Sophia-Antipolis Foundation

Founded in 1984 and declared a public utility, the Sophia Antipolis Foundation fulfils a fundamental mission on the Sophia Antipolis site: the coordination of science and cultural events.

Its objective is to facilitate exchange and reflection on the future at a national, European and international level in the fields of science, industry and culture.

In 2004, the Sophia Antipolis Foundation obtained the status of foundation for the provision of research facilities, which allows it to facilitate the provision of funding and the organisation into foundations of research teams.

The Sophia Antipolis Foundation strives to give impetus to ideas and encourage new thinking through the organisation of conferences, seminars, themed breakfasts and so on.

The Sophia Antipolis Foundation also:

• Organises 80 events each year: seminars, breakfast meetings, conferences, exhibitions and so on.
• Establishes (Juris Sophia Sophia and Open Source) and supports research sector clubs.
• Provides executive coaching for job searches with ongoing activities benefiting around 200 people.
• Sets up international opportunities with multi-national conferences, visits of delegations, representation for Sophia Antipolis in missions abroad, active partnerships with many countries on different continents and active participation in three international networks dedicated to innovation.
• Hosts numerous international delegations: representing more than 500 visitors and 25 different nationalities
• Organises a Competitiveness Cluster Forum each year, which brings together 71 competitiveness clusters and more than 400 people from across France.
• Prints 4000 copies of Sophia Antipolis News, published monthly, and receives 420,00 visitors to its website

Training / Jobs

Sophia Antipolis Careers Portal http://www.sophiaantipolis-careers.com/

Real time job offer service available on mobile: a simple site accessible to all.

A Sophia Antipolis Club des Dirigeants initiative, set up by the Nice Côte d'Azur chamber of commerce and Team Côte d'Azur with the Sophia Antipolis Foundation

Events / Companies

Today, innovation, research and development are key drivers for business growth and activity in the region. With this in mind, the Sophia Antipolis Foundation organises scientific events, conferences, breakfast meetings and so on to help foster the development of a new entrepreneurial culture. It also aims to identify new trends or new themes through the creation of business and professional clubs. This approach is also very much part of the European framework.

Sophia Café Breakfast Meetings

Initiated by Pierre Laffitte, the Sophia Café Breakfast Meetings regularly bring together between 50 and 100 business leaders, researchers and scientists. Since 1994, multimedia and information highways have been the priority focus of these meet-ups, with the aim, amongst other things, of putting technicians together with entrepreneurs in order to promote content development.

Since 2009, these breakfast meetings have taken place under the Sophia Cafés banner. They aim to bring together stakeholders from the business world and specialists on current themes and those with future relevance. Discussion tends to be focused mainly on innovation and issues related to financing.

Monthly meetings, of an hour and a half each time, include presentations and experience sharing followed by question and answer sessions. This provides an efficient platform for information sharing and networking between business leaders, researchers, politicians, institutions and students.

http://www.sophia-antipolis.org/sophia-cafe/

Clubs

As part of its mission to bring businesses together, the Sophia Antipolis Foundation runs many different clubs to meet the needs of different professional groups and new technology users of the park. These meetings promote networking, technology transfer and business opportunities between the technology park stakeholders.

Supporting Entrepreneurs

Among its various activities, the entrepreneurial and scientific events department provides continuous support for businesses in the park, including the establishment of partnerships and networking opportunities. Pursuing its mission to support the creation and growth of innovative companies, the Sophia Antipolis Foundation provides information, communication and intermediation services. Thus in 2012, the Sophia Antipolis Foundation set up an entrepreneur desk, a free service for young entrepreneurs and future business leaders seeking advice or looking for solutions to various issues and challenges.

Partnerships with academia

One of the objectives of the Sophia Antipolis Foundation is to promote the creation of a new entrepreneurial culture and encourage entrepreneurship itself. It therefore strives to create links between the worlds of academia and business and establish direct dialogue between the two communities and enhance the employability of students.

International / Europe

European projects and international surveys

The Sophia Antipolis Foundation participates in projects supported by the European Union, in particular the Directorates-General for Enterprise, Regional Research and EuropeAid. As such, it works with numerous experts in the fields of innovation and research policy, incubation, venture capital, call centres, organisation of the technology park and so on.

International networks

International networks: The Sophia Antipolis Foundation is at the origin of several networks including the IASP (International Association of Science Parks), the ICN (the Innovation Champions Network) and the ELITE network (Enlarging & Leveraging Innovation Talent in Europe).

Hosting delegations

For each delegation that comes to Sophia Antipolis, the Sophia Antipolis Foundation organises visits to the technology park, focused meetings with companies according to the specific interests of both parties. These visits promote the growth and international reputation of Sophia Antipolis. These delegations are also shown the strengths of the park and are presented with opportunities to work with companies and research centres at the technology park.

International cooperation

The Foundation's international objectives include, among others, partnership agreements for closer relationships between the technology park's stakeholders and their counterparts abroad.

 Arts & Sciences

Exhibitions

The Sophia Antipolis Foundation organises and supports numerous exhibitions in collaboration with business or institutions (the Departmental Council, the Regional, local authorities). Taking these science, art and technical exhibitions as its starting point, it promotes new thinking on general themes (innovative architecture, design and so on).

Conferences

As part of its science programme, in 2012 the Sophia Antipolis Foundation established a draft program of lectures on the future of science. These conferences will begin in the first half of 2013. With the support of the Alpes-Maritimes Departmental Council, the SAF has also been instrumental in setting up a video games creation workshop. Designed for Alpes-Maritimes schools, this workshop uses tablets to interest young people in activities related to video games programming. This know-how is in high demand in the industrial sector. Begun in 2012, this scheme will gain momentum in 2013 with classes at the Collège International de Valbonne (March 2013) and the Collège Maurice Jaubert in Nice (autumn 2013). Please see below for details of achievements in 2012.