Excellence initiatives in Innovative Education: experimenting and training for transformation

The main purpose of the Excellence initiatives in Innovative Education (IDEFI), most of which ended in late 2019, was to highlight innovative educational formats. Designed to provide a training dimension to complete the Labex and Idex calls for proposals, the scheme is one of the actions ANR manages on behalf of the French state as part of the Investments for the Future programme. Launched in 2012, it ended with an international conference¹ in Paris from 2 to 4 December. The event was an opportunity for an overall review of the action and a presentation of its educational innovations. The programme helped to fund 36 projects focused on promoting innovative educational approaches and new content. In the space of seven years, nearly 500,000 students benefited from the projects.
As the operator of the Investments for the Future programmes (PIA 1, 2 and 3), ANR organises the selection of large scale projects, which can extend to over ten years, together with contracts, funding, follow-up and evaluation on behalf of the French state. It is also responsible for conducting impact studies on the actions receiving funding.

PIA: 2019 funding

By decision of the Prime Minister, based on an evaluation by international panels, funding was awarded in 2019 to:

• 11 projects in the third phase of the Make Our Planet Great Again (MOPGA) call for proposals, bringing the number of researchers selected to 43. This call is aimed at non-resident researchers who would like to develop top level research projects in France in collaboration with French partners to address planetary and climate changes.
• 24 new projects in the second phase of the Graduate Schools of Research call for proposals (EUR2). The goal of this call is to offer all university sites a chance to reinforce the impact and international attractiveness of their research and teaching in one or more scientific fields by creating graduate schools of research.
• 15 selected projects in the fourth phase of the University-Hospital Research (RHU4) call for proposals, which supports translational health research and clinical research projects.

2019 calls for proposals

Several calls for proposals were also launched in 2019 through PIA 3:

• The first round of the Priority Research Programme (PPR) for "Very High-Performance Sport" (STHP). This call aims to fund translational research projects in the field of performance sport, with results that can be used by the best French Olympic and Paralympic athletes at the 2024 games.
• Leading Research Universities action. The Integration and Development of IdEx and ISITE Investment Programmes (IDéES) and “Structuring Research-Based Education in Excellence Initiatives” (SFRI) calls for proposals
• The Priority Research Programme (PPR) “Alternative crop production and protection” (CPA). This call for proposals aims to reinforce the resources invested in research to encourage the emergence of pesticide-free agriculture.

Proposals extended in 2019 with additional grants

• 103 Laboratories of Excellence (LabEx). This new government commitment (€444 million over five years) rewards the results of these LabEx projects and the impact of their activities on scientific communities.
• 5 University-Hospital Institutes (IHU). By renewing the funding for these IHUs (€74 million) for the period 2020-2024, the government wants to confirm its support for biomedical research.
• 30 Health and Biotechnology projects (national infrastructure, cohorts, pre-industrial demonstrators) for €103 million of funding over the period 2020-2024.

¹ www.idefi-anr-2019.fr