The creation of “.fr” in Internet sites, it is them. A project on the calculation of the human genome, or the research behind the Tous anti covid application is still them.

The National Research Institute for Digital Science and Technology (Inria) has been behind many technological innovations for more than 50 years. Most are probably unknown to the general public, but some have led to major advances in mathematics, computer science or digital technology in the broad sense.

Placed under the dual supervision of the Ministry of Higher Education and Research and that of the Economy, Inria today has around 3,000 scientists, a budget of 320 million euros of public money. .

Agreement with companies

Inria has 230 teams on specific projects, has created more than 200 companies with scientists from the institution, some of which have been integrated into large groups, such as ProbaYes (data development) bought by La Poste, or the publisher of Ilog software taken over by IBM.

At the same time, Inria forms partnerships with renowned companies (Dassault Systèmes, Orange, Nokia, Berger-Levrault, etc.). In concrete terms, this involves research carried out for a company or joint research teams, like a partnership with EDF, on the cybersecurity of tomorrow’s electrical systems. Recently, Inria announced an agreement with Hive with the aim of creating “the French cloud giant, capable of competing with Gafam”.

“Inria’s strength has been to work to find “the right problems”, under the impetus of Jacques-Louis Lions, its director in the 1970s and 80s: fundamental research is carried out on the basis of questions brought by industry itself”, explains Pascal Griset, historian at Sorbonne-University and co-author of a book on Inria.

Pilots the World Wide Web

And this from the very beginning. Created in 1967, the IRIA – Institute for Research in Computer Science and Automation – was launched as part of the “calculation plan”, decided by General de Gaulle, to develop computer science. Initially, the organization’s objective was to allow the emergence of the International Computing Company, but the latter only lasted a few years. Despite this, the IRIA continued and won an N, in 1980, to become a national research institute. In the 90s, the piloting of the Word Wide Web was carried out alongside the prestigious MIT and a Japanese university. And, gradually, the institution extends to other areas and to other geographical locations in France. “Today, they are considered among the pioneers of computer science in Europe,” continues the specialist.