Imperial College London and France’s National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) have announced a joint engineering laboratory which will “harness AI and emerging technologies across all engineering disciplines”, in a move welcomed by Emmanuel Macron.

The French president visited Imperial’s South Kensington campus on 9 July as part of a state visit, to meet the engineers who will lead the new laboratory and discuss growing UK-French scientific partnerships.

Researchers at the new Ayrton-Bleriot Engineering Lab (ABEL) will pursue “transformative solutions for sustainability and resilience”, Imperial said in a statement, drawing on funding from the British and French governments as well as Horizon Europe and its successor to target “strategic priorities”, among them energy transition, research security and space alongside AI.

Engineers’ first areas of research, Imperial said, will include “quantum technologies, AI-driven engineering, advanced materials, clean and efficient processes, energy security and sustainable computing, and health technology applications”.

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Imperial president Hugh Brady said that the new laboratory will “lay the foundations for generation-defining innovations in sustainability and resilience”, while CNRS chief executive Antoine Petit said its academics would undertake “original, cutting-edge research in line with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals”.

Engineers at Imperial and CNRS are already collaborating on “many” joint projects, Petit noted, but the launch of ABEL “will provide them with a long-term, high-level structure to thrive and grow”. French researchers will spend up to five years working at ABEL, while Imperial researchers will have similar mobility opportunities in France.

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The second CNRS International Research Laboratory, or IRL, at Imperial, ABEL follows the 2018 launch of the Abraham de Moivre mathematics laboratory. In 2022, CNRS and Imperial announced the joint CNRS-research-centre-will-be-uk-bridge-europe">International Research Centre for Transformational Science and Technology, also focused on the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Fang Xie, Imperial’s director of the new laboratory, said: “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, revolutionises 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,” Xie said.

Eric Climent, ABEL’s CNRS director, described the new collaboration as a “significant step in the longstanding partnership between France and the UK in engineering excellence”.

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“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,” Climent said.

emily.dixon@timeshighereducation.com