Innovation and the socio-economic sphere

Updated on: 26/01/2023

The University of Bordeaux intends to fully embrace its third mission as a player in innovation, particularly in support of social and environmental transitions. As such, the university contributes to strengthening its territory's capacity to innovate and undertake, thanks to the skills provided to future generations.

Photo : The University's VIA Inno platform © Arthur Pequin — The University's VIA Inno platform © Arthur Pequin

Based on the excellence and multidisciplinary approach of its research and educational programmes, on one hand, and on the territory's dynamic ecosystem, on the other, in 2019 the University of Bordeaux joined the ranks of the world's top 100 most innovative universities, and the European top 25 (source: Reuters). Furthermore, it is the 1st French university in terms of the number of patents filed every year (source: INPI).
Its innovation strategy is supported by the internal platform Via Inno, whose mission is to promote the practise and advancement of knowledge in technological intelligence within the French innovation ecosystem.

The University of Bordeaux aims to expand the culture of innovation and the entrepreneurial spirit to its entire student community and all its staff, to open its campuses up even more to partners in the socio-economic world and make its administration more responsive in order to facilitate and accelerate the innovation process.

It also wants to innovate its modes of collaboration and governance. To reach those goals, it has obtained initial funding of 24 million euros, as part of the ExcellenceS 2021 call for projects under the France Relance plan, for a 7-year period.

A privileged relationship with socio-economic partners

The University of Bordeaux enjoys productive and long-term relationships with businesses of all sizes. In addition to the recruitment of young graduates and research training for CIFRE grant holders, businesses benefit from the strong potential for innovation in the laboratories, which is reflected by the large number of patents or software products co-owned by the university or its partners (CNRS, Inserm, Inria, INRAE, Bordeaux INP, Bordeaux University Hospital, etc.). Some thirty framework agreements with industry illustrate the soundness of those relationships.

Work by researchers is also leveraged by the patents filed or the software developed that can lead to start-ups or licences sold to pre-existing companies.

SATT Aquitaine Science Transfert is the technology transfer acceleration company that plays an essential role in promoting the transfer of research work to the market.

Another indicator of the university's performance in innovation: about ten licence transfer agreements are concluded with companies every year.

Supporting entrepreneurial researchers

The University of Bordeaux supports its researchers in their innovation and business creation projects. Within the university, many departments are involved in boosting technology transfer and the promotion of research work.

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Joint university-company teams

The University of Bordeaux is involved in over twenty joint research entities, genuine tools for scientific and industrial cooperation between academics and companies.

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The hub: a unique networking application

The University of Bordeaux seized the opportunity of digital transformation to design and implement a digital third place capable of connecting its experts to the socio-economic sphere, to showcase its technological platforms and offer its facilities for rent.

As such, by connecting to The hub, scheduled to open to the public in autumn 2022, companies, local authorities and individuals will be able to access the university's main human or technological resources to create a project and associate the selected resources with it. Conversely, application users will be able to invite each other to join projects in progress, subject to their non-confidentiality.
Run by community managers, the application will highlight themes in its main innovation-driven areas.

The hub is an unprecedented tool on French campuses, that will be enriched with new features as future versions are released.

On-campus incubation

Support for projects and project leaders is provided in incubators. Two of them are run by the university.

Ubee Lab

Ubee Lab helps student-entrepreneurs develop their projects so they can create or take over an activity (start-ups with technological or usage innovations, traditional businesses, non-profit organisations, co-ops, etc.) or join the support facilities of the regional ecosystem (specialised incubators, accelerators, etc.). It provides co-working spaces and manages them on the different campuses and participates in promoting an entrepreneurial mindset within the framework of the ECA Pépite. It is also the venue of action research following the "GRP business model" invented and deployed by the IRGO Entrepreneuriat team (Institute for Research in Organisation Management).

Chrysa-link

Chrysa-link is a SATT AST incubator specialising in "deep tech" (innovations based on disruptive technology, with high-potential markets). It is open to undergraduates, doctoral students, researchers, new or experienced entrepreneurs.