In order to support the emergence of world-class training clusters in the field of artificial intelligence (AI), training talent to meet the needs of the industry is a priority of the France 2030 investment plan. This was the aim of the call for expressions of interest launched in 2023, as part of the National Strategy for AI, and whose winners were announced by the President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron, on Tuesday May 21. Nine clusters of excellence in AI research and training have been awarded the “IA-Cluster” label, and will receive €360 million in support from France 2030.
The DATAIA Institute, a center dedicated to AI at the University of Paris-Saclay, has played a key role since 2017 in structuring the French AI ecosystem in research, training and innovation. Among the winners, the Institute becomes the DATAIA Cluster, led by the Université Paris-Saclay and will benefit from 20 million euros.
At the heart of the Université Paris-Saclay, the DATAIA Cluster brings together 14 higher education establishments and research organizations, as well as an external continuing education company (CentraleSupélec Exed), the Fondation de Mathématiques Jacques Hadamard (FMJH) and the Centre Gustave Roussy.
The DATAIA Cluster aims to achieve three objectives:
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Build an ambitious, interdisciplinary program, combining research and innovation and capable of tackling the economic and societal challenges posed by AI;
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Train the best students in AI, from a variety of excellent training programs that need to transform to adapt to tomorrow's professions and continue to open up internationally;
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Shape an agile cluster, forming a research-training-innovation continuum, decompartmentalizing disciplines and capable of adapting to the rapid developments in artificial intelligence.
“We are particularly pleased that the project we are carrying out via the DATAIA Institute has been awarded the IA-Cluster label of excellence. The funding will enable us to implement an ambitious research program, thanks to modular, multi-sponsored Chairs of Excellence, involving researchers and industrial partners and enabling the development of innovative projects with co-supervised theses, post-doctoral contracts and mobility in conjunction with our international partners. This program focuses on both core AI and interdisciplinary AI topics - particularly considering AI in relation to mathematics, physics and medicine - areas in which Université Paris-Saclay enjoys a very high profile. In terms of training, our aim is to train our best students in AI research and innovation, starting at bachelor's and master's levels. A wide-ranging program of teacher training and the recruitment of adjunct professors from industry will support the transformation of our courses to AI. Finally, we plan to develop a program open to the international community, unprecedented in terms of attractiveness, both at the University level with the introduction of scholarships and of PhD track for our top-quality training programs, but also upstream, to encourage younger people to take an interest in AI in the broadest sense of the term”, enthuse Frédéric Pascal, Professor at CentraleSupélec, Sarah Cohen-Boulakia, Professor at Université Paris-Saclay and Frédéric Chazal, Director of Research at Inria, respectively Director and Deputy Director of the DATAIA Institute.