The Ecosystem: Sorbonne University to house established companies in new incubator

Sorbonne University is currently selecting companies to take up home in its new incubator, the Cité de l’Innovation, under construction at its main research campus in the heart of Paris. But unusually for an incubator, at this stage is looking at more developed companies that will both benefit from the academic ecosystem and also contribute to entrepreneurial activities.

“There is a lack of space with integrated laboratories for more mature companies, particularly those that still need proximity to academic research and to students,” said Thomas Coudreau, the Sorbonne’s deputy director general for research, education and innovation. “In turn, they can serve as examples for the companies that are being incubated at the Cité de l’Innovation, and for our researchers and students who are thinking about creating a company.”

The aim of the project, due to open around the end of 2025, is to create an environment in which to foster companies from the earliest stages of start-up creation through to scaling up. Housing more mature companies is also expected to help instil an appreciation of entrepreneurship among students and researchers, and to build joint research projects with academics.

“We want our researchers and our students to have a place where they can participate in innovation, and see projects from the very beginning through to later in their development,” said Coudreau. “Having that interaction next to the campus will facilitate the participation of students and researchers, and bring them closer to entrepreneurs.”

The Cité de l’Innovation has been a long time in the making, not least because of the challenges of constructing a major building in the centre of Paris. An architectural competition launched in 2011 was won by OXO Architectes in France and Bjarke Ingels Group in Denmark. The building will have 15,000m², spread over five floors.

The €69 million budget has been co-financed by the City of Paris, the French government and the Île-de-France region, with the Sorbonne providing 80% of the money, giving it clear ownership of the project.

This is significant, given French universities do not always find it easy to take a lead role in innovation because the research system traditionally puts the emphasis on national research centres. Universities are pushed into the background even when they are host to research centre labs.

This situation was meant to change with government plans to designate a series of Pôles universitaires d’innovation (university innovation centres). The Sorbonne was one of the pilot centres in 2021, a status that was confirmed in 2023. But the perception still lingers that the national research organisations take the lead on innovation. “This building will help us position ourselves even better in this context,” said Coudreau.

Cité de l’Innovation will give the university greater control over incubation strategy, an area where public support has favoured shared facilities. Its main incubator at present is Agoranov, established in 2000 to serve one of its predecessors, the Pierre and Marie Curie University, along with Paris-Dauphine University, the Ecole Normale Supérieure, Paris Tech and the National Institute for Research in Digital Science and Technology (INRIA).

The Sorbonne has a say in how Agoranov is run, but the incubator is open to projects from many different research institutions across Paris. And while Agoranov is located in buildings owned by the Sorbonne, it is not close enough to the main research campus to be easily integrated in its activities.

Getting involved

In contrast, Cité de l’Innovation is on the Pierre and Marie Curie campus and entirely controlled by Sorbonne University.

Having more mature companies in the building is one example of how it is intended to build a distinctive environment. These companies will have to demonstrate excellence in research and development and be willing to take up residence in the Cité de l’Innovation for between three and five years, occupying up to 1,000m². The deadline for applications was 1 June, with selection due to take place during July.

There need not be past links to Sorbonne University, but companies will have to show a  willingness to get involved. “We are looking for companies that will engage with both our research and student communities, and carry out joint research projects,” said Coudreau.

After they leave, the founder companies will be succeeded by other scale-ups, including those graduating from the earlier stages of the incubator. This will enable academic spin-outs from the Sorbonne to have the possibility of growing within the incubator, rather than having to leave once they are up and running.

The Sorbonne will continue to be involved in Agoranov, which will deliver early-stage incubation programmes at the Cité de l’Innovation. These will accommodate researchers and students already convinced they have viable start-ups, but also those much earlier in their thinking. “We’re trying to make it easy to approach for people who are not yet sure they want to create a company,” said Coudreau.

Another aim is to let academics get involved in start-ups based on their research without necessarily taking up management positions. “We are seeing projects that are a kind of duo between a junior postdoc entrepreneur and their PhD supervisors, where the more senior researchers are quite involved in the start-up project, but do not work on it full-time,” Coudreau said.

Existing technology transfer and start-up support programmes at the Sorbonne will also feed into the Cité de l’Innovation. And the university has created a venture fund, Sorbonne Venture, which aims to mobilise €100 million to invest in 15 spin-outs.

Two spin-outs have already been selected for investment: Polygon Therapeutics, which is developing immunotherapies for cardiac care, and Austral Dx, which is developing a contactless ultrasound device.

The hope is that all this activity will result in more spin-offs. “We are already creating 10-20 start-ups each year,” Coudreau said. “You can’t force people to start companies, of course, but we can show researchers and students the kind of stimulating projects they can find in companies that maybe they can’t find in their research labs.”

The new building is also intended to be a showcase for innovation, hosting a demonstrator for projects and education programmes on entrepreneurship for schools. “We have a new space, so we have the ability to do many new things,” Coudreau said.

Elsewhere in the Ecosystem…

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• The second cohort of participants in the European Blockchain Sandbox has been announced by the European Commission. The sandbox allows companies to test new blockchain applications together with regulators, ironing out potential regulatory difficulties. The list of 20 projects includes EBSI-Vector, a pilot testing cross-border use of digital wallets, national business registries and legal entity verification through the European Blockchain Services Infrastructure.
   
• Oncovita, a 2015 spin-out from the Institut Pasteur in Paris, is setting up a joint laboratory with its parent institution, dedicated to research into cancer and infectious disease vaccines. The aim of the lab is to design and develop vaccine candidates through to proof-of-concept in humans. “It’s a good model for de-risking the science that comes out of a laboratory and bringing solutions to patients,” said Isabelle Buckle, the Institut’s director of research applications.