CNRS Informatics has built strong connections with a network of laboratories from countries at the forefront of information science for a long while now. The Institute is forging strong links with research actors in emerging countries thus strengthening its position within today's globalized science.
Thanks to the cooperation tools set up by the CNRS, CNRS Informatics's researchers work in collaboration with information science laboratories on all continents.
Through its offices and its international research labs (IRL), the CNRS is one of the few research organizations in the world to have permanent representations and permanent research structures abroad. To support its international policy, CNRS Informatics has several collaborative tools at its disposal. The Institute is thus involved in:
Like the other CNRS institutes, CNRS Informatics benefits from support from the European Research and International Cooperation Department (Derci) for its international development.
In parallel with these structures, CNRS Informatics encourages researchers and academics in its laboratories to spend medium- to long-term periods abroad. Each year, about ten members of the Institute are assigned to the international joint units for a period of six months to two years
CNRS Informatics participates in the development of research and the training of young PhD students in countries with high levels of economic growth such as India, Mexico and Singapore.
CNRS Informatics is also present in developing countries with the associated international laboratory Datanet for big data research in Morocco and the Web Sciences international research network in Brazil. Numerous international scientific cooperation projects and joint research projects also promote exchanges between universities and foreign laboratories.
There are several schemes for structuring international collaborations, including IRL, IRP and IRN, with dedicated funding. Other initiatives, such as the IEA, also support scientific exchanges.
Depending on the maturity and history of the proposed cooperation, various types of mechanism can be considered:
There is no call for the creation of IRLs. This is discussed directly at CNRS Informatics in conjunction with the International Department.
For IRNs and IRPs, a call for interest (AMI) is launched annually. You will find here the documents corresponding to this AMI :
However, there are other types of action that promote international cooperation via regular calls:
CNRS Sciences informatiques offers researchers from its research units the opportunity to complete medium- or long-term stays abroad in one of its IRLs.
CNRS Informatics encourages researchers and academics in its units to complete medium- or long-term stays abroad. In addition to short- and long-term assignments, which must be set up at laboratory level, CNRS Informatics offers the possibility of a one-year (renewable once) expatriation to an IRL (of the institute or of another institute if relevant). We strongly advise you to contact us at ins2i-international@cnrs.fr, as well as the unit director of the IRL, before applying.
For academics, the application must be made to the CNRS (as part of the annual national campaign) for “Accueil en Délégation” status, which is required for expatriation.
CNRS researchers can apply by sending a proposal (scientific project, CV, list of scientific publications, letters of support from the director of the unit to be assigned and the director of the desired IRL, covering letter specifying the location and planned dates of the stay) to ins2i-international@cnrs.fr by December 1 at the latest, for departure in the following academic year. A preliminary discussion with the institute is advisable before starting to compile the application.
Researchers and academics who do not fall into these two categories should contact ins2i-international@cnrs.fr.
In all cases, applications must also be sent to the Director of the IRL.
The Institute decides on expatriations in March, based on the relevance of the projects to the IRL and the number of applications.
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This page intends to provide a reading of the Horizon Europe (HE) programme from a researcher perspective.
All official texts about HE are composed of fully cryptic jargon and acronyms. Here we try to introduce the main concepts without much of those, leaving an explanatory part on jargon to the end. As a consequence, the information provided here may not be always formally correct. For fully and formally correct descriptions of HE, good sources are the European Commission page of Horizon Europe and the same kind of page at the French Ministry, while the ultimate source is the European legislation that established the programme.
Horizon Europe (HE) is a programme that funds research across the European Union and some other countries, known under different names, like Associated Countries and others. Think of the French ANR and its funds opportunities. In the case of HE, the funds are disbursed by the European Commission itself, or by a number of joint undertakings between the Commission, Member States, and Industrial partners (see Partnerships further down), or yet by a number of European agencies, depending on the part of the programme to which the project belongs. Don’t get inhibited by the many acronyms of such agencies, like REA, ERCEA, HADEA, etc., as these are just administrative bodies executing the budget.
HE has several subprogrammes and each of them is designed to fund a specific type of research, according to their respective Work Programmes. Here are the main ones, listed by the type of research you may wish to develop at the European level.
Work Programmes are the official documents describing the call for proposals for each of the subprogrammes. They are usually published every two years. They are where you’ll find all the information you need in order to start your proposal.
Information about the Work Programmes can be found at the European Commission's funding portal, and all the calls for proposals can be found at calls.
Now that you know more or less where to look for the funding opportunities that most suit your current research goals, let us tell you how to map the above introduction into the documents you’ll find about HE.
Horizon Europe is presented as three pillars and one transversal component, as follows.
In the first pillar the legislation that established HE put the ERC, MSCA, and the Research Infrastructures, and called it “Excellent Science”. This of course begs the question whether the other pillars are for ‘mediocre science’. The answer is not. They all focus on excellence. It’s just that the other pillars are also driven by other considerations, like industrial competitiveness or innovation.
It’s in the second pillar that we find the RIA/IA for boosting key technologies and solutions underpinning EU policies & Sustainable Development Goals on few selected areas, called ‘Clusters’. There you’ll also find something called Joint Research Centre (JRC, or CCR in French). Don’t bother. The JRC is just a department of the European Commission. It is not truly a subprogramme but appears in this pillar because it is funded by HE .
The third pillar is the one driven by “Innovation”. You’ll find the EIC there.
The COST Actions mentioned above belong in the “Widening” part of the transversal component.
Lastly, but not least, in Pillar 2, HE has also the notion of Partnerships, which are an integral part of the programme and bring together players from the economic world and the academic world, along with the European Commission, in order to help and/or implement the execution of the Work Programmes.
One last word on an important jargon. Above we mentioned ‘technology maturity’. Horizon Europe is very specific about that and call it Technology Readiness Level, known as TRL. Levels go from 1 to 9, depending on the distance the technology stemming from your research is from market deployment (9 is closest). The following definitions of TRLs are given by HE, recognising that there are important differences between technological fields:
A rough correspondence can be established between the HE Pillars and expected TRLs, with lower TRLs usually pertaining to Pillar 1 and higher TRLs usually pertaining to Pillar 3, with Pillar 2 usually expecting mid TRLs. However, exceptions to this rule-of-thumb abound and one cannot establish a clear rule regarding expected TRLs by sub-programme. For example, the EIC, in Pillar 3, aims to fund projects both in low TRLs (EIC Pathfinder) and high TRLs (EIC Transition and EIC Accelerator).
If you have questions, don’t hesitate to contact your laboratory’s Correspondant Europe (each UMR CNRS has one such person).
We do hope that this information helps you finding your way in the HE jungle. If you see some way to improve this page, or any question, please send us an email.
IRL are laboratories located in partner universities which bring together researchers, students, post-doctoral students, engineers and technicians from both the CNRS and partner institutions in other countries.
IRLs are international research structures in which joint research is carried out on shared scientific directions. They provide structure in a specific location for the significant and lasting presence of scientists from a limited number of research institutions from France and other countries (just one partner country).
IRLs include establishments which bring together scientists belonging to different units and international units - joint research units with partners abroad (UMI) and service and research units (USR) located abroad. They are set up when backing from a dedicated operational research structure (SOR) is required.
IRLs last for 5 years.
An IRP is a collaborative research project set up by one or more CNRS laboratories and laboratories from one or two other countries.
These projects enable the consolidation of established collaborations through short- or medium-term scientific exchanges. Their aims are to organise work meetings or seminars, develop joint research activities including field research and finally to supervise students. Teams from France and other countries must have already proved they are able to collaborate together, for example through one or more joint publications. IRPs last for five years. CNRS Informatics currently has 12 IRPs which correspond to strategic international collaborations.
An International Research Network involves several partners from France and other countries and creates a beneficial forum for scientific exchanges on a given research theme.
An IRN brings together from one to three laboratories per country working under the supervision of a coordinating committee for a renewable 5-year period. CNRS Informatics currently has 4 IRNs underway:
