Digital Programs Agency

What are the missions of the Digital Programs Agency launched by Inria?

Sophie Proust : Inria was naturally chosen to head the Digital Programs Agency, given its core values of “scientific excellence and transfer” and its experience since 2021 in managing programmes integrating research, innovation and training. Our mission is to have our ecosystem achieve collective impact, within and through digital technology, whether scientific, technological or economic, through innovation.

The challenge is to strengthen our ability to develop and steer national digital research and innovation strategies, by bringing the ecosystem together and catalysing public/private dynamics.

We are developing collective strategic intelligence with our committee of partners representing the higher education, research and innovation ecosystem.

How is the Agency structured?

SP : Firstly, the Agency is organised around nine programmes, developed in line with France 2030 in the key areas of digital technology: six are theme-based (post-exascale scientific computing, cybersecurity, network and cloud systems, assessment of AI, quantum computing and virtual worlds); three are application-based: digital technology and health, digital technology and the environment, and digital technology and learning.

Each programme is at a different stage of maturity with its own specific objectives that reflect the Agency’s core missions: 

1. Mapping and anticipation.
2. National operational action.
3. Action at a European level.
4. Action at the international level. 

In addition, two cross-cutting programmes also support all the actions mentioned above:

• the programme supporting high-risk research: PIQ (Inria Quadrant Programme), a programme launched in June 2024, which provides funding for scientists carrying out disruptive, high-impact projects;
• the Apollo programme, focusing on the development of software infrastructure to support public policy.

We are engaged in the process of creating a Digital Programs Agency to support national and collective ambitions, and a research institute of the highest international standard in digital science and technology. The eleven existing programmes and their results are the most convincing expression of this.

What are the Digital Programs Agency’s priorities for 2025 and how will they be implemented in the regions?

SP : In 2025, we will continue to develop our coordination with the Inria Centres at universities and their ecosystems, as outlined in our new COMP (Contract of Objectives, Resources and Performance). These centres will manage the Agency’s regional deployment and propose actions to be carried out by the universities in line with each site’s specific digital strategy and European initiatives.

Our 2025 road map orchestrates an integrated vision of digital technology, with our role as national coordinator of the ESR component of the national AI strategy, which requires knowledge and understanding of the entire digital continuum. We will be focusing our efforts in this direction, in order to:

• rethink the way in which secure and interoperable hybrid infrastructures and the applications that will run on them are designed, programmed and administered;
• remove the scientific barriers to these complex applications while ensuring the reliability of results, data confidentiality and replicability;
• evaluate new AI services that benefit from data sharing, and invent new methodologies. 

We want to develop and think about digital technology for a constrained and sustainable world, taking into account the social and economic impact of these transformations and contributing to France’s digital sovereignty through research and innovation.