Major international impact for the region

Our laboratories carry out first-rate research in our disciplines, supported by a community of around 2,600 staff, including 800 permanent researchers and research professors, working in 27 laboratories and 18 establishments located on three main sites: the historic PSL Observatoire de Paris campus, the Meudon site and the Saclay-Orsay site, with other laboratories located in or outside Paris (Cergy, Créteil, etc.). Such a concentration of academic research laboratories within a 20 km radius is unique in the world. Our activities are by nature international and collaborative (research activities, but also development of instruments within large international consortia). This is reflected in the large number of foreign researchers and research professors in our laboratories.
The federation of our laboratories within the Île de France region allows our disciplines to fully benefit from all the academic and industrial wealth available across the region, while at the same time making it a leading international opinion-former in our disciplines: more than three quarters of the region’s publications in the field are the result of international collaboration, which is the highest rate of internationalisation across all scientific fields (see MESRI’s territorial diagnosis 2020).
The international impact of our research, examined through the prism of scientific publications, is exceptional. Astronomy and, more generally, the sciences of the Universe are France’s second most highly specialized field in the hard sciences, after mathematics. In 2017, astronomy and astrophysics were (according to MESRI figures) the field in which France had the greatest impact. This high level of visibility is largely down to the region’s support, with around one in two publications in this field involving an author from the Île-de-France region. Île-de-France is the leading region in France and Europe in terms of scientific production in our subject areas: almost one article in twenty published worldwide in our fields involves an author from the Île de France. This leading international impact and the highly-regarded scientific and technical expertise of our laboratories attract hundreds of students every year who come to study through and for research in our masters and doctoral schools.
Since 2016 our laboratories have achieved first-rate results that are particularly visible at international level. Examples include the final results of the Planck mission, the results of the GRAVITY instrument at the VLT concerning the study of the central black hole in our Galaxy, associated with the Nobel Prize awarded to R. Genzel in 2020, the wealth of results obtained by the ROSETTA mission and by the Mars missions (Curiosity/NASA, MAVEN/NASA, TGO/ESA, etc.), and the high-energy results with HESS.
These results are regularly presented at international conferences, more than twenty of which have been funded by the region since 2016. This first-rate academic reputation is reflected in the numerous prizes and ERC awards it has won, including the CNRS gold medal awarded to Françoise Combes (who is also a professor at the Collège de France) in 2020. Nine of our colleagues from the Île-de-France region are also members of the Académie des Sciences. The region’s support via the DIM (Major Field of Research and Innovation) scheme is clearly playing a driving role, as 4 prizes and 3 ERC awards have been obtained since 2016 by leveraging DIM ACAV+ funding. This international recognition makes our laboratories an extremely attractive environment.

Image of the galactic centre. For the GRAVITY interferometric observations, the star IRS 16C was used as a reference star, while the real target was the S2 star. The position of the centre, which houses the black hole known as Sgr A*, with 4 million solar masses, is marked by the orange cross.
© ESO / MPE / S. Gillessen et al.

Economic impact

The links between our laboratories and industry are many and varied: our laboratories work with around 180 companies. These links primarily evolve around the development of ground and space-based instruments, but also around the digital resources needed for their design and production. These collaborations can take a variety of forms, from innovative upstream R&D studies to the creation of start-ups.
Due to their significant involvement in the Very Large Research Infrastructures (TGIR), our laboratories regularly take on the role of project manager. These collaborations are international by nature, because the scientific objective drives the technical requirements, for which the necessary expertise is sometimes only available in a handful of companies around the world. Thanks to their cutting-edge technological developments and extensive experience in the development of telescopes and instruments, companies based in the Île-de-France region and more widely across France regularly act as prime contractors for these developments, and benefit from a very significant economic return.
The relationship between our laboratories and industry needs to be approached with a specific focus on the basic sciences. For the latter, unlike the applied sciences, where the aim is innovation itself, technology transfer is not an end in itself, but a means of advancing our knowledge. There is therefore significant potential for adding value to our activities. The DIM can play a key role here by encouraging our communities to focus on the issues around adding value, identifying and stimulating this upstream in order to steer players towards pre-maturation, in synergy with all the players in the region. To this end, we propose to make DIM ORIGINES a key player in the creation of "Labcoms" by becoming a vehicle for accelerating their investment in small and medium-sized equipment.

Sharing research results with the general public: a huge societal impact

The results obtained in cosmology or the emergence of life, as well as the outcome of major collaborative projects such as those dedicated to space exploration, are systematically met with great enthusiasm by the public, as demonstrated by the success of all the public events we organise. The appeal of our disciplines to the general public further boosts the region’s visibility.
As far as education is concerned, astronomy is often used to illustrate basic physics principles in schools and at university level. It is used by teaching staff to attract students to physics or other related disciplines. Astronomy also plays a key role in promoting the region’s academic reputation. The ’Astronomy, Astrophysics and Space Engineering’ Masters programme has just introduced a course in English, which is already attracting a number of foreign students. A large number of highly technical managers are trained in our masters and doctoral schools, and go on to contribute their expertise to the world of industry.
Astronomy is an easily accessible science that is practised by a huge number of amateurs. The amateur sector is naturally very extensive across the region, and there are a number of participatory science projects in the pipeline that are looking for funding. These are all opportunities that the region must seize if it is to play an influential, visible role in this new challenge facing society. Two new major associative partners, the Association Française d’Astronomie AFA and the Société Astronomique de France SAF, are joining DIM ORIGINES to support the development of coordinated public events and participatory science activities.