Transversal challenges

With respect to the challenges of the 2019-2023 COP, the CNRS will mobilise all disciplines in coordinated fashion to structure scientific communities able to make substantial contributions in these areas over a medium term of approximately 10 years.

Download  the 2024-2028 COMP (pdf)

The brain

The brain is central to numerous scientific explorations: how does it produce thoughts, memories, emotions, learning, and social interaction? Can it alone explain our behaviour? How does it situate the human species within the evolution of life, and does it differentiate it or not? The issues go beyond biology, touching on major societal topics such as criminal liability, the inclusion of neurodiversity in education, and the emergence of artificial intelligence.

Science helps to answer these challenges by adopting a pluridisciplinary approach (neuroscience, biology, sociology, linguistics, education sciences, physics, mathematics, robotics, palaeontology, economics, etc). It seeks to model the complex mechanisms of the animal and human brain, to understand the variability between individuals, and to explore the influence of physical and social environments throughout the course of life. This research paves the way for innovation in medicine (personalized medicine, individual medical assistance, prostheses, brain-machine interfaces), education (adapted learning strategies), and technology (neurotechnology and bio-inspired systems).

Materials of the future

Materials are omnipresent in our everyday lives, and have a broad range of contemporary applications (chemistry, transportation, construction, electronics, metallurgy, etc.). However, their development long neglected environmental and energy-related constraints. In the face of challenges connected to energy transition and sustainable development, it is now necessary to develop processes that consume less energy and water resources, and that tend towards recyclable solutions.

The search for materials explores key innovations for meeting these challenges: batteries and supercapacitors for energy storage, photovoltaic devices, materials for wind turbines and nuclear power plants, catalysers to transform small molecules (CO₂, NH₃, H₂…), lighter and more resistant vehicles, in addition to advanced structures for electronics, defence, and health. New materials (bio-based, self-assembled, or metamaterials) and recycling techniques offer promising solutions that are more sober, sustainable, and environmentally-friendly. In addition, the integration of artificial intelligence is revolutionising material design, enabling rapid advances, but also making it necessary to rethink scientific approaches in the field.

Life in the Universe

Life as we know it is, for now, limited to the planet Earth, and the origins of this life remain a mystery. The answer to this question calls for describing the succession of chemical and physical processes that—from the birth of the Universe onwards—have allowed life to blossom: was it born in the extreme conditions of space? What role did primitive oceans, primordial geology, and natural radioactivity play? How were complex organic molecules able to self-organise and increase? These questions lead to new and even broader ones: what is life and how do we define it? Does it exist elsewhere? Are other forms of life possible? If yes, what elements should be sought out to find it? The consequences of potential discoveries should also be considered: how will our societies integrate this new knowledge, and even proof that we are not alone?

Thanks to the data provided by major projects, as well as new instruments on the ground and in space, our understanding of the history and physics of the Universe and its components will make a spectacular jump in the coming years, notably with respect to extrasolar planets and the possibility of finding life there, along with nucleosynthesis.

Instrumentation without limits

Technologies and instruments at the cutting edge of innovation are crucial for high-level scientific research. In return, basic research provides a wealth of innovative ideas that could radically transform how we design, build, and use scientific instruments in the future. The next decade will make use of nanotechnologies, new materials, quantum sensors, and artificial intelligence. Instruments, sensors, and analysis systems will be miniaturized, connected, portable, and automated, all while being less costly, more precise, and more sustainable. These advances will make enable distributed measurements, high-throughput experimentation, and large-scale data gathering in real time. Augmented and virtual reality will promote immersive interaction with complex data, facilitating the understanding and analysis of scientific phenomena. The integration of AI will optimise analysis as well as data flows and storage, and will allow for the effective automation of experimental processes. There are numerous applications in fields such as medicine, the environment, Universe sciences, information technology, and metrology, in addition to the understanding of global environmental changes, the development of new materials, and the understanding of reactive mechanisms, among others.

Generative AI for the sciences

The emergence of large language models has had a major impact on artificial intelligence (AI). Today capable of classification, prediction, and generation beyond language, AI is even capable of transforming research and accelerating discoveries in all scientific fields in which data–mass, multimodal, heterogeneous–is available. This includes the spectrum covered by the CNRS, as demonstrated by its recent use in designing new proteins, materials, drugs, climate models, and artificial and biological neural networks, among others. These models simultaneously raise economic, sociological, and philosophical challenges.

An interdisciplinary approach is crucial to exploiting their potential. It is essential to create shared architectures, all while adapting models to the particularities of disciplines, standardising methodologies to prepare and structure data, and developing and maintaining high-performance computing platforms. It is important, in advance, to understand the foundations for both the capacities and limits of neural networks, in order to make results more solid and ethical, and to design new and more frugal models. The only organisation covering all of the sciences concerned, the CNRS could serve as a catalyst for this new way of conducting science that requires new skills, notably by mobilising its AISSAI centre.

Societies in transition

Many societies today perceive and describe themselves as being in transition, with talk of entering the Anthropocene, exceeding “planetary limits,” global change, transitions–in energy, demographics, digital technology, and epidemiology–as well as transformations to the working world, geopolitical recompositions, and crisis of democracy. Yet are these transitions or simply changes? This distinction raises major methodological questions: who can affirm that a social group is in transition, in what position, using what tools, and at what temporal scale? Is it possible to study a transition while taking part in it? What indicators distinguish between an enduring transition and a recurring pattern? How to best illuminate public decision making connected to these transitions, with a view to anticipating the extreme events that often accompany them?

Using multiple scientific and disciplinary approaches to study and analyse transitions–such as sedentarisation, the advent of agriculture, the invention of writing, the industrial and urban age, the demographic transition, the advent of digital technology, and even artificial intelligence–will help to better grasp the phenomenon, and to build a theoretical framework and suitable methodologies. Then comes the second challenge of transferring the fruit of this research beyond academia.

Societal challenges 2019-2023

The COP 2019-2023 challenges created a genuine dynamic, helping to structure communities within each of the six selected areas: climate change, educational inequality, artificial intelligence, health and the environment, territories of the future, and energy transition. These challenges are still current, with the initiatives that were launched continuing.

Photo credit : © Jean-Claude MOSCHETTI / Géosciences Rennes / CNRS Images