Thierry Priol
© INRIA / Photo M. Bourguet
Thierry Priol, new Director of Inria’s European and International Partnerships Department, introduces himself and presents the main goals and challenges of this new Department resulting of the merger of the former European Partnerships Department and the International Relations Department.
Thierry, in a few words, could you introduce yourself and retrace the different steps of your professional background that led you to the head of the International and European Partnerships Department?
I first started as a researcher in the area of parallel computing in 1989 when I was recruited by Inria to work in Rennes. I participated in the creation of several project-teams before becoming head of the PARIS project-team from 1999 to 2009, a team specialized in clusters and grid computing. I was also vice-president of the Inria Evaluation Commission from 2000 to 2003, a period when Inria grew quickly. I served as deputy scientific director from 2009 to 2012, in charge of the “networks, systems and services, distributed computing” domain. Through the participation to several EU–funded projects and the coordination of the CoreGRID excellence network in the domain of grids from 2004 to 2008, I got involved in the Europe activities, in addition to my participation in several international collaborations. From 2009 to 2011, I also contributed to EIT ICT Labs through my position of Research Director. EIT ICT Labs, now known as EIT Digital is one of the top three innovation and knowledge communities launched by EIT (European Institute of Innovation & Technology).
My understanding of Inria’s organization and my involvement in European and international projects naturally led me to apply to the position of European Partnerships Director in 2012 when Jean-Pierre Banâtre retired. I kept this position until March 2015, when I was appointed Director of International and European Partnerships Department (EIPD) after the merger of the European Partnerships Department (DPE) and the International Relation Department (DRI) to the EIPD. For me, this merger is a new challenge because it opens some new opportunities that we must be seized to expand our actions in Europe and in the International field. But I am very happy and lucky to have a strong and enthusiastic team to work with me and I can honestly say that it was an important factor in my decision to apply to this position in the EIPD.
Can you comment this position of European and International Partnerships Director? What are the main missions and challenges?
The International and European Partnerships Director contributes to elaborate and implement the International relations and European partnerships strategic policy of the institute. Inria is a world renowned institute. My mission is to strengthen its strategic partnerships, and increase its influence and visibility in the international field. I am also in charge of developing, managing and coordinating industrial, scientific and institutional relations developed by Inria with the community institutions of the European Union, particularly the involvement of Inria within the Horizon 2020 framework programme, and with foreign partners or cross-border activities. Naturally, it requires a good coordination with the two Deputy CEOs in charge of transfer and industrial partnerships and Science, but also with the other directors within the institute.
We were familiar with the DRI (International Relations Department) and the DPE (European Partnerships Department). Why did these two Departments merge into a single Department known as EIPD?
Above all, the aim is to simplify the organization and improve the coherence and cohesion in our international actions (Europe and International). To give you an example, the two departments both focused on partnerships but with different support tools: partnerships with Israel was under the responsibility of the DRI , while at the same time, the DPE managed collaborations with Israeli universities and research institutes in the European framework programme. The merger of these two departments should allow us to make better use of the Inria support tools (Inria International Labs, Associate teams, Inria International Chairs, Sabbatical, Explorer Program) to strengthen our strategic partnerships in Europe but also beyond the European Union. It should also facilitate the essential joint work with the different research centres.
What are the new challenges, ongoing and/or large projects of the EIPD? Since taking up office at the head of this Department, did you define new objectives?
First things first, the International and European Partnerships Department had to be reorganized, and this was quickly done through a Department structured around two pillars: one pillar devoted to International Partnerships that covers all the countries, including Europe, and another pillar in charge of the European Research Area, that essentially focuses on the Horizon 2020 framework. The networks of contact points in the research centres is maintained because they are essential to facilitate the joint work between the national level and the research centres level. They have been renamed as “International Partnerships” network and “European Research Area” network. Each centre is represented by EIPD contact points. The merger of the two departments is also an opportunity to use more efficiently European funding to reinforce and make more visible our partnerships worldwide. In this respect, I can only welcome the success and funding of a Horizon 2020 project with Brazil in the area of High Performance Computing. It will contribute to sustain the project “HOSCAR” we launched with Brazil on this topic some years ago. We must continue to progress in that direction. And, there is no shortage of big challenges and new projects. Just to name a few, we must for example, ensure the development of new partnerships in Europe, particularly our collaboration with EPFL, and the United States and its East coast. Today what means a lot to me is not to multiply the number of partnerships but to ensure that the ones we manage have a real impact on the activities of the institute: in terms of attractiveness to enable us to recruit high level scientists from all around the world, to reinforce our scientific potential and thus contribute to the expanding influence and recognition of Inria at the international level.
What are the available tools and means of Inria to complete these objectives and/or orientations?
Basically, these tools are the ones already managed by the DRI and the DPE but with some small changes. To support partnerships, we have the International Labs and Associate Teams. For the latter, it is now possible to create an Associate Team in Europe, but it must comply with a strategy to obtain funding from the Horizon 2020 framework programme to develop this collaboration in a long term run. Internships, Inria International Chairs, Sabbatical and Explorer programs are the main tools of the EIPD when it comes to mobility. We must also mentioned the existence of the mobility program funded by the European Commission, the Marie Skłodowska-Curie actions (MSCA), a program that could be used more within Inria.
Finally, when it comes to support the researchers, we can provide support to help them to write a proposal to be submitted to the Research European Council (ERC) and to coordinate collaborative projects of the Horizon 2020 framework programme. Furthermore, training courses are proposed in collaboration with the Human Resources Department to facilitate proposal writing so that researchers can spend less time on it.
Original Interview by the Inria Rennes International Team (Erven Rohou, Julien Prud’homme)
