optimising their reactivity during the race.
To achieve this, MimeTIC is developing an immersive
simulation to help cyclists detect the subtle signs
preceding a breakaway. By amplifying the signs ahead
of an attack in virtual reality, this technology enables
cyclists to detect opponents’ attacks more effectively
and react more quickly by pursuing the attacker at their
wheel.
2024 Olympic Games: Inria scientists
at the heart of the PPR (priority
research programme) on high-
performance sport
Under the France 2030 programme, the €20
million priority research programme (PPR) on
high-performance sport supported applied
research aimed at optimising the preparation
of French athletes for the 2024 Olympic Games.
Among the flagship projects, PerfAnalytics and
REVEA have involved a number of Inria scientists.
The first project uses artificial intelligence and
data analysis to optimise athletes’ performance
by providing advanced assessment and decision-
making tools to coaches and athletes, while
the second, headed by the M2S laboratory
at the University of Rennes 2 and launched
in collaboration with athletics, boxing and
gymnastics federations, applies virtual reality to
refine athletes’ perceptual-motor and cognitive-
motor processes.
Demonstration of the MimeTIC project at VivaTech 2023.

Managing the Impact of Digital
Technology via the Humanities
The relationship between
the digital sciences and the
humanities is different today from
what it was in the past. Long defined
by the contribution they could make
in terms of social acceptability, the
humanities are now expected to do
more than simply pave the way for
technologies to reach the market.
The situation has become both more
complex and more urgent.
Complex, first of all, because
although digital technology has
become widely used, the problem
of the essential intertwining of
social and technical rules arises.
Through its presence at the heart
of organisations and in the private
lives of users, digital technology calls
for in-depth studies in sociology,
information and communication
sciences, political science, and social
and cognitive psychology. Ethics too
is called upon to engage in dialogue
with digital sciences in a new way
– it could be defined, at the very
least, as the desire to ensure that
technologies do not prevent us from
becoming better people.
Secondly, it is urgent because
global warming is accelerating and
environmental disasters appear
to be multiplying. The call for
responsible digital technology is
more than just a militant slogan:
in just a few years, it has become a
legitimate focus for action for those
responsible for research, industry
and public institutions. In this
regard, one of the key challenges
today is to bring digital design
strategies and environmental ethics
principles as close together as
possible.
Creating an open digital world: a research
chair to bring the economy and AI closer
together
The Inria Foundation has launched the “Markets and
Learning” chair, headed by the renowned American
researcher Michael Jordan, Professor Emeritus of
Computer Science at the University of Berkeley, in
close collaboration with the SIERRA project team (Inria
Centre in Paris). It is supported by five major corporate
sponsors (Air Liquide, BNP Paribas, EDF, Orange
and SNCF). This chair will focus on the development
of algorithmic foundations for highly variable
environments and the organisation of new markets
based on large-scale interpersonal data flows, all with
the aim of facilitating technology transfer.
SINNet, improving social relations between
robots and users
The SINNet project, led by Justine Cassell from the
ALMAnaCH project team at the Inria Centre in Paris,
aims to make conversational systems and social robotics
a more acceptable and reliable technology. The project
is developing neural models capable of analysing the
user’s behaviour and generating a system response that
promotes the user-system social relationship.
BACK IN TIME: harnessing cryptography,
history and AI to decipher manuscripts
Uncovering the secrets of documents that have gone
undeciphered for centuries through a combination of
cryptography, history and AI is the ambitious aim of
the BACK IN TIME project, winner of the 2024 Historia
Prize. While the long-term objective is to develop an
automated tool for decryption and transcription,it
should also help to lay the groundwork for collaboration
between three disciplines which, on the surface, might
not have much in common, but have a lot to share.
When law meets research
Juliette Sénéchal is a professor of Private Law at the
University of Lille, working as part of the Spirals project
team at the Inria Centre at the University of Lille.
Her research focuses on digital law, and in particular
personal data law. In collaboration with the Magnet
project team and the Ipop project of the Cybersecurity
PEPR, several responses to consultations launched
by the CNIL have been written on the subject of
web scraping and the creation of databases to train
generative AI. Juliette Sénéchal also jointly directs
interdisciplinary workshops on digital practices for
influencing and manipulating consumers.
ATRIUM, facilitating access to a range of
essential services and crossing disciplinary
boundaries
ATRIUM (Advancing Frontier Research In the Arts and
Humanities) is a European project designed to support
researchers in the humanities in their use of digital
methods, by offering simplified access to interoperable
and modular services from four major research
infrastructures: DARIAH, ARIADNE, CLARIN and OPERAS).
It brings together 17 partners and 12 affiliated entities
from 12 countries across Europe.
Thierry Ménissier, Professor of Political Philosophy, Université Grenoble Alpes

Our ERC Prizewinners
Justin Carpentier
A robot that moves autonomously
in a real, complex environment such
as a hospital... this task currently
remains impossible. But thanks to
the ERC Starting Grant recently
awarded to Justin Carpentier, head
of the joint project team Willow
(ENS-PSL/CNRS/Inria Paris Centre),
this challenge could well become
a reality. The researcher intends to
combine enhanced environmental
perception, planning and fine
control of movement with machine
learning. The goal is to give robots
greater adaptability and agility.
Daniel Stilck-França
Quantum computing is a highly
promising field... but these promises
have yet to be fully realised. One of
the reasons is the “noise” to which
the particles at work in quantum
computers are subjected, which
causes calculation errors. Daniel
Stilck França, a researcher in the
“Once again this year, scientists from Inria have been awarded prestigious ERC grants,
which support exploratory research at the highest international level. An ERC grant
enables scientists to engage in ambitious projects and explore original avenues of
research. These awards are a strong indicator of the vitality of digital science and
technology and contribute to the visibility and attractiveness of research in Europe.”
Marie-Hélène Pautrat, Director of European Partnerships.
QInfo project team at the Inria
Centre in Saclay, is determined to
overcome this obstacle and has
recently been awarded an ERC
Starting Grant.
Adrien Taylor
Certifying optimisation algorithms
and improving their transparency
to make them easier to use. This is
the challenge being taken up in the
Casper project, led by Adrien Taylor,
a researcher in the joint project
team Sierra (ENS-PSL/CNRS/Inria
Centre Paris), having recently been
awarded an ERC Starting Grant. The
project looks at the implications
in areas where optimisation is
useful, such as power network
management, robot control and
image processing.
George Drettakis
George Drettakis, head of the
GraphDeco project team at the Inria
Centre at Université Côte d’Azur, is
aiming to improve the quality and
accuracy of computer-generated
images by harnessing the power
of deep learning methods and the
precision and control of physics-
based simulation. This is his second
ERC Advanced Grant.
The Malinca project
The MALINCA project, jointly led
by Philippe de Groote (Director
of Research at Inria, head of the
SÉMAGRAMME project team at the
Inria Centre at the University of
Lorraine), Hugo Herbelin (Director
of Research at Inria, member of
the PICUBE project team), Paul-
André Melliès (Director of Research
at the CNRS, head of the PICUBE
project team) and Carlos Simpson
(Director of Research at the CNRS),
has won the ERC Synergy Grant
2024 call for proposals. This project
aims to bridge the linguistic gap
between mathematicians and
demonstration software assistants
such as Coq. Ultimately, the team
hopes that machines will be able
to analyse, understand and exploit
mathematical texts written in this
particular fragment of the language
that mathematicians use to
communicate with each other and
publish their results.

Researchers
Honoured in 2024
Michel Beaudouin-Lafon,
Université Paris Saclay
Gérard Biau,
Sorbonne University
More about Pierre Rouchon
Acclaimed for his outstanding scientific career,
Pierre Rouchon has been elected as a member
of the French Academy of Sciences, which
honours researchers who have made a significant
contribution to their discipline.
Pierre Rouchon is a specialist in automatic
control and quantum technologies, and has
contributed to major advances, particularly in the
real-time control of quantum systems, paving the
way for innovative applications in this cutting-
edge field.
He is an associate professor at the Systems and
Control Centre (CAS) at Mines Paris-PSL, and
has been a member of the QUANTIC (QUANTum
Information Circuits) project team since 2015. This
interdisciplinary team is made up of researchers
from the Physics Laboratory of the Ecole Normale
Supérieure (LPENS), Mines Paris-PSL and Inria.
Its main aim is to develop both methods and
experimental devices to ensure robust processing
of quantum information.
Elected as members of the French Academy of Sciences
Anne Canteaut, Inria Pierre Rouchon,
Mines de Paris - PSL
Électricité de
France Grand Prix
Ampère - French
Academy of
Sciences
Xavier Pennec,
Inria
Inria - French
Academy of
Sciences Grand
Prize
George Drettakis,
Inria
2024 L’Oréal-UNESCO Young Talent
Award France for Women in Science
Solenne Gaucher, Inria
Sibylle Marcotte, Inria
Élodie Germani,
Inria
Madeleine Kubasch,
Inria

2024 CNIL-Inria Prize
Alexandre Debant and Lucca Hirschi, Inria
Inria - French
Academy of
Sciences Young
Researchers Prize
Julie Josse, Inria
Inria - French Academy of Sciences -
Dassault Systèmes Innovation Prize
Brice Goglin and Samuel Thibault (University of Bordeaux)
More about Julie Josse
Julie Josse is a Director of Research in statistics
and machine learning. She uses medical data
to help healthcare professionals and scientists
better manage certain emergencies, predict the
progression of diseases, adapt treatments to
individual patients, and design the clinical trials
of the future. In 2024, she was awarded the Inria
- French Academy of Sciences Young Researchers
Prize.
In 2022, Julie Josse created and took charge of
the project team Premedical (Precision Medicine
by Data Integration and Causal Learning), jointly
run by Inria (Inria branch of the University of
Montpellier) and Inserm. This team, made up of
researchers in statistics, machine learning and
AI, as well as clinicians, specialises in developing
personalised medicine methods that guarantee
data confidentiality. Among its objectives, the
project team seeks to accelerate the availability
of targeted drugs on the market and deploy
decision support algorithms by quantifying
confidence in predictions as effectively as possible.
French Academy
of Sciences Prize -
History of Science
and Epistemology
Medal
Gilles Dowek, Inria
French Academy
of Sciences -
Maurice Audin
Mathematics Prize
Léon Matar Tine,
Claude Bernard University
Irène Joliot Curie
Prize - Female
Scientist of the
Year
Sylvie Méléard,
École Polytechnique -
IP Paris
Lovelace-Babbage Prize from
the French Academy of Sciences, in
partnership with the French Computer
Science Society
Omar Fawzi and Anne-Cécile Orgerie (CNRS)

Annual budget report for the 2024 financial year
Inria’s budget management for 2024 shows a strong increase in the institute’s expenditure,
reflecting the significant growth in its activity described in this annual report. The institute’s
expenditure has risen by around €23.3M, from €289.5M in 2023 to €312.8M in 2024. Revenue has
also risen by €54.9M, from €268.3M in 2023 to €323.2M in 2024. Thanks to this strategy and its
implementation, 2024 ended with a budget surplus of €10.4M.
In detail, in terms of revenue, the Subsidy for Public Service Expenses (SCSP) stands at €204.7M
compared to €186M in 2022 and €191.6M in 2023. It represents 63% of the revenues received for the
2024 financial year.
Own resources collected amount to €118.5M. They accounted for 37% of all of the institute’s
resources in 2024.
By nature, expenditure breaks down as follows:
→ €238.3M of payroll costs (76% of total expenditure), including €179.3M for the Restrictive Wage
Bill and €59M for the Non-Restrictive Wage Bill.
The number of “under the ceiling” staff has risen to 1,786 full-time equivalent hours worked
(FTEHW), compared with 1,554.1 in 2022 and 1,686 in 2023. The number of “non-ceiling” staff (i.e.
those whose pay is based on own resources) was 1227.4 FTEHW compared to 1090.1 in 2022 and
1134.0 in 2023.
→ €65.1M for non-scheduled investment and operating costs (FCI);
→ €9.4M in expenditure related to scheduled investment transactions (OIP).
Financial Report
Autres produits : 2,4M€
Subventions sur projet
ou programme de
recherche :
100M€
Contrats de recherche avec tiers
privés et publics : 11M€
Ventes de produits : éditions,
colloques, etc. : 1,9M€
Dons et legs aﬀectés : 1,2M€
Redevances pour brevets
et licences : 1M€
Opérations ﬁnancières -
Immobilisations : 1M€
Origin of own resources

By purpose, expenditure in 2024 included:
- €207.6M on scientific activities at research centres (item 1), 66 % of total expenditure in
2024
- €31.3M on joint research activity (item 2), i.e. 10%;
- €73.9M on support functions (item 3), i.e. 24%;
As has been the case since 2010, the 2024 accounts have been certified by two statutory
auditors, currently Ernst Young and Deloitte.
For the 2024 financial year, the statutory auditors maintained the two reservations they had
issued in the 2023 financial statements, relating to anomalies caused by the rollout of the new
Eksae ESFI accounting and financial management software:
- a reservation concerning the justification of the accrued expenses item and the impact
of these anomalies on operating expenses, fixed assets and related depreciation and
amortisation charges;
- a reservation relating to intangible and tangible fixed assets, resulting from the inability
to determine the exhaustiveness and assessment of the gross values and depreciation of
fixed assets, as well as the related write-backs of investment subsidies.
The 2024 financial statement shows a deficit of €26.7M (following a deficit of €35.6M for the
previous financial year).
The main changes in the result are:
 an increase in subsidies and similar income (+ €21.1M), which is explained, firstly, by
the growth in the subsidy for public service expenses (+ €13.3M), and secondly, by that in
other operating subsidies (+ €7.9M);
 an increase in payroll costs (up €14.5M), mainly due to a 6.9% increase in staff numbers,
from 2,820 FTEHWs in 2023 to 3,013 FTEHWs in 2024.
The balance sheet total (assets and liabilities) stood at €349.7M in 2024 compared to
€329.7M in 2023.

Income statement
In thousands of euros 2024 2023
Variation
2024/2023
Subsidy for public service expenses 204,850 191,541 7%
Operating subsidies granted by the State and other public entities 58,921 51,052 15%
Subsidies allocated to funding maintenance costs - - -
Donations and bequests 270 329 -18%
Allocated tax income - - -
SUBSIDIES AND SIMILAR INCOME 264,041 242,922 9%
Sales of goods or services 11,516 12,196 -6%
Income from the sale of assets 11 36 -69%
Other management income 5,725 6,653 -14%
Inventory and self-constructed assets - - -
Income earned for provision of a public service - - -
DIRECT INCOME FROM ACTIVITY 17,252 18,885 -9%
Write-backs on depreciation and provisions 24,595 18,343 34%
Write-backs of asset-related funds 4,463 5,308 -16%
OTHER INCOME 29,058 23,651 23%
OPERATING INCOME 310,351 285,458 9%
Use of goods and supplies, works and services 54,430 53,810 1%
Payroll costs 221,566 207,028 7%
Other operating costs (incl. losses/write-offs) 28,551 25,714 11%
Depreciation and provisions, Net accounting value of assets disposed of 32,483 34,554 -6%
OPERATING COSTS 337,030 321,106 5%
NET INCOME (OR LOSS) FROM ACTIVITY -26,679 -35,648 -25%
Write-backs on depreciation and provisions - - -
FINANCIAL INCOME - - -
Other financial costs - - -
FINANCIAL EXPENSES - - -
NET FINANCIAL INCOME (OR LOSS) - - -
Corporate tax - - -
FISCAL YEAR PROFIT OR LOSS -26,679 -35,648 -25%

Key Dates
January
→ Declaration of commitments to the
ecological transition and sustainable
development by Inria and fifteen other
national research bodies.
→ Sophie Proust appointed Executive
Director of the Program Agency
supported by our institute.
→ Presentation of the Meditwin
consortium at the France 2030
anniversary.
February
→
Signing of a new milestone in the
partnership between Inria and
University College London (UCL).
March
→ Launch of the Artificial Intelligence
PEPR.
→ Launch of the O2R PEPR.
→ Launch of the “Organic Robotics”
exploratory research programme.
→
Publication of the Hcéres evaluation
report.
→
Graduation of the first Inria Master
Class group and a second group
welcomed.
April
→ Launch of the Cloud PEPR.
→ The journal Interstices celebrated its
20th anniversary.
May
→ Scientific and cultural cooperation
agreement between the Cour des
Comptes and Inria.
→ Publication of the results of LaborIA’s
exploratory study on AI at work.
→ Call for proposals for the Digital
Twinning of France and its regions
launched by IGN, Cerema and Inria.
June
→ Signing of a partnership between BPI
France and Inria to help SMEs adjust
more quickly to the to the challenges
and issues of digital technology.
→ Launch of the Inria Quadrant
Programme (PIQ).
→ First committee meeting for the
Program Agency Partners.
→ First Inria-Ministry of Defence study
day in Rocquencourt.
→ Creation of a Territorial Strategy
Support Department (DGD-PS).
→
Signing of a partnership between
Inria and the LNE with a view to the
creation of INESIA.
July
→
Inria at Club France at the Paris 2024
Olympic Village.
September
→ Launch of the P16 initiative with
Probabl. as part of the national AI
strategy.
October
→ Launch of the “Markets and
Learning” chair, headed by American
researcher Michael I. Jordan, supported
by the Inria Foundation.
November
→ Creation of a Franco-Chilean
Binational Centre on AI led by Inria
Chile.
→ The first France-Universities, Inria,
Udice seminar with the presidents of
the 15 partner universities (ahead of
the future Inria Partner Universities
Council).
December
→ Vote on the COMP 2024-2028 by the
Inria Board of Directors.

Inria is the French National Institute for Research in Digital
Science and Technology. Since January 2024, it has been responsible
for the Digital Program Agency, which aims to strengthen
collaborative initiatives in higher education and research.
World-class research, technological innovation and entrepreneurial risk
are an integral part of its DNA. Within 300 projects, the majority of which
work jointly with major research universities, more than 3,800 scientists
explore new paths, often through an interdisciplinary approach and in
association with business partners to meet ambitious challenges. In its role
as a technology institute, Inria supports the diversity of innovation, from
open-source software publishing to the creation of Deeptech start-ups.
Inria has been awarded the Carnot Institute certification, which confirms
its commitment to bringing research and industry closer together.
Inria
-
Dcom
-
June
2025

Annual report 2024 - Inria - English version.pdf

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