Anchored in our region

An essential University in its region 

One of UCAJEDI's major achievements is the strong ties that the university has been able to forge with the community and local authorities in the region. Université Côte d'Azur has positioned itself as a major contributor to regional economic development by drawing on the region's wealth of resources to develop training courses and research themes that are linked to local social issues.

Grand opening of IMREDD's building in Nice

The campus in Cannes

The Flavor and Fragrance Institute in Grasse

In connection with local authorities 

Reference Center Smart City in Nice

IMREDD set up the UCAJEDI Smart City Reference Center in 2016 in partnership with its industrial partners, including Suez, IBM, Kinaxia, Orange, Veolia, BASF, Vulog, EDF, Dalkia, Enedis, Hubble, InstanT System, Be Nomad, Transdev, WIT, Gridpocket, Capenergies and Schneider Electric. This platform represents an investment of €5.7M, of which €1.5M comes from industrial partners, and involves the fields of energy, environment, risks and mobility. Located in the heart of the new Nice Méridia quarter of the Nice Côte d'Azur Metropole, it acts as a link between the university and regional stakeholders.

Creative industries in Cannes

Université Côte d'Azur has worked with the Cannes local authorities to build the creative industry sector; from training programs to the creation of economic value through corporate projects. We have developed a range of professional training courses in conjunction with the most prestigious companies in the field. UCAJEDI has established a program of film and television series screenwriting residencies co-conducted with world leaders in the field (UCLA, Serial Eyes, Vivendi, and Canal+), including the storytelling institute, and an audiovisual project residency program to imagine tomorrow's programs with Banijay, the world's leading media group. 
The Campus Universitaires de Cannes brings together, across an architectural space of more than 8000 m2, all the training courses for the creative sector and a hub for companies in the development of start-up projects.

Center for Creativity and Innovation in Odorant Sciences in Grasse 

The Center for Creativity and Innovation in Odorant Sciences (CCISO) is a multi-site structure created in 2017 to respond to the need for an effective interface between Université Côte d'Azur and the socio-economic ecosystem of the region's perfume-aroma-cosmetics sector. CCISO co-runs the public/private technological partnership platform ERINI in Grasse, within the Jacques-Louis Lions multifunctional space where start-ups, students, researchers and industry professionals come together. By virtue of its strong partnership with the Grasse Regional Authority, CCISO inaugurated a showcase in the heart of the Grasse Biotech scientific business center. On 1 January 2020, CCISO became the Flavour Fragrance and Cosmetic Institute of Innovation and Partnerships of the new Université Cote d'Azur experimental university.

Digital technology in Sophia Antipolis

Université Côte d'Azur is planning to establish a digital technology trades and qualification campus. This initiative is linked to UCA's role in the development of the region, particularly in the field of digital technology, and it aligns with the activities of the local public sector, which has especially strong links in Sophia Antipolis and will incorporate the rectorates of Nice and Aix-Marseille, the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Regional Council and all the relevant local authorities. Considering the situation of the Région Sud Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, with the Sophia Antipolis technology park in particular, and the national and international challenges linked to digital technology, the "Digital" Trades and Qualifications Campus will concentrate most of its actions on digital professions, with a focus on professions linked to software development, human-machine interfaces, data sciences, artificial intelligence, connected objects and autonomous systems. A SoftCamp was recently organized by the campus to train job seekers to application softwares development. 

In connection with companies

Amadeus

Amadeus, a worldwide leader in information systems for civil aviation with 3000 employees located in Sophia Antipolis, signed a major partnership agreement with UCA in 2017. The agreement covers collaborative research in A.I. and the humanities to better understand the global behavior of travellers, and includes specific continuing education programs. Three R&D projects focusing on A.I. were cofunded by Amadeus and UCAJEDI, starting in 2018, and 3 presentations were given by UCA faculty to Amadeus engineers, which brought together 2650 people from several locations around the world (Sophia, Bangalore, Barcelona). In 2021, projects will be centered on the modeling of travellersbehavior with research groups in economics, psychology and behavioral analysis. Amadeus is a partner of 3IA institute.

Orange

Relationships with Orange were already well established at Université Côte d’Azur, notably with the CREMANT a joint laboratory with LEAT. The project Quantum@UCA has also attracted the interest of Orange to develop novel concepts, ranging from quantum metrology for high-precision optical material characterization, to space quantum communication. 

Thales

Université Côte d'Azur has set up a joint laboratory with Thales Alenia Space for research that will focus on space missions and technological research and development in optics and data processing, in particular:

  • New satellite network structures
  • Scientific missions such as AIM1 (Asteroid Impact Mission) and LISA2 (Gravitational Wave Space Observatory)
  • Combining space data with other sensors for new observation applications such as coastal ecosystems
  • Optical studies to characterize stray light or new instrument concepts for large telescopes.

Université Cote d'Azur and its structuring effect on the region

SophI.A summit

The SophI.A Summit is co-organized by Université Côte d'Azur, the Sophia Antipolis Local Authority and the Alpes-Maritimes Department, with the support of key local partners - Team Côte d'Azur and Sophia Club Entreprises. The SophI.A Summit, a springboard for Artificial Intelligence. SophI.A Summit is an annual event held within Europe's leading technology park, home to one of France's 4 interdisciplinary Artificial Intelligence Institutes (3IA). Each summit is eagerly awaited and brings together hundreds of participants from all over the world.

Vocational and qualifications campuses

At the instigation of UCAJEDI, two Trades and Qualifications Campuses have been approved by the French Ministry of Education for the Région Sud Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur. Led by Université Côte d'Azur in partnership with the Academies of Nice and Aix-Marseille, the Région Sud Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur and all the local authorities concerned, the objective is to link all secondary and higher education courses from Bac-3 to Bac+8, but also to develop new courses that meet the current and future needs of companies in the digital and flavor-perfume-cosmetics sectors.

The Center for artificial intelligence (MAI) 

In connection with the 3IA Côte d'Azur, Université Côte d'Azur brings its expertise to the Smart Deal project of the Conseil Départemental des Alpes Maritimes and contributes to the scientific mediation activities of the Center for artificial intelligence funded by the Département.

UCAJEDI Innovation and Valorization Commission

The UCAJEDI Innovation and Valorization Commission, established in 2018, brings together representatives of the valorization, technology transfer and innovation services from UCAJEDI members: Université Côte d'Azur, EPSTs (CNRS, Inria, Inserm, Inrae), CHU Nice and the Skema Business School, as well as SATT Sud Est, Incubateur PACA Est, and BPI France. Its primary mission is to evaluate innovation projects that request co-financing from UCAJEDI calls for innovation proposals, in accordance with the valorization and innovation strategies of UCAJEDI members. Prior to the launch of an innovation project, the commission coordinates the support of the different organizations involved, and draws up a roadmap for the maturation and financing of the next stages of start-up development (where applicable), as well as the freedom of use and the conditions of technology transfer.

Wolves of Mercantour National Park

An original project in connection with the Côte d'Azur highlands is based on a collaboration between the Mercantour National Park, and 3IA Côte d'Azur and the MSI of Université Côte d'Azur in order to conduct, using AI tools, analysis of audio-visual data of animal species living in the park. The database has been obtained thanks to intensive camera and video trapping in the Mercantour Park, and bears witness to the richness of the park, one of the 11 French national parks, in terms of biodiversity and the variety of species and ecosystems. Université Côte d'Azur and 3IA Côte d'Azur will provide the project with a team of researchers and engineers specializing in artificial intelligence.
The project has the following objectives:
- Detection of species present in a video and counting of individuals
- Study of the link between the observation of certain species and human presence
- Spatial and temporal modelling of the presence of certain species and correlation with field surveys (GPS tracking) and genetic data.
To do so, the research team will use AI tools, such as deep learning, active learning and learning transfer algorithms. Dedicated learning methodologies will certainly need to be developed for the counting part of objective #1 and for linking to the various types of external data analyzed for objective #3.

The page of the project on the web site of the Mercantour National Park

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Quantum@UCA with Orange

LabCom Université Côte d'Azur / Thales

SophI.A summit