The site will continue to participate in the structuring of ambitious research in the Hauts-de-France region, by accentuating the synergies between the three institutions of the Alliance, and by making their research potential visible internationally. The three universities have nearly 51,500 students, including 937 doctoral students enrolled annually, and more than 1,300 teacher-researchers and researchers working in 67 research units shared with research organisations such as INRIA, INRAE, INSERM, CNRS, IFREMER and INERIS.

To strengthen their links in terms of research activities, the members of the site have set up a call for projects “AAP A2U”. This mechanism encourages interdisciplinarity and allows for the structuring of research and increased communication around promising themes in the region. In the long term, this “A2U AAP” also aims to allow a joint response to regional, national or international calls for projects and to contribute to the influence of the institutions.

This action will be continued in 2021 by an exceptional A2U PAA, worth one million euros.

The mapping of the research strengths of the three institutions has made it possible to identify seven major cross-cutting themes that bring together the bulk of the research potential, corresponding to major societal challenges for the territories:

• artificial intelligence and optimisation
• energy
• sea and coastline
• environment and natural resources
• health
• societal adaptation to change
• culture, territory and heritage.

These themes have already been used as a framework for the elaboration of the 2021-2027 CPER for the A2U site. In-depth work between the institutions is currently underway to refine these signatures by strengthening their differentiating character.

Moreover, some of these themes have already been structured in the form of SFRs or institutes within the alliance:

• SFR Campus de la Mer
• SFR AI and optimisation
• GIS InREnT Tourism (Heritage and Coastal)
• SFR Heritage & Digital

As part of this structuring and partnership development process, the site will have to finalise the SFR projects on the novel and the novelistic, history and the territory, but also on risk, the environment and health or robotic surgery.

On the basis of these SFRs and Institutes, a reflection will be carried out in order to move towards Interdisciplinary Thematic Institutes (ITI), thus guaranteeing a scientific approach to the major societal issues according to a multicriteria prism.

It will also be necessary, in the interests of scientific relevance and collaboration, to move towards the pooling of technical platforms and digital resources on multi- and interdisciplinary issues.

The three institutions also wish to develop their development activities and their interactions with economic players within and outside the region, with the support of the SATT Nord. The aim is to contribute to the economic vitality of the region and to promote the scientific excellence of the three institutions internationally, through the increased performance of the products and services developed. The aim will be to respond to the problems linked to innovation and development, which do not find solutions within companies due to a lack of resources (human, material, infrastructure, etc.). The resources of university establishments can be mobilised through contractualisation, which will enable companies to benefit from an environment that is conducive to innovation (scientific expertise, cutting-edge technical resources, etc.).

Finally, it should also be noted that scientific integrity referents for each institution, with a transversal operation, have been set up, as well as more recently a Non-Interventional Research Ethics Committee (CERNI).