Inria has 34 project teams at Sophia Antipolis and Nice, half of which are joint teams, and in 2019 it has 4 joint project teams on the Montpellier, which opened in 2003. The centre also has a team in Bologna in Italy and another with the University of Athens. Its activities occupy 500 people, scientists and research and innovation support staff, including 55 different nationalities.

Scientific priority areas

• Develop the theme of artificial intelligence in conjunction with the structural 3IA Côte d’Azur project, focused on a number of priority subjects: (i) biology-health, including medicine, neuroscience and bioinformatics, (ii) the links between AI, geometry, heterogeneous data and modelling, and (iii) collaborative robotics for open and dynamic environments;
• Develop research activities in the ubiquitous computing field, in particular on the themes of software engineering, software security, reliability and certification.

Strategic lines of development

• Participate the success of the Côte d’Azur University IDEX (UCAJEDI) and the securing of its future; 
• Reinforcement of partnerships with the economic actors in the region through the success of the Côte d’Azur 3IA (interdisciplinary AI institute) or Inria's responsibility for the digital dimension in the setting up of the Innovation and Partnerships Institute of the University of Côte d’Azur; 
• Scaling up to enable the creation of DeepTech startups.

In addition, the centre will be supporting the development of the Inria branch on the Montpellier site, whose objectives are:

• To develop a branch with about ten project teams;
• To develop relations with industry and involvement in the startup ecosystem;
• To have the branch specialise in medicine, the environment and agronomy;

Ecosystem & Partners

The centre is a founder member the UCAJedi IDEX and member of the MUSE I-SITE. The "Montpellier University of Excellence" (MUSE) project, in which Inria is one of the partners alongside Montpellier University, has been granted I-SITE status (for Initiatives-Science-Innovation-Territories-Economy) with the aim of meeting three major challenges for the 21st century: feed, protect and treat, thanks to its expertise in the life sciences, the environment and agriculture.

The centre also has numerous partnerships, with: