On Friday 24 February 2017, after their final hearing, the international Jury announced the winners of the call for proposals, Initiatives d’Excellence.
The Université de Lyon and all its academic, regional and economic partners and stakeholders welcome this recognition, and are grateful to the State and the Jury for their trust and encouragement to drive forward the momentum already initiated by the Université de Lyon since many years.

The success of three years of collaborative work
The IDEX state funding is a major asset for the University and for the entire region. This award is fully in line with the strategy of the Lyon-Saint-Étienne site, and is the result of nearly three years of teamwork driven by the Bureau de l’Université de Lyon. But above all, it is a collective success thanks to the outstanding contribution of the internal and external partners: faculty and staff members, local authorities, all the socio-economic partners, as well as the students. This synergy and cooperation throughout the entire ecosystem are at the heart of the project.
Jean-François Pinton, the IDEXLYON project’s leader, thanks all the partners of the project and expresses his wish for a ripple effect: "this great success today will certainly be followed by many others. We remain determined to continue our ambition of shared excellence by all, for an IDEX for all. All the elements that shaped our IDEXLYON proposal will continue to guide our project: academic quality, our impact on future students and researchers, international dynamics.. ."

Launch is scheduled in April
Together with IDEX funding comes the responsibility, and the honor, for the Université de Lyon to strengthen the international attractiveness of French higher education and research. With three winning Universities, this award also represents a great success for the whole Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region.
For Khaled Bouabdallah, President of the Université de Lyon, "this award recognizes the University de Lyon for its academic excellence and international and outward-looking dimension; it will provide us with additional resources for creative projects and innovative actions with high-added value. It also confirms our project of an integrated university by 2020".
A new important and strategic step opens now. An event to launch the IDEXLYON will take place in April 2017 to outline the roadmap and action plan with short, medium and long term milestones. This is just a step and not an end in itself because "if this recognition is a great satisfaction, it commits us to act as a model and demonstrates our capacity to innovate, to increase our visibility and to evolve towards a relevant and innovative organization model" adds the President.
The work continues, and will take into account the recommendations of the Jury that will be known in the coming days. Also, exchanges with the Agence Nationale de Recherche (ANR) and the Commissariat General à l’Investissement (CGI) will take place in the coming weeks to develop the IDEX Agreement. The IDEX funding allows us, as from now, to secure the dynamics initiated with the Programme Avenir Lyon Saint-Étienne, notably in the areas of international attractiveness, PhD programs, entrepreneurship and the valorization of knowledge.