President Macron launches Imperial-CNRS joint engineering laboratory

The President of France, Emmanuel Macron, celebrated the launch of a new joint engineering laboratory between Imperial and France's CNRS.

President Macron visited Imperial’s South Kensington campus to meet the engineers who will lead the new laboratory and spoke about the growing UK-French scientific partnerships. The event formed part of the schedule of the state visit for the French President.

During the visit, the President took part in a fireside chat on 'AI Action: from science to growth' with Demis Hassabis, Co-Founder of Google DeepMind, and Arthur Mensch, CEO of Mistral AI. They discussed the future of AI innovation, application and commercialisation of AI and international cooperation on AI.  Imperial's President, Professor Hugh Brady and the Rt Hon Peter Kyle MP, Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, gave opening remarks.

The President also saw research and technology  demonstrations from AI innovators including some of Imperial's academics, startups and spinouts.

The Ayrton-Bleriot Engineering Lab (ABEL) will harness AI and emerging technologies across all engineering disciplines with a mission to develop transformative solutions for sustainability and resilience.

The lab will bring together some of the world’s most eminent engineers to develop proposals for major projects that could rapidly advance UK and French strategic priorities – including AI, the energy transition and hydrogen, research security, and space and Earth observation.

Professor Hugh Brady, President of Imperial College London, said: "From Concorde to the Channel Tunnel, UK-French collaboration has produced iconic engineering feats that defied limits and shaped history. The Ayrton-Bleriot Engineering Lab embodies this spirit, uniting world-leading expertise to spark a new era of engineering discovery. Imperial and the CNRS will harness AI and emerging technology to transform engineering and lay the foundations for generation-defining innovations in sustainability and resilience.”

Antoine Petit, CEO and chairman of the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), said: “On behalf of the CNRS, I am truly proud and delighted to celebrate the launch of this new International Research Laboratory ABEL with Imperial College London. While many joint projects between CNRS and Imperial are already underway in the field of engineering, ABEL will provide them with a long-term, high-level structure to thrive and grow. One of the main challenges of this new laboratory is to develop original, cutting-edge research in line with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Its interdisciplinary scope including development of sustainable materials, cleaner and safer processes, as well as artificial intelligence for engineering will contribute to tackle major societal challenges."

This latest collaboration with the CNRS reaffirms Imperial’s commitment to co-creating world-leading science and technology with its partners in Europe and around the world.

ABEL's interdisciplinary approach extends beyond traditional engineering boundaries to encompass experiments, theory and computing, creating a comprehensive research ecosystem capable of addressing complex, multi-faceted problems and fostering rapid progress from discovery to prototype.

The initial areas of research which the lab will focus on include quantum technologies, AI-driven engineering, advanced materials, clean and efficient processes, energy security and sustainable computing, and health technology applications. This research will address critical needs in sensing, communication, energy, and diagnostics.

The research team believes the collaboration could also help drive advancements in health technology – such as sensors and diagnostics for cancer and other diseases.

The scientists will use automated AI-powered pipelines to accelerate materials discovery, while optimised catalysts and reactor designs will drive scalable green hydrogen production and make industrial processes safer and cleaner.

Aviation is another area of interest which researchers will explore by developing new types of sustainable fuel and investigating ways to make aircraft more efficient and reduce their emissions.

The CNRS is the only French organisation active in all scientific fields and a major player in basic research worldwide with an extensive network of 1,100 research labs across France and abroad and more than 29,000 scientists.

Imperial is ranked second in the world in the latest QS university rankings and is home to more than 4,000 academic and research staff.

Ayrton-Bleriot Engineering Lab (ABEL)

The new laboratory will be hosted at Imperial and will improve mobility for researchers between France and London, with French scientists embedded at Imperial for up to five years and opportunities for Imperial scientists to spend time in French labs.

The lab will be a platform for bringing together engineers to put forward major research project proposals through programmes such as Horizon Europe and its successor FP10, and national funding agencies. In 2024, the French and British governments agreed to provide funding for joint research projects on the energy transition and hydrogen, space and Earth observation, AI, and research security.

Embedded within Imperial’s Schools of Convergence Science, ABEL benefits from cross-disciplinary collaboration, ensuring its breakthroughs translate swiftly into real-world solutions that deliver tangible benefits to society and the planet.

The lab will be led by Professor Eric Climent, CNRS Director of ABEL, and Professor Fang Xie, Imperial Director of ABEL.

Professor Eric Climent, CNRS Director of ABEL, said: "This collaboration is a significant step in the longstanding partnership between France and the UK in engineering excellence. Major challenges such as climate change and pollution are global issues and will need scientists collaborating across borders and working with industry to develop more efficient and sustainable processes. ABEL’s research programme will not only accelerate innovation but will also launch the next wave of solutions that tackle global challenges to enable sustainable human development."

Professor Fang Xie, Imperial Director of ABEL, said: "Engineering has always been about pushing boundaries. By bridging experiments, theory and AI-powered computation, we will accelerate discoveries, pioneer breakthrough materials and reshape industries. Through the CNRS–Imperial partnership, we unite the brightest minds in the UK and France to lead an engineering revolution that transforms sustainability via green hydrogen production and carbon-neutral processes, revolutionizes healthcare with next-generation diagnostics, and redefines connectivity through quantum networks. Together, we will co-create transformative technologies delivering real-world impact for people and the planet.”

ABEL's research portfolio centres on eight strategic areas that represent the convergence of AI, emerging technologies, and engineering innovation:

• Synthesis and engineering of materials – developing next-generation materials through AI-driven design and synthesis.
• Metamaterials – creating engineered materials with properties not found in nature.
• Sustainable materials – advancing circular economy principles through innovative material science.
• Fluid mechanics and process engineering – optimising industrial processes for sustainability and efficiency
• Optoelectronics and photonics – pioneering light-based technologies for communication and sensing
• Engineering for quantum technologies – translating quantum science into practical applications
• AI for engineering – integrating artificial intelligence across all engineering disciplines
• Engineering for sustainable IT – developing environmentally responsible information technologies

ABEL is the second CNRS International Research Laboratory (IRL) hosted at Imperial – following the Abraham de Moivre mathematics lab, which was launched in 2018. The CNRS has one other IRL in the UK.

ABEL is named after English engineer and inventor Hertha Ayrton and French aviator and engineer Louis Blériot.

Ayrton became the first woman member of the Institution of Electrical Engineers and was known for her research into the electric arc and ripples in sand and water.

Blériot was a pioneer in aircraft design and made the first aeroplane flight across the English Channel in his Type XI monoplane, connecting the UK and France via air travel for the first time.

Imperial and the CNRS

The CNRS is Imperial’s top European collaborator in terms of research publications with close to 3,000 joint papers published in the last five years.

Imperial and the CNRS formed an International Research Centre (IRC) for Transformational Science and Technology in 2022 to expand collaborations between the two institutions.

The Centre focuses on research with applications for sustainability, connectivity and engineering for health.

Imperial and the CNRS have 30 collaborative PhD projects engaging more than 50 students, working on high-impact UK-France projects.

Imperial and researchers from the CNRS have co-authored 2,954 publications in the past 6 years and worked together on 43 joint Horizon 2020 research consortia, with 22 additional projects started under Horizon Europe.

Imperial and the CNRS have several formal collaborations including:

• International Research Lab Abraham de Moivre
• International Research Lab Ayrton Bleriot Engineering Lab (ABEL)
• International Research Project Integrative Metabolism
• International Research Network Quantum Fields and Strings
• International Research Network GOLDMINE (neuromorphic sustainable computing)
• International Research Network LhARA (physics for medicine)
• Collaborative PhD programme

This article was first published on 9 July by Imperial College London.