Carnot Institutes

The Carnot label is a label of excellence awarded by the Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation to research establishments at the proposal of the National Research Agency (ANR) and with the approval of a selection panel, the Carnot committee. 

Accredited structures, called "Carnot institutes", are research structures recognised for their scientific and technological skills and their ability to meet the research and innovation needs of businesses. They receive a top-up on the amount of bilateral research contracts signed with companies. 

Since 2016, this Carnot system has been supplemented by the “Tremplin Carnot” (Carnot springboard) component, which provides support for new research structures in this system. 

The partnership between Carnot institutes and companies can take different forms (direct research, collaborative research, tests and trials on technological platforms, consulting and expertise, joint laboratories, etc.).

Sorbonne Université has two Carnot Institutes and two Tremplin Carnots within its scope: 

The Institut Carnot Voir et Entendre is one of the most important international centres for neurosensory research and brings together: 

• The Fondation Voir et Entendre 
• The Institut de la Vision (Sorbonne Université / INSERM / CNRS)
• The Unité de recherche de Génétique et Physiologie de l’audition (Sorbonne Université / INSERM)
• The Centre d’Investigation Clinique du Centre Hospitalier National d’Ophtalmologie des Quinze-Vingts

The Institut Carnot IC (Institut du Cerveau) brings together, to deal with brain diseases:

• a research centre
• a clinical research centre 
• a business incubator dedicated to diseases of the nervous system 

The OPALE Carnot Institute

OPALE is an international consortium dedicated to research that will fight leukemia and related diseases, which together represent the deadliest blood cancers. Their incidence is increasing sharply and they currently affect 2.3 million patients worldwide, they are also the leading childhood cancers. In order to structure the French partnership research offer in this area, the Carnot OPALE Institute brings together 16 research units, six clinical research cooperative groups and four development platforms, covering the entire chain of research, development and medical and industrial development at high level. This first Carnot qualification and its funding will allow OPALE to strengthen its professionalism as well as the visibility and attractiveness of its research in the development of new curative treatments, that are less toxic, administered on an outpatient basis and financially viable for all leukemia patients affected. (via the Saint-Antoine - Sorbonne University/Inserm Research Center).

Carnot Curie Cancer Institute

Curie Cancer relies on the Curie Institute, which has more than 3,200 collaborators, is the leading French cancer research center, one of the first in Europe, and an internationally renowned hospital complex. Curie Cancer offers industrial players the possibility of setting up research collaboration ranging from the most upstream (cognitive research) to the most downstream (clinical research).

The IPGG Microfluidic Carnot Springboard

Microfluidics is the science of manipulating fluids on a micrometric scale. The number of industrial applications is considerable: medicine, energy, green chemistry, cosmetics, food industry and more. The Carnot Springboard IPGG Microfluidic is aimed at companies wishing to access the know-how of researchers and the cutting-edge equipment of the laboratories of the Pierre-Gilles de Gennes Institute (IPGG), one of the world leaders in transdisciplinary research in microfluidics. (via two labs: Selective Activation Process by Uni-electronic or Radiative Energy Transfer (P.A.S.T.E.U.R - Sorbonne University/ENS Paris/CNRS) and Sciences and Engineering of Soft Matter (SIMM - Sorbonne University/ESPCI/CNRS)

These Carnot qualifications recognise the effective collaboration with companies that have been carried out by the Sorbonne University laboratories for many years. They also reflect research teams' desire to work increasingly with medium-sized enterprises (MSEs), small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and very small enterprises (VSEs) in particular.