French government innovation competitions: alumni among the 177 prize-winners

Originally set up in 1999 and now driven by the France 2030 plan, the “Concours d’innovation de l’État” (French government innovation competitions, now i-Nov, i-PhD and i-Lab) aim to support innovative companies at all stages of their progress and development, both upstream and downstream, from project inception to project completion. By first funding research projects, then development and implementation projects, these competitions form the innovation continuum and help “to strengthen France’s industrial sovereignty and accelerate the ecological transition”.

Winners in all strategic fields

Since its creation, 4,746 winners have already been rewarded by the mechanism. “Technological gems” have been supported at every stage of the entrepreneurial adventure, from basic research to business creation and even export support. These projects, all located “at the cutting edge of technology and the ecological transition”, bear witness to the “vitality of the French innovation ecosystem”.

For the 2023-204 edition, 177 winners were honoured at the awards ceremony. According to the Ministry of Higher Education, the winners of this year’s awards “stood out in the digital, health, mobility, energy and transport sectors”. “These are strategic areas”, adds the ministry, which need to be strengthened and supported “to collectively build a more desirable society in order to produce better, live better and understand the world better”. In figures, 36 projects won awards in 2024 for i-PhD, 74 for i-Lab and 67 for i-Nov.

Alumni among the winners

The 177 winners include international researchers who are studying or working in French higher education institutions and research organisations. Winner alumni include: 

i-PhD

• Rromir Koci - Italy (Elicigesq project)
• Mohamad Haydoura - Lebanon (Mottronics project)
• Daniele Di Lorenzo - Italy (Duoverse project)
• Hasan Hassoun (Lebanon)| Echo Silence project 
• Henry Chijcheapaza Flores (Peru) | Hydros Medical project
• Hussein Nasreddine (Lebanon) | Isolatéria project
• Prakriti Saxena (India) | Optiwise project 
• Roxana Dinu (Rumania)| Gr3enar project 
• Salvatore Azzollini (Italy) | Lutèce Dynamics project 
• Sebastian Marzetti (Argentina) | Alpai project 
• Walid Ait Mammar (Algeria) | Foodsens project 
• Yasser Mohseni Behbahani (Iran) | Labsae project: a unified platform to analyze protein-protein interaction network

i-Lab

• Iheb Triki - Tunisia (Tac): Kumulus has designed smart and connected machines to create drinkable water (as beverage) using air, even in arid zones.
• Francesco Manegatti  - Italy (Optolink): Development and commercialisation of optical interconnections unlocking unprecedented calculus power in processes dedicated to AI.

Competitions adapted to every level of project maturity

Every year, several calls for projects are launched for different aspects of the government’s innovation competitions funded by the France 2030 plan. Three competitions, i-PhD, i-Lab and i-Nov, are open to “innovative projects that are most susceptible to turn into companies that are champions in their field”. These three aspects are “adapted the different levels of maturity of projects”:

• the i-PhD competition is directed to doctors, young researchers and PhD students completing their thesis even before the birth of the company or start-up, when “they need help to to make the transition from their research work to an innovation and business project”;
• the i-Lab competition, designed to promote the results of public research, for the creators of young companies (less than two years old) to structure and launch their project, as soon as the “technical, economic and legal feasibility” of the project has been established, a unique way of “transforming scientific discoveries into concrete solutions”;
• the i-Nov competition, which comes at a time when innovation projects by SMEs or start-ups with high potential for the French economy need to “accelerate their development and bring innovative, high-tech solutions to market”.

Each of the innovation competitions receives funding and personalised project support.

Explore more: 

- The winners of the 2023-2024 competitions

- Innovation competitions on the government website