France 2030: 241 winners of the Government Innovation Awards

“Turning France into a leading country for the creation and development of innovative companies, relying in particular on the latest advances in French research”: this is the bet of the French government which created the Innovation Contests (Concours d’innovation in French) rewarding researchers and entrepreneurs in order to “boost the emergence of great French champions at the international level and to encourage the entrepreneurial spirit in the deeptech”.

A ceremony marked by the acceleration of the process

Through its three different parts, iPhD, i-Lab and i-Nov, the Innovation Contest by the French government supports researchers and entrepreneurs capable of imagining solutions to major health, ecological and demographic challenges. These 241 researchers and entrepreneurs, each at their own level, were rewarded during a ceremony that was presented under the sign of “marked by the acceleration of the process”.

The i-PhD part

The latest aspect of the Innovation Contest is aimed at young researchers to promote their work and create or co-create start-ups in conjunction with technology transfer structures and public research laboratories.  In this category, 36 projects, including 10 Grand Prizes, were selected from the 57 applications submitted. 41% of the winners are foreign candidates. Each winner will benefit from high visibility and, more importantly, a support programme to help accelerate their project (mentoring, privileged access to the French Tech fund).

Being a winner of the i-PhD competition is first and foremost a recognition of the work accomplished, but also a real opportunity that gives credit and visibility at national scale to the “AGROINNOV” project. Michela Ion Scotta (Italian alumni), Grand Prize Winner

The i-Lab part

This part promotes the results of public research through the creation of innovative technology companies. It finances the best research and development projects for the finalisation of an innovative technological product, process or service, thanks to significant financial aid and appropriate support. For the 2022 edition, the jury of experts awarded 78 winners out of the 395 applications submitted, including alumni, particularly in the field of health, digital and mechanical engineering.

The i-Nov part

This part supports innovation projects “with a particularly strong potential for the French economy” led by start-ups and SMEs, in order to promote “the emergence of leading companies that can claim a global scale”. It allows projects to be co-financed and contributes to the acceleration of development with the marketing of innovative solutions with high technological content. In total, for step 7 and 8 of the competition (launched in 2021), 127 winners have been rewarded, pushing the total amount of prizes to €80.1M.

A new call for i-Nov projects based on four themes

It is in this last category and in the continuity of the previous steps that the call for projects for wave 10 of the i-Nov competition has opened. This new call for projects financed by the France 2030 plan aims at selecting innovation projects with particularly strong potential for the French economy developed by start-ups and/or SMEs (which must be registered in France in the trade and companies register).

Open until 28 September, the i-Nov competition will co-finance research, development and innovation projects with a total cost of between €1M and €5M and a duration of between 12 and 36 months.

To compete, applicants must submit a project matching one of the following four themes:

• Digital field: projects presenting significant innovations in the development of digital technologies, while offering strong market prospects, taking into account the environmental and ecological impact;
• Health field: projects presenting significant breakthrough innovations in terms of products;
• transport, mobility, cities and buildings field with high efficiency in terms of sustainability: projects focusing on sustainable mobility and carbon-free transports, sustainable buildings, but also public space and urban planning
• energies, resources and natural environments: projects including a transformation of models of energy production and management of resources to face the carbon-free challenges, the decrease of environment impacts throughout the lifecycle challenges and restraint challenges.

To know more

-  General presentation

- Press release

- Call for projects for the next i-Nov Contest

- FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions to check before submitting a project) 

Photo credit:  © Campus France