Research news - September / October 2025

September 2025 - Cyrielle Garson

Cyrielle Garson is a lecturer in English and Theatre Studies at the UPR ICTT. Her current research focuses on the digital transition of live performance, a phenomenon that has accelerated sharply since the COVID-19 pandemic. She is particularly interested in innovative stage practices that use XR (extended reality), and more specifically VR (virtual reality), to reinvent forms of creation and reception.

👉 Discover his portrait

As part of the 2026 Action Plan and Call for Generic Projects (AAPG) published on 21 July 2025, the French National Research Agency (ANR) is announcing new measures to simplify and optimise every stage in the life of projects, from the identification of funding opportunities through to submission, contracting and monitoring, right up to project closure.

👉 See the 5 new simplification measures

On 12 June 2025, at Vivatech 2025, the winners of the France 2030 calls for projects related to Artificial Intelligence were announced. The LOGIE AI project was selected as part of the "Accelerating the uses of generative AI" call for projects.

Funded to the tune of €3 million for 24 months by France 2030, LOGIE AI aims to transform logistics robotics using generative artificial intelligence. It is supported by Enchanted Tools, NXP, Inria, the Avignon Computer Laboratory (Avignon University), and Isir-Sorbonnein collaboration with Hugging Face. The project uses an open source approach to develop and integrate advanced language models into robots.

👉 Find out more about the LOGIE AI project

On 8 September 2025, Avignon University and the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rennes signed a six-month research collaboration contract, effective from 15 September.

This multi-disciplinary project combines the expertise of theIMBE EECAR team in molecular archaeometry and heritage chemistry with the expertise of the Museum, represented by François Coulon, Chief Curator, and that of Egyptologist Annie Perraud, to study an Egyptian mummy head. The study will be conducted by Carole Mathe De Souzaa teacher-researcher at IMBE.

X-rays, carbon-14 dating, anthropological studies, identification of mummification practices and physico-chemical analysis of the mummification balsam will all be carried out with a view to documenting this head.

Congratulations to Antoine Peris, winner of the Bengt Turner Award!

The GIF Chair is proud to announce that Antoine Peris, a researcher at Avignon University and member of the team, has won the prestigious Bengt Turner Award 2025, presented by the European Network for Housing Research (ENHR) for the best article written by a young researcher on the theme of housing.

Well done to Antoine for this recognition of the quality of his work and his commitment to housing research!

👉 See all the winners

A new article in The conversation

André Fourno, Benoit Noetinger and Youri Hamon from IFP Énergies nouvelles have published an article in The Conversation on the importance of modelling in the management of groundwater resources.

👉 How modelling can help to better manage water resourcesThe conversation

Julien Robert-Paganin, a former student in the Biology degree course at Avignon University, has been awarded the CNRS Bronze Medal for 2025. Now a CNRS research fellow in the Institut Curie's Cell Biology and Cancer Laboratory, he was honoured for his work in structural biology and biophysics.

After completing a degree in general biology at Avignon University, Julien Robert-Paganin went on to do a PhD at Paris Descartes University, before joining Anne Houdusse's Structural Motility team at the Institut Curie in 2015. It was here that he discovered myosins, the motor proteins that are essential for muscle contraction and cell division and migration.

Recruited by the CNRS in 2019, he is tackling a major scientific challenge: understanding the "resting state" of cardiac myosin. Using cryo-electron microscopy, he is uncovering a hitherto unsuspected mechanism, paving the way for new therapeutic avenues against certain hereditary heart diseases and malaria.

👉 Discover your interview

In this video, immerse yourself in the ALERT-KNOW project (supported by the MAIF Foundation), which is working alongside citizens to improve the FR-Alert notification/SMS alert system for France, deployed from June 2022.
The aim is to make every SMS alert clearer, faster and more useful, whether it's an earthquake or a weather warning. A major challenge, given that 76% of French people say they are poorly informed about what to do when faced with risks!
22 workshops and a national survey enabled 164 citizens - including children - to rewrite their own warning messages to the public.
Geographers, psychologists, linguists and statisticians are combining their skills to test more legible and understandable messages.

👉 See the MAIF article

To make it easier for international researchers and doctoral students to arrive in Avignon, we have updated our bilingual French-English guide, which provides all the keys they need to prepare for their stay.

It has four main themes:

• Preparing to come
  Procedures, coming with your family, learning French
• Moving to Avignon
  Residence permit, housing, energy, bank account, taxes, insurance, health...
• Staying in Avignon
  Climate, work pace, culture, tourism, sport, gastronomy...
• Finding your way
  Transport, maps of Avignon and university campuses

👉 Download the guide
👉 Go to the "Welcome to international researchers and doctoral students" page

This year, the EUR is funding four theses:

• Bianca PARANHOS VEDOVATO - 50% EUR / 50% INRAE
  Supervisor : Nicolas Bordenave (UMR SQPOV)
  "Effect of thermomechanical treatments favouring hornification on microstructure and functionality of cell wall polysaccharides from apple processing by-product".
• Ugo DUNANT - 100% EUR Implanteus
  Supervisor : Carine Le Bourvellec (UMR SQPOV)
  "CeFoo! Deciphering the interactions between the food-born pathogen Bacillus cereus and plant foods in the intestinal tract".
• Noémie GINET - 100% EUR Implanteus
  Supervisor: Marc Bardin (Plant Pathology Unit, INRAE)
  "Induction of flavonoid synthesis in plants by application of phenylalanine: a path towards a biocontrol solution".
• Lison DEFOSSE - 100% EUR Implanteus
  Supervisor : Thierry Dutoit (UMR IMBE)
  "Soil de-impermeabilization and decompaction: civil or agro-ecological engineering?"

To mark their 20thᵉ anniversary, the Université Populaire d'Avignon and the Café des Sciences, in partnership with Avignon Université, are organising a series of meetings entitled "Sciences as culture, between doubt and curiosity".
Campus Hannah Arendt - Avignon University - Amphi AT06

👉 Registration

A dance performance by the Difékako company "Joséphine2b" preceded by a talk by Céline Pelosi, research director at INRAE, specialising in soil ecology and terrestrial ecotoxicology.

The theme of this event is linked to the chlordecone tragedy in the French West Indies.

More info : Conference and choreographic show
Bookings : accueil@legrenierasel-avignon.fr - Tel : 04 32 74 05 31

Le Grenier à sel - 2 rue du Rempart Saint-Lazare

Droughts, floods, storms, fires... Climatic events are multiplying and reshaping our daily lives.

Faced with these upheavals, the insurance sector is in the front line.
As a militant insurer, we have always placed climate issues at the heart of our concerns. We need to assess and anticipate, but also adapt to better understand the world of tomorrow. How can we work together to better prepare for these changes?

Cinéma Pathé Cap Sud - Avignon

👉 Registration

Open Science Days are internationally recognised as a key event for promoting open science. They will take place at Avignon University on 12 and 13 November, with practical workshops on Wednesday and Thursday afternoons.

Campus Hannah Arendt, research room 2 at BU M. Agulhon

During these two days, the University Library will be offering future researchers, i.e. doctoral students, lecturers and research fellows, as well as University staff who wish to take part, a wide range of activities. introduction to open science and also a introduction to depositing scientific publications and research data.

>> Download the programme

If you have any questions, click here.