Over the last few years I’ve been involved in engaging science with society.
EUTOPIA
Eutopia is a neologism created by Thomas More – Latinisation of the Greek Εὐτοπεία, composed by the prefix ευ- “good” and τóπος (tópos) “place”, followed by the suffix -εία : an excellent place. Utopia on the contrary is non-place, the imaginary place. Although the original More’s Utopia book and vision have often influenced the thinking during centuries, the word “utopia” is however coined to describe an imaginary, ideal society.
My believe is that science provides already a real and excellent lens to contemplate and understand the Universe, a real and effective way through which society progresses and can face all potential threats. Scientific research enables visions and methods. It produces innovative experimental devices, new research infrastructures, technology, challenging global and multicultural collaborative initiatives, education and training opportunities, scientific achievements, societal and economic benefits and further perspectives. All this contributes to the creation of an ecosystem of excellence from which society would feed and renew itself and hopefully would inspire governements’ policy . All this results in the “excellent place” enabled by science, technology, policy and it is real. This is my Eutopia!
EUTOPIA is also the name that I have given to the outreach, education and societal engagement programme at LAPP.
The homonymous LAPP science exposition was our first achievement and the main pillar of such a programme.
Introduction
LAPP has been anchored in the Annecy basin for more than 45 years. Every year, during the Fête de la Science or the Masterclasses (visits to laboratories and practical work coordinated by CERN for high school students from all over Europe) LAPP welcomes many visitors.
LAPP often receives political delegations or hosts meetings with local actors from the socio-economic world. On the other hand, every year we organise international conferences and schools for researchers and future researchers in different fields, and thus participate in their training.
During the 2016 edition of the Science Fair, the LAPP celebrated its 40th anniversary and more than 2300 people came to visit the LAPP and meet the staff, including many school classes and many expressed their wish to come back to learn more.
LAPP is 40 years old!
Science Days 2016…
On this occasion at LAPP we have enriched the offer with discovery trails suitable for young and less young visitors. In particular, with respectively
– a visit to the MUST computer centre,
– the combination of art and science with the scultures of Yan ZORITCHAK, one of the greatest contemporary glass artists, exposed at the LAPP.
– finally with the manufacture of the LEGO models of our telescopes, thanks to the original project « LEGO DETECTORS » at LAPP…
Never in 40 years of our history an event in our laboratory had such a result (2300 visitors).
This success measures the attractiveness and the role of scientific reference of the LAPP for the population of our territory and also reinforces our ambition: to contribute to the diffusion of scientific knowledge for all.
We therefore felt it was important to equip the laboratory with a multimedia exhibition and to offer schools a varied choice of practical work related to our experimental facilities. This project is part of our laboratory mediation mission, in line with the CNRS guidelines and the government policy of supporting university sites of excellence.
We have therefore started a new large-scale project aimed at outreach and training according to two pillars:
– LAPP Exhibition: from the infinitely small to the infinitely large
– LAPP Training Platform : platform for teaching through research
The EUTOPIA exhibition at LAPP is inaugurated as part of the 80th anniversary of the CNRS
On 12 September 2019, the new EUTOPIA multimedia discovery space, run by researchers and engineers, is inaugurated.
« Les deux infinis depuis la naissance du CNRS » & « Recherche fondamentale entre innovation et engagement sociétal »
EUTOPIA is the « good place », where science and technology, matter and Universe are brought together to know, learn and advocate the future…
On this occasion, Frédérique Vidal, Minister for Higher Education, Research and Innovation, in a video address (see below), delivered an enthusiastic message about the scientific mediation project, EUTOPIA, but also about the research carried out at the LAPP; an echo to the day’s discussions.
Science, technology and policy
Opening science, scientists’ analytical and visionary skills to society:
As a researcher, or maybe being more precisely a « physicist », I like methods, face and solve problems, develop new technologies, use data and computing, innovate and without preconceptions adopt the duty to train and teach giving skills to young students that open doors to the world of work within our society. Research must not be a closed space but a tremplin of engagement in society.
“…international scientific cooperation improves international relations.. »
This has been always the case for scientific research in international Big Science projects.
Today we scientists need to work more with our fellow citizens and engage at the service of civil society.
What matters more is to enhance reasoning skills, analytical thinking, as well as programming skills. Then a scientist can also commit in society and diplomacy.
Our fellow citizens 90% trust scientists when they cite scientific studies. But this figure falls when they are politicians. This means that we scientists have a duty to talk more with our fellow citizens and make ourselves available to society for its evolution and for more participatory democracy. To avoid the risk of being associated with politics, we need to discuss and evolve our mission as researchers in society. This is my vision of science diplomacy at the service of all and for a new course.
Yes, this is a political discourse, but do not appeal to your mistrust towards everything that is political (in the sense of practice and power struggle) but rather think that everything is political because « Politics is mainly about the collective ».
Using Science for/in Diplomacy for Addressing Global Challenges
Fabiola Gianotti (CERN) : science et société en temps de crise
Digital transition
The Data Centre MUST is a mesocentre shared between the CNRS/IN2P3 and the University Savoie Mont Blanc, hosted and operated by the LAPP. It is intended for data processing and archiving in particle physics, astrophysics, theoretical physics, material sciences, earth sciences, computer science, artificial intelligence … Via the European grid EGI, MUST is a « Tier2 » centre for the LHC collider at CERN (WLCG).
. At LAPP, I brought the project of evolution of MUST towards a real digital « platform » by :
– its inclusion in the elite group of national pilot centres of the Data-Lake project (from ESCAPE; demo);
– strengthening the local skills of engineers and researchers in the development of scientific computing (machine and deep learning) and computer research (for high-performance computing and programming);
. – the evolution of orchestration services and cloud data archiving;
– committing in training through the organisation of dedicated schools (within the framework of OBELICS and ESCAPE);
On the strength of this track record, we have obtained the MUST label as a « CNRS Platform » so that it can open up more to society.
As such, the MUST platform combines: (i) high-technology computing resources; (ii) the technical skills of its operating, user support and IT expert teams; (iii) resources dedicated to experimentation; (iv) training capacities; (v) excellence in the scientific fields concerned by the researchers who run it.
IDEFICS: Computers, Data and Enterprises for Training and Innovation in Scientific Computing and for Society.
At the LAPP, I initiated the IDEFICS project, financed by the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Region and the European Union.
Building on the success of the partnerships of recent years, through both multidisciplinary cooperation with ICT components in research and higher education and with companies in supporting their digital transition and sharing the challenges of R&D in information technologies, IDEFICS aims to strengthen the MUST « digital platform » and open it up more widely to companies.
This project is part of the CNRS action plan, which includes, among other things, taking care of « interfaces with industries ».
Ouverture de MUST au monde économique par la Fondation USMB.
MUST to contribute in the battle against the COVID-19.