The unit is recognized internationally as a center of excellence for research in theoretical physics.

b)

The unit contributes in a crucial way to projects of national and international importance including the LHC, and GSI-Fair, the construction of the LMJ and Apollon lasers, the ESA Virtual Space Weather Modeling Center and the construction of ITER.

c)

The computer support team is a common resource to all teams unanimously praised for its availability and efficiency.

Different opportunities are present:

a)

The location on Polytechnique campus offers many opportunities to develop interactions with other research groups such as LULI, LPP, Centre de mathématiques Laurent Schwarz.

b)

Association with the College de France is enabling the development of a high profile world-class research group in Condensed Matter and could enhance the position of CPhT as a whole.

c)

The development of the University of Paris-Saclay will attract investment, research students and high quality scientists. It is an opportunity to establish closer links with the university, which may open new hiring possibilities outside CNRS and École Polytechnique on the long run.

Weaknesses and threats related to the context a)

The plasmas groups are or will become subcritical after the retirement of two of the most prominent members.

b)

The enlarged context in which CPhT is beginning to operate (Collège de France, University of Paris-Saclay), the evident difficulties in making new appointments, impose considerable stress on the internal life of the unit and place increased demands on the Director and the Council.

c)

Transport and especially RER B needs improving to irrigate the Saclay campus and connect it in a smooth way to the national and international communities that are their natural partners. It may be critical for the attractiveness of the Paris Saclay operation and the various organizations (X; CEA, etc.) as a whole.

Recommendations a)

CPhT should actively identify suitable candidates in all hiring channels (CNRS, École Polytechnique, etc) and find an effective way to make strategic input to appointment decisions.

b)

The partnership with College de France is highly desirable and a proper administrative framework should be sought which would ensure that this association benefits to the laboratory as a whole.

 Detailed assessments Assessment of scientific quality and outputs

There has been substantial scientific output across the laboratory, with over 600 publications during the period 2008-2013. World class research has been carried out in each of the six teams, and all the work is of international significance. Publications are systematically in the respective fields' high-ranking journals, including a large number in Physical Review Letters and some Nature-group publications, notably in those fields where these are the main vehicles for prestigious work. Another important facet of the unit's output is in the form of computer programs, which represent many person-years of dedicated, innovative and skilled work and are of substantial value to the wider community.

Assessment of the unit's academic reputation and appeal

The laboratory's high academic standing is reflected in its considerable success in attracting funding, including two ERC grants (one synergy and one consolidator) as well as a large number of other international and national grants. That funding has enabled the laboratory to attract a correspondingly large number of postdoctoral researchers, and these are of high quality, some of them having gone on to obtain permanent positions. A further recognition of the laboratory's excellence lies in the election of one of its members to a Professorship at the Collège de France and the prospects of a future closer relationship between the CPhT and the Collège de France. The laboratory has also played a leading role in the organization of high profile international conferences and workshops.

Assessment of the unit's interaction with the social, economic and cultural environment

The interaction with the social, economic and cultural environment takes place along three axes.

Outreach: Many members of the lab participate to the dissemination of Science through books (3), conferences, articles in Encyclopedia Universalis and participations in TV and radio talks. (Bar des Sciences).

One can also list the recent initiation by a member of CPhT of a joint cursus with Saint Gobain in the École Polytechnique graduate school.

One patent (landmine detection) in collaboration with the lab of Applied Mathematics has been taken during the contract.

The unit expertise is key to the success of two major projects located in France: the LMJ and ITER.

Assessment of the unit's organisation and life

The unit is organized in six teams covering four main directions of research: fundamental interactions (with one team focusing on standard model particle physics and another one on BSM physics in the context of string theory), mathematical physics, condensed matter theory and finally, plasma physics (with one team on laser-plasma interactions, and another one on magnetized plasma).

Despite this wide thematic span, the various teams entertain good relationships, and the cohesion of the unit rests on a common theoretical approach to physics, on scientific interactions (in particular through teaching duties) and on the reliance on common services. The efficiency of secretariat and computer support is unanimously praised.

The unit has an intense scientific life, stimulated by numerous seminars within each team and at the laboratory level, and irrigated by the presence of numerous students and postdoctoral researchers. The Scientific Council has regular open meetings (up to six times a year) to discuss allocation of common resources and general planning. It is important, for the cohesion of the unit, that this forum be used to share information and discuss strategic matters for the unit.

The committee was surprised to hear, during the meeting with the unit's council, some discordant voices concerning the project leader for the following contract. This should be clarified within the unit and with the supervising institutions.

At the practical level, the infrastructure has improved significantly with the relocation of a part of the laboratory in a new building with more technical space and additional lecture rooms, following an accidental fire in the temporary but historic Paul Levy building. The situation on the Polytechnique campus is a key asset, and the panel encourages the members of the unit to develop scientific relationships with the other laboratories on the campus.

Assessment of the unit's involvement in training through research

From 2008 to 2013 researchers of the unit have directly supervised 22 PhD theses, and have hosted a large number of post-doctoral students (about 20).

Many members of the unit are directly involved in teaching at the M2 level and in pre-doctoral schools within ED 447 and ED 107, as well as abroad.

One member of the unit is professor at Collège de France. Three members are full professors at École Polytechnique and five part-time professors. Joint M2 programs have been organized at the national and international levels.

Assessment of the strategy and the five-year plan

The opportunities and challenges for the future are different for each team. We focus here on the strategy and perspectives for the laboratory as a whole, leaving specific comments on the individual teams' strategies to the sections below.

The présentation générale in the rapport d'activité invited the committee to comment on three particular items of strategic importance to the CPhT, which are reproduced here:

* our strategy to continue to develop our research programs along its current 6 axes, with a particular emphasis on the plasma groups that did not benefit of recent recruitment; * the commitment of College de France as a third component of the École polytechnique-CNRS partnership to fund and support the CPhT; * our will to reinforce our implication in academic teaching at École polytechnique and the future Université Paris-Saclay.

The committee's opinion on these points is as follows:

Recruitment to the plasma groups is absolutely vital. Appointments are needed to provide future leadership and to maintain and develop fruitful interaction with other research groups within the École Polytechnique and in the Paris region, as well as nationally and internationally.

Since in the five year period, recruitments are also necessary in other teams, all possible recruitment channels should be explored, including within different sections and Institutes of CNRS and École Polytechnique. Positive action is needed from CPhT and from all its supporting organizations.

The committee enthusiastically welcomes the interest from the Collège de France to develop a partnership with CPhT and supports the on-going negotiations. The involvement of the College will promote the further development of a world-leading research group in Condensed Matter and has the potential to strengthen the position of the CPhT as a whole, even if this aspect remains to be fully articulated.

The arrangement with École Polytechnique for academic teaching functions well. This is important and should continue. Regarding the desire expressed by CPhT' to become involved in academic teaching also at the Paris Saclay University, the committee is supportive and encourages individual members as well as the director to actively pursue opportunities in this direction.

As a last recommendation: CPhT and its supervising institutions should now take the time to discuss a strategy and identify a candidate for director for the second part of the 2015-2019 contract (retirement of the present director).

4  Team-by-team analysis The group has five permanent members (one of whom arrived in Oct. 2013), and has hosted six postdocs, one student, as well as numerous visitors.

Assessment of scientific quality and outputs

The group's scientific results (66 publications + 4 under consideration) have covered the following four main areas:

1.

Exclusive processes in lepton-hadron and hadron-hadron collisions. There is a strong activity on this subject, with about 30 articles over the evaluation period, covering important aspects both on the theoretical front (for example the NLO calculation of Deeply Virtual Compton Scattering) and phenomenologically (with applications at the LHC, GSI-FAIR, etc.) 2.

Saturation physics. The work has mostly concentrated on the development of a fundamental understanding of saturation, with notable results on (1) understanding saturation beyond the leading order and (2) probing the dynamics of saturation through simplified models of saturation. Both aspects bring important insights to the field.

3.

2-particle irreducible methods, in particular the development of the method for QED, and applications to non-perturbative problems and out-of-equilibrium problems. The work in question brings thorough analyses to these problems.

4.

Non-perturbative QCD (especially AdS/QCD). Though this subject involves just a handful of articles, the group's work was instrumental in understanding how to apply AdS/QCD methods to deep inelastic scattering.

The work has international impact and is often written in collaboration with researchers across Europe and the US.

The results have been published in the field's first-tier journals, notably JHEP, Physical Review D., Phys. Lett. B, Nucl. Phys. A/B. There have been two publications in Physical Review Letters, and one Physics Report (the prime journal for review articles in the field).

Assessment of the team's academic reputation and appeal

Members of the team take part in a wide range of international conferences (with about 60 proceedings), and also in key collective studies that help determine the future of the field, such as those carried out by the LHeC study group.

The group has been actively involved in the management of two national networks (Labex P2IO, and the direction of GDR nucléon) and is part of an ANR grant for 2012-2015. It has also been successful in obtaining funding for its international collaborations, and for postdocs.

The quality of the postdocs attracted to this group of the CPhT is high. At least two of them have gone on to obtain permanent positions, and it is a significant success for the team to have attracted a new and promising permanent member.

Assessment of the team's interaction with the social, economic and cultural environment One member of the group is regularly involved in outreach, having contributed a total of six articles to the Encyclopaedia Universalis and to "La science au present".

Assessment of the team's organisation and life

The team is small and so does not need excessive organization. Based on discussions with its members, the team appears cohesive and functions well. The main group activity is the IPN-X seminar, run jointly with the IPN on the Orsay campus. This makes it possible to obtain a critical mass for seminars and also encourages interaction with the Paris-Saclay community. it is an important and very beneficial activity for the team.

Assessment of the team's involvement in training through research

Two young members of the team have taught at the Bielefeld-Paris-Helsinki international graduate school. One of them also teaches in the high-energy physics METH Zurich-Polytechnique Masters course. The team's involvement in the supervision of Ph.D. students has been somewhat limited. Given the strengths of the team members, this is perhaps regrettable, and it would be beneficial for the team as a whole, and for its individual members, if they regularly took on Ph.D. students.

Assessment of the strategy and the five-year plan

The team's expertise to date is mostly on the rich phenomenology of strong interactions in standard-model physics. In light of the lack of new physics discoveries so far at the LHC it plans to continue in this direction. Given the group's strengths, and given that one can expect two decades of strong-interaction results from the LHC (not to mention other experiments), regardless of whether new physics is discovered, this strategy should assure the group a rich physics program.

The recruitment of a new member is a very positive development for the coming years, compensating for one departure. Given the two retirements in the decade to come, the team should aim at recruiting more young researchers in the years to come.

Conclusion

Strengths and opportunities:

The team is systematically publishing in top-level journals, and carrying out valuable calculations, some of which have a high chance of becoming cornerstones of their respective subfields in the years to come. The team also has well-developed links with experimental groups around the world, which is of mutual benefit to the CPhT and to the experiments. Finally the team has a track record of attracting and training good postdocs (and corresponding funding for them), some of whom have gone on to obtain faculty positions.

 Weaknesses and threats:

The team faces a generational change in the years to come, with the continuation of a wave of retirements of its senior members. The team has recently attracted one top-level junior hire, reinforcing the younger part of its team, but will need to continue to hire further young researcher(s) in the years to come. One weakness of the past few years is the team's limited involvement in the training of Ph.D. students, and the team could be more proactive in seeking out prospective Ph.D. students, even if the context does not always make this easy.

 Recommandations

From discussions with the team members, it is clear that they are considering the different strategic choices to be made with regards to future hirings. The committee encourages them to continue their reflections in this direction and, additionally, encourages the "tutelles" to support them in this respect. Among the important tasks for the younger researchers in the team is becoming more actively involved in the training of Ph D students. The team currently consists of four permanent CNRS researchers, two post-docs and two Ph D students.

Assessment of scientific quality and outputs

The team covers a broad spectrum of topics in the area of string theory and high energy theory, along four main research axes:

1. Formal aspects of string and supergravity theories: low energy effective action of flux compactification in the framework of gauged supergravity, constructions of new classes of non-supersymmetric black hole solutions, black brane dynamics in higher dimension, structure of UV divergences in supergravity, gravitational instantons and Ricci flows.

2. Holographic correspondence: effective holographic models for QCD, allowing to compute thermodynamical and dynamical properties of the quark gluon plasma at strong coupling; condensed matter applications, in particular to superfluid helium and rotating ultracold atomic Bose condensates.

3. String phenomenology: construction of grand unified models in the framework of F-theory, studies of various mechanisms for supersymmetry breaking and computations of corresponding Yukawa couplings and gauge threshold corrections, Randall-Sundrum type models of electroweak symmetry breaking, flavor physics, MSSM with higherdimension operators, U(1)' gauge fields as dark matter candidates.

4. Cosmology: multi-field inflation, resolution of cosmological singularities in solvable string theory models, cosmological signatures of supersymmetry breaking.

On each of these topics, the team has produced numerous high quality contributions, which were published in the top scientific journals of the field (150 publications from 2008 to 2013 in JHEP Nuclear Physics B, Physical Review D, JCAP, etc). Especially noteworthy are a 6-article series on improved holographic QCD models (540 citations in total, according to INSPIRE), two papers on the `blackfold' approach for black holes in higher dimension (200 citations), the study [1] on new physics signatures in the cosmic microwave background (100 citations), papers on F-theory grand unified models (110 citations), and papers on experimental signatures of U(1)' bosons at FERMI telescope (120 citations).

The team members are also regularly invited in international conferences (as testified by publication of 27 proceedings).

Assessment of the team's academic reputation and appeal

The excellence of the team has been recognized by prestigious european grants (Chaire d'excellence européenne 2004-2008, ERC grant 2009-2013, based , based in part at CPHT) and numerous national or bi-national grants (ANR, PICS, PEPS, CEFIPRA, P2I, Marie Curie fellowships). These contracts have allowed hiring top level postdoctoral fellows (23 over 2008-2013, some of them shared with IPHT or LPTENS), out of a pool of about 100 applicants each year. The top quality of the postdoc is underscored by the fact that three of them have gone on to permanent academic positions.

The team members are involved in numerous international collaborations (USA, Canada, Brazil, India, United Kingdom, Germany, Greece, Italy, Belgium, Japan, Denmark...) as well as national collaborations, within the string theory community in Paris area and outside Paris (Tours, Lyon, Clermont-Ferrand).

Assessment of the team's interaction with the social, economic and cultural environment

The team plays an active role within the French high-energy theory community, in organizing numerous workshops and scientific meetings, and in the Paris area by its involvement in the joint string theory seminar held on a bi-weekly basis at Institut Henri Poincaré. Two general public articles were published in the journal of the Société Francaise de Physique and several outreach actions were conducted.

Assessment of the team's organisation and life

Thanks to the high number of PhD students and postdocs, the team has enjoyed a vibrant scientific animation. A bi-weekly double feature string theory seminar organized locally plays an important role in training PhD students and postdocs, and in establishing group dynamics. The team members appear to get on well together and have fruitful collaborations with PhD students and postdocs.

Assessment of the team's involvement in training through research

From 2008 to 2013, the team has supervised 6 PhD theses, and has hosted 5 foreign PhD students and 9 Master students. Two PhD theses are underway. During their first year, PhD students benefit of a one-trimester training organized jointly with Amsterdam and Bruxelles universities. Two team members are part time professors at École Polytechnique, and one former member, and now frequent visitor, is full time professor. The latter has recently established an M2 program in Particle Physics (PHE), joint between École Polytechnique (within ED 447) and ETH Zurich. Team members teach part of the particle physics and quantum field theory courses in this M2 program, and also give tutorials at the M2 program in Theoretical Physics at École Normale Supérieure (ED 107). A team member is the École Polytechnique delegate at the scientific council of this same program.

Assessment of the strategy and the five-year plan

In this ever-changing field, it is difficult to establish a long-term research program, as unexpected new avenues may open at any time and make pre-established choices obsolete. The team expects to continue current research in BSM physics and cosmology, with particular emphasis on constraints coming from LHC and PLANCK experiments. It will also continue the study of higher-dimensional black holes and black branes, using the blackfold and algebraic methods developed at CPHT. It also intends to develop applications of holographic methods to condensed matter, particularly on superfluid Helium and rotating ultracold atomic condensates. These are challenging and topical directions of research, which will undoubtedly produce valuable results in the future.

Conclusion  Strengths and opportunities:

The string theory team at CPHT is at the forefront of research at the international level. Its scientific output has been remarkable, with over 150 papers published in top scientific journals over the last five years. One of its assets has been its capacity to attract top level postdoctoral fellows, which was made possible by numerous research contracts from European Community (Chaire d'excellence européenne 2004-2008, ERC 2009-2013, Marie Curie fellowships) as well as national ones (ANR, PICS, PEPS, CEFIPRA, P2I), along with a clever policy leveraging national and local funding into Marie Curie Fellowships. The recent hiring of a CNRS Chargé de Recherches in 2010 has considerably reinforced the formal wing of the team, without, however, fully compensating the departure of a research director in 2009.

 Weaknesses and threats:

While being an asset, the wide thematic span of the team threatens to isolate some of its members, especially on the phenomenological wing. This risk was so far averted thanks to the intense postdoctoral hiring, but may become more severe as the current contracts come to an end.

 Recommendations:

The committee encourages the team in its search of new sources of funding so as to keep the high level of postdoctoral hiring. The committee recommends the hiring of a new permanent researcher to reinforce the team and compensate the 2009 departure. The team has had, during the contract, six permanent members and two emeritus researchers, active during the evaluation period. During this period the team has had three PhD students and four postdoctoral fellows.

Assessment of scientific quality and outputs

The team can be divided in two subgroups working, respectively, in field theory and dynamical systems and statistical physics. Both subgroups have comparable strengths and levels of productivity or international visibility. Altogether, the team develops a rather diversified spectrum of mathematical tools, including methods from field theory, statistical mechanics, probability theory and partial differential equations (stochastic and non-stochastic).

Quantum field theory has been, historically, a beacon subject at the CPhT, developed by the leading international experts in rigorous renormalizability schemes. It is reassuring to see that, despite the retirement of all of the founder figures, the team has been able to renew itself while keeping the scientific level in consistency with its tradition. The team has produced important advances in perturbative renormalization and constructive field theory.

The topics in dynamical systems and statistical systems developed by the team form a diversified set that evolves with time. This set includes research relating dynamical systems with non-Markovian stochastic processes, issues on diffusion and non-equilibrium statistical mechanic and, more recently, concentration inequalities, quasistationarity and Gibbsianness. Further work refers to integrable systems, stochastic equations and random fields and a recent incursion in population dynamics.

The summed scientific production of the group is excellent (107 papers, 1 book and 5 book chapters). Most of the articles are in leading journals in mathematics, mathematical physics and physics.

Assessment of the team's academic reputation and appeal

The team remains an international reference both for rigorous quantum field theory and for topics in the frontier between dynamical systems, stochastic processes and mathematical statistical mechanics.

Its members are regularly invited at international conferences, workshops and schools.

The team is very active in international collaborations with a number of countries in three continents. In particular, members have long standing collaborative projects with Chile and Brazil. The mathematical physics team of the École Polytechnique is very well known in the international arena.

Assessment of the team's interaction with the social, economic and cultural environment Members of the team are active in teaching at different levels at the École Polytechnique. One of them is fulltime professor and teaching vice-director of the Physics Department. Another teaches part-time at the Department of Applied Mathematics. Other members teach Master courses and courses to assist foreign students.

Assessment of the team's organisation and life

The team keeps a very friendly and open atmosphere that leads to an effective sharing of information. Mathematical research is often built out of individual efforts, in which each researcher pushes his/her own program and sets up his/her own network of collaborators. In this sense, this team is surprisingly exceptional, as shown by a non-negligible number of publications involving pairs of members.

Assessment of the team's involvement in training through research

In the evaluation period the team has had 3 PhD students and 4 postdocs. While it could be argued that larger numbers would be preferable, these numbers indicate a clear vocation to train and transmit expertise to younger generations.

Assessment of the strategy and the five-year plan

The team has clear ideas for future research. Perhaps the most ambitious goal of the subgroup on field theory is to show absence of anomalies for the standard model at all orders, followed by the analysis of the renormalization flow beyond the perturbative regime. Other objectives include the study of models of random tensors (generalizing random matrices models) and the application of stochastic calculus to fractional Brownian motion. The subgroup on dynamical systems plans to further the studies on (absence of) limits of Gibbs measures and on applications to biological systems.

Conclusion

The team is living up to its reputation of leading group in mathematical physics. It presents a nice and not very common thematic balance, in which part of the team follows a systematic program started decades ago and still extremely relevant, while another part explores a dynamic panoply of topics of foundational or applied interest.

 Strengths and opportunities:

Its strength lays both in its size (unusual for a group in mathematical physics), its international reputation and its thematic diversity. These attributes guarantee that the team can continue to function as a generator of important scientific ideas, in particular through collaborations arising of its international appeal.

 Weaknesses and threats:

The main weakness lies in the very limited number of young researchers that have been trained by the team. This could compromise future influx of new blood and the continuation of important research lines. A possible threat stems from the fact that the team is entirely funded by the CPhT, and it lacks grant money coming from other sources. This type of grants is not easy to get for groups in fundamental research, but the team seems well positioned to obtain them.

 Recommendations:

-The team should have a more aggressive policy of recruitment of PhD students and post-doctoral researchers.

The team deserves to create a school of thought.

-The team should apply for important research grants both at the national and international levels. Such grants give financial autonomy, which in turns leads to increased weight in academic decisions.

-The team may consider strengthening its relation with the mathematic departments at the École Polytechnique (or other institutions of the future Paris-Saclay pole). Such a relation can bring further thematic richness and an enlarged audience and pool of interested students. The team has cinq permanent members.

Assessment of scientific quality and outputs

The team's scientific results have covered a large spectrum of the condensed matter theory of strongly correlated quantum systems from the explanation of simple generic mechanisms via archetypal models to ab initio understanding of various real materials. Numerous methodological improvements have been brought to the original DMFT approach (for Dynamical Mean Field theory) for strongly correlated quantum systems and the team is now able to answer a large range of questions concerning all these systems whatever the origin of the strong correlations. Moreover the team has now realized the bridge between this generic approach and the chemists' ab initio approach of the materials from their atomic constitution: opening the door to predictive description of properties of real materials. This extremely ambitious program has been and is supported by the development of codes which for some of them are now in open access in the TRIQS library (co-developed with a researcher in IPhT Saclay).

• During the contract the potentiality of the DMFT approach has been illustrated by the definitive explanation of the spatial properties of the Cuprate High Tc Superconductors (pseudo gap, nodal and anti-nodal point of the Fermi surface)

• During this contract, a new breakthrough has been achieved with the generic understanding of the effect of strong intra-atomic spin-orbit coupling on the electronic properties of transition metals and of their oxides. This advance comes with the first illustration of such a mechanism in the physical properties of a real material (BaAs 2 Fe 2 )

• The combined new approaches open the possibility to tackle a very large number of material problems as Fe superconductors, the magnetic and structural properties of Fe at high and ultra high (geological) pressure have been studied and many difficulties solved

• The team is very active in studies at the interface between Condensed Matter Physics and Quantum Optics (Ultra-Cold Atomic Gases, Cavity QED, Quantum Information, topological insulators and nanosystems) Outputs: 146 publications in excellent reviews and two books or chapter of books.

Assessment of the team's academic reputation and appeal

The team is an international leader in the field of strongly correlated quantum physics. This can be measured by:

• the impressive (more than 30) number of national and international collaborations with top scientists;

• the cooptation of one member of the team as a Professor in Collège de France: which is an index of his international notoriety;

• the frequent and regular invitations of group members in international conferences and schools;

• the attractiveness to national and foreign doctoral (5) and post-doctoral students (9).

Assessment of the team's interaction with the social, economic and cultural environment

Another researcher of the team has built a joint" parcours" on material physics between École Polytechnique and Saint Gobain, and a double cursus between École Polytechnique and the FU in Berlin.

Assessment of the team's organisation and life

The organization of the team allows the development of young talents and is extremely rich for doctoral and post-doctoral students.

Assessment of the team's involvement in training through research

The team has a strong involvement in teaching at various levels and in various institutions: lectures at College de France and École Polytechnique.

Team members have also a strong involvement in training PhD students and post-docs. Three theses have been completed during the contract, and three are presently in preparation. There are presently six post-doctoral fellows in the team (nine or more on the whole span of the contract).

Assessment of the strategy and the five-year plan

The projects for the future five years are both extremely ambitious (predict and control the synthesis of new materials) and very well prepared.

Conclusion

This team does outstanding work at an international level. Its impetus is extraordinarily strong.

 Strengths and opportunities:

Its strength lays in the internationally recognized quality and diversity of the researchers, and an appropriate size and distribution of ages.

The strongest present opportunity is a tighter association with College de France. The recent election in College de France of a specialist of the "Chemistry of Materials and Energy" enlarges the opportunity to achieve very innovative work.

 Weaknesses and threats:

Not to be seen presently.

 Recommendations:

The team does not seem in need of external recommendations. The team has been very productive over the past five years with 101 publications in refereed journals. The intellectual quality of the papers is high, as represented by publication in high impact journals: 15 in Physical Review Letters and 3 in the Nature family of journals including papers published so far in 2013. Research into ultra-short laser pulses at moderate intensities has been particularly productive with about 60 refereed publications including 6 in PRL and 3 in Nature journals. The laser-plasma unit's papers are well-cited for the subject although none of the papers in this five year period has yet attracted the exceptionally high citation rates achieved by earlier papers from the team (some published in 2007 just a year before the present period). The team's research is varied and extensive, ranging from the filamentation of very short laser pulses at relatively low intensity, through parametric instabilities and filamentation at laser intensities relevant to inertial confinement fusion, to ion and electron acceleration at very high laser intensities. The research uses a variety of techniques ranging from the predominantly analytic to high performance computing with advanced codes, and from basic theory to experimental support. Across the whole range of topics and techniques the research is of the highest intellectual quality. The team is globally respected for the scientific integrity of its research.

Assessment of the team's academic reputation and appeal

The team has a high reputation, and some members of the team are deservedly described as world-leaders in their field. The evidence for this judgment comes from the unit's achievements over many years and (anecdotally) from remarks made at gatherings of plasma physicists.

Evidence for the wide impact of the team's research can be seen in the large number of collaborations: 11 national and 15 international collaborations.

One of the members of this team is particularly prominent on the national scene. He is the Director of "l'Institut Lasers et Plasmas", and plays an important role in forming policy on the development and uses of high power lasers across France.

The team is highly regarded, but it could give increased priority to systematically promoting the international impact of its research. The team should ensure that all its high quality research reaches publication. Members of the team could be less reluctant to compete for first authorship on collaborative papers. A larger number of invited conference presentations might be sought in order to reflect the excellence of the team's research.

Assessment of the team's interaction with the social, economic and cultural environment

The team plays a key role in the major investments being made by France in high power lasers such as the Laser Megajoule (LMJ), PETAL and Apollon. Members of the team actively collaborate with experimentalists on existing lasers at LULI, LOA and CEA in the Paris region. The twin purposes of the largest of the new lasers (LMJ) are to underpin French nuclear deterrence and to investigate Inertial Fusion as a route to clean commercial energy production. The other lasers deliver less total energy but greater instantaneous power. These are being developed to investigate the generation of energetic ion beams for cancer treatments, compact electron acceleration to high energies, and novel means of igniting high gain capsules for thermonuclear energy generation. Moreover, the needs of plasma physics helps driving the development of a world-leading laser industry in France. The team is making an important input to all these projects. Of particular importance at present is the understanding of parametric instabilities and filamentation during laser propagation in fusion hohlraums. The team's expertise in this subject may be paramount in understanding one reason why the US National Ignition Facility (NIF) is underperforming. The resolution of issues on the NIF is important for the related LMJ facility in which France is investing billions of euros. The team's research into ultra-short laser pulse has potential for micro-and nano-scale engineering and production of THz electromagnetic pulses.

Assessment of the team's organisation and life

The laser-plasma team at CPhT is small but well integrated with nearby experimental units (LULI, LOA) at École Polytechnique. The close association with LULI and LOA embeds CPhT in a broad community that attracts large numbers of visitors for experiments and seminars. The team's greatest overlap of interest is with the laser-plasma experimental laboratories. Magnetized and laser-produced plasmas are quite different and use different computational techniques although both require access to high performance computers and associated support staff. In the coming five year period, the laser-plasma team may develop a common program with the quantum groups in CPhT as laser intensities increase and QED effects become important (even dominant). The laser-plasma team's location in CPhT facilitates collaboration with a range of experimental groups without being subsumed into any one of them.

There is a large overlap of research interests among members of the laser-plasma team resulting in many jointly authored papers. Research into ultra-short pulses at moderate laser intensities is relatively distinct from that of the rest of the unit, but there is still a strong commonality of interest and the team forms a coherent whole.

Assessment of the team's involvement in training through research

The number of research students is relatively small with three completed theses in the five-year period. The quality of these students is very high. These three have been the first author on 3, 2 and 2 refereed papers respectively and co-authors of numerous other papers.

Four members of the team are involved in master level teaching at École Polytechnique.

Assessment of the strategy and the five-year plan

Future scientific prospects for the team are excellent, especially because of the completion of new high-power lasers in France and the carrying out of the first experiments. The team's expertise could be crucial for the success of the LMJ, especially if laser-plasma interactions turn out to be a major reason for the difficulties achieving ignition on the equivalent US NIF facility. This will be an important opportunity for the team to both engage in exciting new physics and make a major contribution to a project of great national importance.

The completion of the Apollon laser will bring access to a very different type of physics in which quantum electrodynamics becomes important in laser-plasma experiments for the first time. Facilities capable of accessing this new regime are being built elsewhere in the world so this should be a highly competitive field with the opportunity to develop the theory of completely novel experiments. This should be an opportunity for cross-team collaboration within CPhT.

However, the team faces a major difficulty. Two of the leading and most prominent scientists in the team will retire during the next five-year period, and a presently active emeritus may become less active. The remaining group of three scientists (one presently shared with another unit) will be insufficient to respond to the exciting opportunities presented to the unit. Moreover, the severely depleted team will appear less attractive to new recruits and could be in terminal decline at the end of the five-year period if no appointment is made.

Conclusion  Strengths and opportunities:

-The team has an international reputation for world-leading science of high integrity.

-The proximity of current world-leading laser facilities and the completion of new laser facilities in France offer unparalleled opportunities for excellent science of national and international importance.

 Weaknesses and threats:

-Retirement of leading scientists will leave the team severely depleted if no action is taken.

 Recommendations:

-Take steps to increase the international visibility of the unit's excellent research.

-New appointments are absolutely essential for the future of laser-plasma physics at CPhT, for the success of nationally significant projects such as the LMJ, and for the provision of theoretical support to laser-plasma experiments in the Paris region. Ideally two appointments should be made. One of the appointments should be at a leadership level. The organisations overseeing CPhT must find a way of making these appointments. The team's scientific production is summarized in 36 publications and 43 contributions in conferences. These numbers should be compared to the small size of the team. The team effort was mainly focused on code development, leading to a reduced number of publications. Nevertheless, the work has international impact and is often written in collaboration with researchers in France and in Europe. The results have been published in the field's first-tier journals, notably in plasma Phys. Contr. Fusion, Nuclear, Fusion, Physics of Plasmas, J Computer Physics, Astrophysical Journal etc and one publication in Physical Review Letters. ~45% of the publications are related to tokamak plasma physics, ~45% to astrophysical plasmas and 10% to Hall effect thrusters. 50% of the publications have national or international collaborators as a first author, which gives an idea of the strength of the collaborations In addition to the publications, the main production consists in the development of world class computer codes for the modeling of MHD instabilities in tokamaks, the modelling of solar activity and its impact on Earth, the modeling of Hall effect thrusters. It should be stressed that a major effort has been made to develop a unique tool (the new fluid/kinetic hybrid code XTOR-K) to understand MHD instabilities in the presence of fast particles (nonthermal). This is a major issue for the international project ITER, the tokamak under construction in France (Cadarache) where a large fraction of fast particles will be produced by the fusion reactions (fast alpha fusion born particles). The modeling and understanding of the so-called burning plasma is a prime physics issue for the success of the magnetic fusion confinement research. Similarly, in astrophysical plasmas the development of XTRAPOL, METEOSOL, MESHMHD for the modelling of the solar eruption process and its relation with earth atmosphere are key assets for the team. The codes are recently included in the framework of the ESA Virtual Space Weather Modeling Center.

Assessment of the team's academic reputation and appeal

The team is well integrated in different research networks with long standing national and international collaborations. In particular, the collaboration with CEA/DSM, IRFM through the "Federation de Recherche Fusion Par Confinement Magnetique" is a key asset for the team in order to have access to experimental data required to validate the modeling and theoretical predictions (mainly obtained in Tore Supra and JET). A large number of publications are related to this activity. Similar collaborations in space plasma physics are essential to validate simulation predictions (with ESA, NASA, DGA). This reputation is recognized also by the fact that the team has led a number of projects funded by the French National Agency ANR (three projects). The team leader has also coordinated the MHD activity within the "Federation de Recherches Fusion Par Confinement Magnetique". Finally, up to 10 invited talks have been given in international conferences. Very recently, within EUROFUSION H2020, the team has proposed an Enabling Research Project for the implementation of the fusion RoadMap ("Nonlinear 3D simulations of plasma core instabilities beyond MHD in tokamak plasmas"), which consists in coordinating the activity with three major laboratories in EU (CEA-IRFM, CRPP-EPFL, ENEA-CNR). The team has been recently chosen to be one major model provider for the space weather program of the European Space Agency (ESA). The team has also been involved in the GDR "Propulsion par plasma dans l'espace" involving CNES, and industrial partners such as Safran-Snecma.

Assessment of the team's interaction with the social, economic and cultural environment

The team interaction with the social, economic and cultural environment is measured through the active collaboration with CEA/DSM/IRFM via the "Federation de Recherches Fusion Par Confinement Magnétique" and its implication for the ITER project, contracts with CNES, ESA, and industry Safran-Snecma, the participation to TV or radio broadcasts, and participation to the GDR "Propulsion par plasma dans l'espace". The research activities have close links with the international project ITER, the world largest tokamak currently built in France. When the project has been officially launched, the French President (Mr J. CHIRAC) announced that "ITER in FRANCE must be a success". The CPhT team contributes to this future success, which has social and economic impacts.

Assessment of the team's organisation and life

The team may suffer from being too isolated within the CPhT even though two researchers share their time between the magnetized plasma and the Laser-Plasma teams. The main link of the group "Magnetized Plasmas" with CPhT is through the computer support team. This support should be further reinforced to leave more time to the physicists for solving open research issues and exploit the newly developed codes.

Assessment of the team's involvement in training through research

During the evaluation period, the team has been involved directly in the training of 3 PhD students and 7 postdoc students. In addition, the team is involved in a set of teaching activities at the FCM Master Fusion, and at École Polytechnique. Compared to the small size of the team, this is a significant contribution.

Assessment of the strategy and the five-year plan

After a long period of code development, the five years' plan of the team should consist in benchmarking and validating the newly developed codes against experimental data (for tokamak and astrophysical plasmas). This activity should strengthen the prediction of the MHD stability for the future generation of tokamak such as ITER. This positioning is highlighted by the fact that the team has recently submitted an Enabling Research Project for the implementation of the fusion RoadMap with EuroFusion H2020 program. In addition, in the fusion roadmap the mastering and, ultimately, controlling of the MHD instabilities are clearly flagged as a major issue. In astrophysical plasmas, the CPhT codes will be part of the Virtual Space Weather Model Center; an effort will be made to develop comprehensive modeling to integrate sun and earth interactions, and to better understand the heating of the solar corona. On the one hand, these strategies could only be developed if the team is reinforced, as the size is too small for such an ambitious program. On the other hand, one may gain in efficiency and team spirit by reducing the numbers of projects led in parallel (e.g. reducing the activity on the Hall effect Thruster that is ready to be transferred to the industry). In addition, one may think of synergetic programs or common (code) developments between the astrophysical plasmas and tokamak plasmas.

Conclusion  Strengths and opportunities:

-The international and excellent reputation of the team. In astrophysical plasmas, the team has been chosen to be one major model provider for the ESA space weather program and the medium/long term strategy is well defined. The ITER project (the tokamak under construction in France), with an increasing demand in terms of modeling and preparation of experiments with fully validated codes, will indeed be strongly supported by the exploitation of these unique and world class computer codes. Similarly, other European projects such as JET in England, the WEST project in Cadarache (the modification of Tore Supra), ASDEX-U, the start of W7-X experiments in Germany and the start of the JT60-SA experiments are key opportunities for the team to develop international collaborations. The strong collaboration with CEA (IRFM) and the link with "Federation de Recherches Fusion Par Confinement Magnetique" are a key asset.

 Weaknesses and threats:

-The small size of the team and the weak interaction with other plasma laboratories at École Polytechnique are clearly a major weakness. A relatively large number of research projects (the three main subjects are tokamak plasmas, astrophysical plasmas and Hall Thrusters) for a team of three permanent researchers: the activity relies on a very limited number of researchers. The citation rates of the publications could be further increased, for instance by continuing the effort related to the international visibility of the team's excellent research. The major effort was on code development leaving a very limited time for the exploitation. The threats are in the computer support, on the availability of the manpower to support the code development, on the departure of one member of the team that could destabilize the whole strategy, on a too large numbers of projects. Difficulties to attract young researchers who may fear to be too isolated within the team, and within the CPhT, since the projects are led by individual researchers. The threats are also the reduction of the number of projects funded by the ANR and the present lack of visibility for Euratom funding within H2020.

 Recommendations:

-It is mandatory to significantly reinforce the size of the team (no recruitment since 1995) in relation with the ambitious five years strategy, the foreseen retirement of senior researchers, and, the growing demand from the ITER project (in FRANCE). It is of prime importance to increase the high-level computer support for an increased efficiency of the use of computing facilities (e.g. develop massively parallel codes) and for the physicists to spend more time on code validation/exploitation. We recommend reducing the number of projects led by individuals (e.g. reduce the activity on Hall Thruster?). We recommend reinforcing the computer support provided by CPhT to strengthen the world-class code exploitation. We recommend reinforcing the collaboration with the Laboratoire de Physique des Plasmas/LPP at École Polytechnique. We recommend maintaining strong international collaborations to further validate the codes already developed and to enhance the accessibility/value of the codes with the help of a userfriendly interface, in view of a systematic exploitation and extrapolation (e.g. toward ITER). Private Lunch for the committee, followed by the closed committee session

  spent at least 12 months in the unit* Number of Research Supervisor Qualifications (HDR) taken Qualified research supervisors (with an HDR) or similar positions 18 18 2  Assessment of the unit Strengths and opportunities related to the context a)

N3:

  Permanent professors and similar positions N2: Permanent EPST or EPIC researchers and similar positions 4 5 Other permanent staff (without research duties) N4: Other professors (PREM, ECC, etc.) N5: Other EPST or EPIC researchers (DREM, Postdoctoral students, visitors,

4 N3:

 4 Permanent professors and similar positions N2: Permanent EPST or EPIC researchers and similar positions 4 Other permanent staff (without research duties) N4: Other professors (PREM, ECC, etc.) N5: Other EPST or EPIC researchers (DREM, Postdoctoral students, visitors,

  Other permanent staff (without research duties) N4: Other professors (PREM, ECC, etc.) N5: Other EPST or EPIC researchers (DREM, Postdoctoral students, visitors, etc.

N4:

  Other permanent staff (without research duties) 1 1 Other professors (PREM, ECC, etc.) N5: Other EPST or EPIC researchers (DREM, Postdoctoral students, visitors, spent at least 12 months in the unit 9 Number of Research Supervisor Qualifications (HDR) taken Qualified research supervisors (with an HDR) or similar positions  Detailed assessments

  They have been validated by the attribution of two ERCs: -ERC Consolidator grant (2014-2019) "Predictive Electronic Structure Calculations for Materials with Strong Electronic Correlations: Long-range Coulomb Interactions and Quantum Dynamical Screening"; -an ERC SYNERGY project (2013-2019) "Frontiers in Quantum Materials Control", with: Max Planck Hamburg, Geneva and Oxford.

N3:

  Other permanent staff (without research duties) N4: Other professors (PREM, ECC, etc.) N5: Other EPST or EPIC researchers (DREM, Postdoctoral students, visitors,

N3:

  Other permanent staff (without research duties) N4: Other professors (PREM, ECC, etc.) N5: Other EPST or EPIC researchers (DREM, Postdoctoral students, visitors,


 Introduction History and geographical location of the unit

The project leading to the creation of the « Insitute of Systems and Synthetic Biology » ISSB started early 2000 with the Epigenomics program of the Evry Genopole (1999). Three teams (teams 1, 2 and 4) joined the founding team (n° 3) between 2006 and 2008 to become a « unité propre de service UPS 3201 », before becoming recognized as a FRE in 2013. In 2011 an additional team (n°5) joined to build the laboratory as it is presently.

The unit gathers 44 persons, out of which 16 are permanent researchers (7 CNRS), professors or associate professors (8), engineer (1) and technicians (2). Non permanent researchers are PhD students (12), Post docs (9) technicians and engineers (7).

The unit also manages two technological platforms, i) abSYNTH, for design, construction and characterization of synthetic systems and ii) CERFAP for animal experimentation, shared with a private company.

The unit is located in two buildings at genopole campus 1. Teams 1,2,3 and 5 are grouped in one building from the genopole campus and Team 4 is in a neighbouring building equipped for Xenopus farming and experimentation purposes. The whole laboratory will be grouped in another building (Genoscope) in 2015.

Management team

The laboratory is headed by Mr Jean-Loup FAULON, professor at Evry-Val-d'Essonne University.

He is assited by a deputy director, an executive committee, a laboratory council and a Scientific Advisory Board recently created gathers 6 international high level personalities.

AERES nomenclature

SVE1_LS1, SVE1_LS2, SVE1_LS3 , SVE2_LS9, ST4, ST5, ST6.

Unit workforce

Unit workforce

Doctoral students 11

Theses defended 5

Postdoctoral students having spent at least 12 months in the unit* 7

Number of Research Supervisor Qualifications (HDR) taken 1

Qualified research supervisors (with an HDR) or similar positions 7 9

2  Overall assessment of the interdisciplinary unit

The research done by the unit is situated in a rapidly evolving and very innovative field.

The quality of the scientific production is globally very good both in basic and applied science (see for detailed assessments on the production).

ISSB is a young research unit that has established itself during the past contract period. The marked organization efforts carried out by the director to structure the strategy of the laboratory deserve to be emphasized.

Strengths and opportunities related to the context

ISSB is one of the largest synthetic biology laboratories in France. It has acquired notoriety and is recognized as one of the leading groups at the national level. It has in particular integrated researchers with international reputation who develop very innovative and ambitious projects.

The laboratory is notoriously attractive to young and enthusiastic graduate and post-doctoral scientists. It has succeeded in establishing innovative partnerships with companies and foreign researchers to extend its field of competence.

ISSB is actively involved in technology development and transfer, through implementation of transdisciplinary platforms as well as by participating to start up companies in which laboratory members are either officers or founders. Overall, there are excellent opportunities for translational science.

Almost all members of the laboratory are involved in teaching at the graduate and post graduate levels. They created a Master in systems and synthetic biology and are mentors of groups of PhD fellows who participate to the international competition on genetically engineered machines (iGEM) at which their teams were awarded up to the gold medal level.

The director has managed to deploy a common strategy integrating all groups and their respective expertise in a coherent project spanning all levels of organization of the living. This global project encompasses all required disciplines for projects in integrated synthetic biology to be successful.

The relocation of the laboratory, planned for the term to come, is an opportunity for ISSB to improve its capacities, by gathering all teams in a single building, gaining additional lab space to accommodate a new team in cell biology, and very importantly, establishing sustained cooperation with groups working in metabolomics through sharing of high performance analytical equipments, skills and technical personnel.

ISSB is exposed to a threat concerning its management organization. Indeed, several teams are led by principal investigators who are involved in several demanding projects such as intensive teaching, or are bi-localized, or should retire by the end of the next contract period. There is thus a real concern about risks of management vacancy since the laboratory does not have a large number of permanent staff to take over team leadership. Another laboratory organization might be more adapted to the rapidly evolving configuration of the teams.

In addition there is no consortium agreement, yet, with the company Isthmus with which ISSB is collaborating.

Recommendations

Collaborations with companies involved in ISSB management or projects should be formally contractualized.

In its future strategy, the laboratory should consider an organization comprised of a single team with multiple research themes that may turn to be well adapted to forthcoming uncertainties regarding team management especially for teams 2 and 5. Inter-theme technical collaborations with scientists dedicated to projects rather than to groups may be useful to allow flexibility and efficient internal communication, in terms of both research and management.

The management team should also worry about establishing consortium agreements with the companies with which they already collaborate and the one that they plan to establish in a near future Advantage should be taken from the relocation of the unit within the genopole buildings to share analytical resources, skills and technical personnel with the other UMR.

 Detailed assessments

Assessment of scientific quality and outputs

Globally during the past five years the laboratory published 97 peer reviewed articles in specialized (NAR, Bioinformatics J., J Comp. Chem., Biotech J., Biophys J., …) but also in broad audience journals (such as Angew. Chem, PNAS, Genome Biol. … ) as implementing body or as co-investigators (Nat biotech, Science). ISSB members also contributed 29 books and chapters. More than half of the published articles and reviews are issued from the laboratory as can by judged from authorship analysis (first or last author).

Laboratory members gave 56 invited conferences at national or international congresses and gave another 50 talks/seminars in research institutes. Research themes are globally original (metabolic engineering, XNA engineering, genome engineering, regulatory circuits with RNAs ). Some groups are clearly leaders in their field at the international level. Yet, the team by team analysis (below) shows heterogeneity in the average number and quality of publications.

ISSB has released 10 software products that are usable by the scientific community.

The laboratory is clearly a leader in the field of synthetic biology.

Assessment of the unit's academic reputation and appeal

Some indicators of the laboratory reputation are detailed above, such as the number of invited lectures at international conferences and research centers, but an important factor is the capacity to raise funding for research which is to be considered very high.

It is easy indeed to notice that ISSB is very attractive to young scientists, as they represent most of the personnel of the laboratory. The reputation of the laboratory, as can be appreciated from the proportion of foreign post doctoral fellows, is undoubtedly international.

ISSB succeeded in attracting a renowned researcher to lead the xenome team. It is also an active member of the ERA NET Synbio. It is also involved in the establishment of a national network (GDR) on synthetic biology, at the request of the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique.

Assessment of the unit's interaction with the social, economic and cultural environment ISSB has globally important connections with social, economic and cultural environment.

During the past 5 years the laboratory obtained 9 M€ of grants. The academic grants were obtained mostly from international calls (7 european grants, 1 ERC grant). Members of the laboratory are often principal investigators of collaborative studies.

Teams from the ISSB undertake outreach actions to popularize their research through books for general public, television programs (ARTE) or newspapers (Le monde, Le Figaro). They also contribute to the Wikipedia page on xenobiology.

Through the participation to the international iGEM competition, ISSB-coached teams received awards such as a gold medal for "Best model" and "Best Human Practice".

ISSB has long lasting collaboration with the Société à Responsabilité Limitée (SARL) Isthmus, with employees of the company working in the laboratory. They are also founding members of the company Abolis to be launched in 2014.

Assessment of the unit's organization and life

The laboratory director is assisted by a board of team leaders (monthly meeting) and a laboratory council (3 per year). He has recently finalized the external Scientific Advisory Board that will be in charge of selecting a new team specialized in cell biology. Invited speakers present their work at least once a month. This scientific animation is coupled to that of the Master in systems and synthetic biology.

It appears quite evident that the members of the laboratory are happy to work in the laboratory and to take advantage of the dynamic management which provides support in the form of multiple successful European initiatives.

Students and post docs all participate to an international scientific meeting at least once a year. Thesis Committees are held once a year

The current head of the laboratory has been chosen to continue his function for the term to come. He is appreciated by colleagues, technicians and students.

Assessment of the unit's involvement in training through research ISSB attracts an impressive number of doctoral and post-doctoral fellows (all coming from abroad). 6 PhD theses were defended since 2010, and a very fair number (11) of PhD fellows are present in the laboratory. Doctoral fellow are registered in the doctoral school entitled "Des Génomes Aux organisms" (ED 423).

Researcher and professors have set up and lead a master course in systems and synthetic biology that gathers more than 20 students each year since 2010. They manage several modules from this training course.

They also organized one international conference on synthetic biology in 2010.

ISSB is in the process of identifying the members of the national community in synthetic biology to launch and lead a groupement de recherche (GDR) in 2015.

Assessment of the strategy and the five-year plan

After having supported each team to set up its own activity in the new laboratory and to develop individually during the past contract period, the management team has set up a common strategy. The new strategic program comes into three main lines of activity : Research, Technology transfer and Education.

The research axis encompasses different levels of organization of the living, namely metabolism at the cell level (team 1), Regulation of gene expression (team 2), organization of genes in the genome (team 3), integration at the animal level (team 4) and finally the exploration of artificial genetic encoding of information (team 5). Operationally, each level is treated according to a three step process that starts with the design of new items, followed by construction and characterization. The AbSynth platform provides the technical tools common to all themes. Design relies on extensive modelling using a set of ten internally-developed softwares and high performance computing.

Construction uses standard molecular biology tools operated with high throughput robots that parallel production of desired genetic networks and their variants obtained with different orthologs, paralogs, mutants, gene expression control systems ….

Characterization is achieved using a set of PCR, microscopes, microfluidics, purification, mass spectrometers and the frog animal facility. The three steps, design, construction and characterization are operated using an iterative process for improvement based on learning.

The technology transfer axis comprises several items. One of them is the close collaboration with the company Isthmus, specially involved in the xenome project. Another is the forthcoming creation of the start up company Abolis in which members of the laboratory are founders. Other aspects are public-private partnerships on the abSYNTH technological platform.

The Education project comprises the animation of a Master program in Systems and Synthetic Biology (MSSB) at the University of Evry-Val-d'Essonne, deep involvement in the animation of the doctoral school through the participation to the yearly iGEM competition with implication of doctoral students to support graduate student teams.

To support the development of the research program, the laboratory will move to another building in the genopole to be closer to another laboratory that has expertise in metabolites analyses, but also to gain more space to harbor all exiting teams in a single place and accommodate an additional group with competence in the eukaryotic cell field, as this is lacking for complete coverage of organization levels.

Altogether the strategy of the laboratory for the five next years is admirably conceptualized. Its implementation does seem clear-cut as all team leaders have adopted it in all the projects. The laboratory is strongly supported by the genopole for the laboratory reorganization, by the doctoral school for the doctoral program and by the university Paris Saclay for the MSSB Master program. The team is led by the director of the laboratory who is in addition full professor at the university Evry Vald'Essonne. Considering these two major investments in research and teaching, and taking into account the moderate size of the group, the production of the team is good (22 articles). Although the papers appear essentially in specialized journal (J Chem Inf Model, BMC Systems Biol., JBC, Biotechnology and bioengineering, …), the leadership of the team is obvious in more than 80% of them. Several book chapters (5) have also been contributed in the "Handbook of …" and "Methods in …" series, in addition to a Handbook of Chemoinformatics that was fully edited by the team leader. Four softwares (Promis, EcoTox, Scan, Retropath) and two additional ones were released on sourceforge. One patent was filed in 2012.

Sixteen conferences were given at the international level in symposia and institutes and another 15 were given in French scientific meetings.

Assessment of the unit's academic reputation and appeal

As can be judged from the number of foreign post-doctoral fellows, the group has excellent visibility abroad. As mentioned above, members of the group are invited to international meetings, they organize or chair symposia on bioinformatics (2008) synthetic biology (2010) and Biomanufacturing (2010). Finally, the team leader is visiting faculty at UCLA.

Assessment of the unit's interaction with the social, economic and cultural environment

The team is highly successful in obtaining research grants at the national (ANR, Genopole, CNRS, DGA, AXA, Universite PSud) european (FP7 IST FET, FP7 KBBE) and international (US DOE programs) levels.

The team leader is also involved in a start-up company (Abolis), that will exploit know-how and patents from the group.

Contracts with private companies are ongoing in the field of metabolic engineering for producing chemicals of commercial importance.

Finally representatives of the team participate to public debates and radio transmitted scientific debates and presentations.

Assessment of the unit's organization and life

Not applicable

Assessment of the unit's involvement in training through research

Clearly, the team leader plays a key role in setting up new formations and training in synthetic and systems biology and in supporting young scientists to participate to the international iGEM contest. This implication in training is discussed in the whole laboratory evaluation part.

Assessment of the strategy and the five-year plan

There is a clear project that makes use of the assets of the team in the field of metabolic pathways engineering for the production of new chemical molecules of physiological, therapeutic and commercial interest. The laboratory is pursuing software and instrumentation developments in order to i) robotize plasmid design and LC-MS analyses and ii) optimize expression assays to generate pathways diversity and thus gain access to new molecules to produce.

An original aspect of the project is the idea to generate new pathways to convert compounds of interest into genetic effectors, thus giving access to the development of new biosensors.

In order to have access to large scale molecule production, the synthetic enzymatic pathways will be transferred to yeast.

Conclusion

 Strengths and opportunities:



The team benefits from a high level of expertise in his field and from support provided by the Genopole and University of Evry.



It has a leading position in France in the field of metabolic pathways engineering and more generally in synthetic biology.

 Weaknesses and threats:



Although the group has a leading position in his research domain at the national level, the field is very competitive at the international level.



The multiple commitments of the team leader are impediments to an extended development of the activity.



There is only limited expertise in the group in analytical sciences, especially in biological mass spectrometry and metabolomics

 Recommendations:



The group should rely more heavily on the expertise of neighboring units in analytical science issues through collaborations and possibly through setting up common instrumental resources and platforms. In the past 5 years, the group Synth-Bio has established a highly innovative research field aiming at designing, constructing and applying RNA-based switches to control and fine-tune signaling and metabolic processes in bacteria. This research is based on a perfect combination of three disciplines that are rarely found at this high level of expertise within one single research group: (1) high competency in the development of mathematical models and algorithms to modeling and predict functional RNA secondary structures (2) a state-of-the-art wet lab for implementing the computer-designed tools in bacteria and (3) the tools and the competency to design and manufacture microfluidic devices for the multiparallel characterization and optimization of genetic networks in individual cells or small cell populations. The latter two elements were initiated to be implemented in 2008 and were rendered functional within a short time frame. Thanks to this combination it was possible to design and functionally validate novel RNA-based regulatory elements that function as molecular AND gate or that emulate a two-component signal transduction mechanism. The combination by input and output elements on one single RNA molecule enabled the design and implementation of a "molecular relais" (termed regazyme) that perceived an external signal and transmits this signal in a predefined manner to control the biosynthesis of an output protein. The robustness and stability of such RNA-based switches was increased by the highly innovative construction of a regulating circular RNA molecule in the cell.

The potential of combining the three elements (modelling, wet-lab, microfluidics) is documented by a continuous increase in the quality and quantity of scientific publications, for example two papers in PNAS and one paper in Nucleic Acids Research were published with the Synth-Bio group leader as last author. Given the so-far unpublished data, it is highly likely that the quality and quantity of the publication output will further increase.

The work by the Synth-Bio is perfectly aligned with the overall strategy of iSSB as it allows the control and fine-tuning of synthetic biology-based production processes. The tools having been developed and validated to date can directly be integrated into joint projects of the different groups of the unit for realizing the synergies by their complementing expertises.

Assessment of the unit's academic reputation and appeal

The groups Synth-Bio has high international visibility and reputation which is based on the following points:

The group leader of Synth-Bio is one out of two French researchers that are highlighted on the scientific synthetic biology landscape in a recent survey published in PloS ONE (Oldham et al., 2012, Synthetic Biology: Mapping the Scientific Landscape, PloS ONE 7(4): e34368. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0034368, see Figure 7 there).

The Synth-Bio group is/was involved in 4 FP7 and 1 FP6 research project where the Synt-Bio group is currently the coordinator of 1 FP7 project.

The Synth-Bio group has established computational tools for the automated design of biological pathways. These programs are available to the scientific community via internet.

The leader of the Synth-Bio group is member of the editorial board of ACS Synthetic Biology and of J Biol Eng.

The leader of the Synth-Bio group has recently been appointed as Full Professor in Warwick while still maintaining his research group at iSSB. The leader of the Synth-Bio group was organizer of a synthetic biology conference at Evry and he has also attended key conferences in the field like the Gordon conference on synthetic biology in 2013.

The Synth-Bio group regularly attracts postdocs from abroad. The high quality of these postdocs is shown by the fact that two of them obtained group leader positions in France and Spain in 2014.

Assessment of the unit's interaction with the social, economic and cultural environment

The Synth-Bio group is actively involved in transferring its expertise in synthetic biology to the social and cultural environment. For example, the leader of the Synth-Bio group is advisor to the Assemblée Nationale, to the Direction Générale de l'Armement and to the French Academy of Engineering. He was furthermore advisor of two Evry iGEM teams (2012 and 2013) where one important task is the analysis of the societal and ethical impacts of synthetic biology. For example, in 2013 the Evry iGEM team won the award for the best Human Practice Advance (category postgraduates).

Transfer of methods/patents to the economical sector has so far not been realized, however, based on the tools currently being developed by Synth-Bio, such transfer activities are likely within the next 5 years.

Assessment of the unit's organization and life

The Synth-Bio group is excellently integrated into the unit's organization and everyday life, on both, the technological and scientific level. Please see the general description on the organization of the unit.

Assessment of the unit's involvement in training through research

The Synth-Bio group is perfectly aligned with the training activities of the unit. The Synth-Bio group organizes the Synthetic Biology module in the mSSB curriculum and was also involved in the Evry iGEM teams in 2012 and 2013. Let consult the general description on the teaching.

Assessment of the strategy and the five-year plan

The future strategy of the Synth-Bio group is perfectly in line with the overall strategy of the unit. The fiveyear plan is designed to harvest the fruits of the expertise, tools and technologies developed in the past five years while in parallel pursuing novel avenues for sustaining the scientific output.

The tools developed so far by the Synth-Bio group are now ready for application in joint projects of the unit, for example at the interace with the groups Bioretrosynth or Metamorphosis. Joint grant applications have been submitted or are in preparation.

As future avenues, the Synth-Bio group aims at realizing value of its unique combination in expertise and technology (modelling, wet-lab, microfluidics) by developing a whole set of broadly applicable RNA-based tools such as (cooperative) activators, signal transduction cascades, RNA-based fluorescent output devices, transcriptional repressor or time delay circuits. These functionalities have so far not been realized on an RNA level and will very likely generate significant impact in the synthetic biology community and beyond. These tools can directly be transferred to application within the unit but also within the different national and international projects in which the Synth-Bio group is involved as partner or coordinator.

In order to further sustain the technological advance and scientific productivity, the Synth-Bio group will integrate a new technology platform within the next five years in the frame of the Evoprog and Promys FP7 networks: It will use computationally-directed evolution to identify and optimize RNA-based switches with functionalities or performance characteristics not well addressable with today's technology.

Based on the group's past achievements and interdisciplinary collaboration in different local, national and international networks, it is likely that these ambitious plans will successfully be implemented.

Conclusion

With the recent integration of modeling, wet-lab and microfluidics, the scientific productivity and reputation of the Synth-Bio group has continuously increased and is now recognized as player in the global synthetic biology landscape. The group is very well positioned to further increase its scientific output with regard to quality and quantity. Based on such increase, the group might achieve a position among the leading synthetic biology groups worldwide. The future strategy of the group is in alignment with these aims.  Weaknesses and threats:

Multiple appointments of the leader of the Synth-Bio group (Full professor in Warwick, subgroup in Valencia). This multi-locus affiliation with different administrative and organizational backgrounds as well as the frequent travel might impact the availability of the group leader for the team members in the different labs. Also, having in parallel the possibility for several full positions increases the risk that the group might quickly leave one location upon a decrease in local conditions.

 Recommendations:

The group is very well on track. In order to continue its success story it is recommended to (i) ensure that the inherent drawbacks of the multi-locality do not compromise research and (ii) that the present and future technologies and tools developed by this group will be translated towards applications locally or with outside world-class partner in order to realize their full scientific, technological and also economical potential.

 Detailed assessments Assessment of scientific quality and outputs

The team is composed of 3 permanent and 6 non-permanent scientists.

The aims of the team is to model the Genome Architecture and from this knowledge, to be able to engineer artificial chromosomes.

The rationale behind this work is the working hypothesis that the genome topology also controls gene expression and modulation of transcriptome factors' regulation.

The team has proposed the solenoidal model of chromosomes and the consequences of such model on the transcriptionnal modulation of genes, first in bacteria and now in eukaryotic cells.

Although the model was presented almost 10 years ago, it is now that experimental evidences are supporting it.

Such model is important to rationalize artificial whole-genome computer design.

The team has published 17 articles (PLOS in computational Biology, Nucleic acid research, Journal of Molecular Biology), 9 book chapters and two patents.

Assessment of the unit's academic reputation and appeal

The team is considered as one of the leading team in system biology.

The team has been involved in 9 international research grants and 6 national grants.

The team organized more than 15 meetings system biology. The team leader is invited in the most prestigious SynBio meetings (about 35 since 2008). The team leader coordinates the CNRS GDRE 513 on System Biology (2008)(2009)(2010)(2011)(2012)(2013)(2014)(2015).

The team leader is also an expert working for the parliament and the ministry of research.

Assessment of the unit's interaction with the social, economic and cultural environment

The team is involved in the Biointelligence project that involves such companies as Dassault Systems, Sanofi, Bayer.

The team leader is involved in social animation as "café des sciences", article in general media, and is interviewed in radio such as France inter. He publishes several papers in journals such as Biofutur, Pour la Science, Buzz4bio, …).

Assessment of the unit's organisation and life

NA

Assessment of the unit's involvement in training through research

Beside the involvement in the training organization of the whole unit, the team is strongly involved in the IGEM, the international context launched by MIT in 2003 for master student.

The team leader has founded the first Master in synthetic and systemic biology in France in 2007. He founded an European Master in Romania (ITEMS master at Politechnica of Bucharest)

Assessment of the strategy and the five-year plan

The team wants to build on the knowledge that they have acquired and built on the solenoid model of genome in order to improve bioproduction of non-proteic molecules. Indeed, the bottleneck in metabolic reprogramming is to regulate in a concerted manner the different genes coding for the enzymes involved in the new and artificial pathways. It is necessary to insert the different genes in the genome at specific position. The team calls this new concept, the hyper-operons and is related to the 3D-colocalization of the genes involved in a given metabolic pathway.

The team is close to get excellent results on microbial genomes. The next step will be to extend such concepts to eucaryotic chromosomes.

Conclusion  Strengths and opportunities:

-Opening new paradigms in gene regulation;

-Impact of such paradigm in synthetic biology and more precisely in rational metabolic reprogramming; -Role in the promotion of systemic and synthetic biology in France and in Europe.

 Weaknesses and threats:

-Size of the team as needed to compete at the international level in the field; -Perpetuation of the theme of the team in the Institute; -Relative small importance of this field in the national research strategy.

 Recommendations:

-Prepare the maintenance of the team in the institute; -Nucleate a French institute in systemic and synthetic biology without walls if possible to reach for the french community a critical mass in synthetic and systemic biology.

 Detailed assessments

Assessment of scientific quality and outputs

The team leader joined the Genopole in 2008. The team is composed of 2 full time people and 2 PhDs. The team studies two aspects, the genes of the amphibian Xenopus tropicalis and the interactions between cellular identity and cell fate during metamorphosis. Several projects were developed during the period 2008-2013, such as the structure and dynamics of thyroid receptor during metamorphosis, the role of thyroid receptors during craniofacial development, the role of miRNA during Xenopus development, the use of Xenopus tadpole as an alternative model to study genetic diseases, the characterization of retrovirus in amphibians.

In addition the team has made important methodological contributions to the scientific community. The team leader has actively participated to the design and the development of the bioinformatics tools Xenbase and XenMARK. The first is a database which integrates different types of information concerning the genome, gene function, gene expression and the bibliography on Xenopus. The second is a new interactive database for gene expression patterns in Xenopus. These methodological works have a large impact on the international scientific community.

During the period 2008-2013 the team has published 27 articles in international journals. Two important articles are published with a consortium for the methodological advances (Science and Nature Biotech). The other articles are published in generalist journals (PNAS) or more specialized journals of developmental biology. In addition the team leader has published three chapters of books as last author.

Assessment of the unit's academic reputation and appeal

The team leader was one of researchers who have built Xenbase and XenMARK. These databases have a large international impact. Two softwares were produced for these applications.

The team is involved in 2 European research projects and 3 national projects. At the European level the team leader is the coordinator of the 6th PCRDT X-OMICS : Xenopus functional genomics.

The team leader was the supervisor of the iGEM Evry team in 2012 and 2013. This team received in 2012 the gold medal for best model and best human practice.

Two post docs have joined the team and the team leader was co-organizer of the 14th international Xenopus conference (2012). The team leader is member of the Xenopus Genome project advisory board.

Assessment of the unit's interaction with the social, economic and cultural environment WATCHFROG a biotech company collaborating with the team share space with the team. This collaboration is supported by AFM. The team is also collaborating with AMAbiotics dedicated to bioremediations applications.

The team leader participates to more than 10 contracts and is involved in exhibitions and articles for the general public.

Assessment of the unit's organization and life

NA

Assessment of the unit's involvement in training through research

The team has hosted 2 PhD students, 2 post docs and two researchers for collaboration for one year.

The team leader was the supervisor of the iGEM Evry team in 2012.

Assessment of the strategy and the five-year plan

The team proposes to promote the use of the Xenopus embryo and tadpole to study diseases and to test synthetic biology strategies for therapeutic applications. Two classes of diseases are chosen, neurological diseases (spinal muscular atrophy) and microbial infections. These projects need a set of genetically encoded fluorescent sensors to be developed which can be targeted to specific neurons and to obtain gnotobiotic Xenopus embryos useful for microbiome engineering applications. These developments will be carried out in relation with the Watchfrog company.

Conclusion  Strengths and opportunities:

The team leader has a great implication in the life of the unit and for the community of developmental biologists using Xenopus as a model. He has actively participated to the design and development of 2 databases wich are now indispensable for developmental biologists. The team has a great genetic engineering experience. This experience gives them the opportunity to develop numerous collaborations mainly in developmental biology as shown by the articles published.

 Weaknesses and threats:

During these last years the team leader has participated to several projects with Xenopus but some projects fall within the competence of the platform.

 Recommendations:

To clarify the exact goals of the team, the committee recommend to separate the research projects belonging directly to the team from the projects in collaboration depending on the activity of the platform. As the group has only been established within the past 4 years, only criterium C6 is evaluated.

Assessment of the strategy and the five-year plan

The Xenome group is excellently positioned to maintain its world-leading role in Xenobiology. Its strategy and five-year plan is perfectly in line with this ambitious aim. The Xenome group will address the 5 key elements on the way towards a xenobiotic system:

-Definitive selection of "Xeno"nucleic acid (XNA) type; -Elaboration of XMP uptake system; -Engineering the metabolic dependency on a previtamin; -Expression of an XNA gene in vivo using evolved polymerases; -Synthesis of an XNA plasmid.

With the joint appointment of the Xenome group leader at iSSB and at the University of Leuven (Belgium), the Xenome group has all expertise, equipment and technology available to reach these ambitions aims. The excellence of this research proposal is underlined by the ERC advance grant awarded to the leader of the Xenome group.

Conclusion

 Strengths and opportunities:



World-leading group in Xenobiology, unique expertise and skills available to keep up this position.



Perfect synergies with Isthmus sarl at Evry;



The Xenome group significantly contributes to the international visibility of Issb.

 Weaknesses and threats:

 Sustainability of this world-leading Xenome biology at iSSB at risk given that the leader of the Xenome group is at iSSB during his ERC advanced grant and will retire within the next 5-7 years.



No sufficient organic chemistry competency in place.

 Recommendations:

Provided that iSSB aims to maintain Xenome biology research at the internationally leading level, it must provide an environment that makes it attractive to the leader of the Xenome group to stay affiliated to iSSB even after his retirement (a similar model as with Isthmus sarl might be possible). Furthermore, steps should be taken soon in order to find a successor for the leader of the Xenome biology group and to provide a package that allows attracting world-class experts in this field.

4

   Team-by-team analysis Team 1 : BIO-RETROSYNTH Name of team leader: Mr Jean-Loup FAULON Workforce Permanent professors and similar positions 2 2 N2: Permanent EPST or EPIC researchers and similar positions N3: Other permanent staff (without research duties) N4: Other professors (PREM, ECC, etc.) N5: Other EPST or EPIC researchers (DREM, Postdoctoral students, visitors, etc.spent at least 12 months in the unit 1 Number of Research Supervisor Qualifications (HDR) taken 1 Qualified research supervisors (with an HDR) or similar positions 2 2  Detailed assessments Assessment of scientific quality and outputs

N3:

  Permanent EPST or EPIC researchers and similar positions 1 1 Other permanent staff (without research duties) N4: Other professors (PREM, ECC, etc.) N5: Other EPST or EPIC researchers (DREM, Postdoctoral students, visitors



  Strengths and opportunities:  Complementing expertise and technologies rarely present within one single research group;  State-of-the-art equipment available;  Well integrated into local, national and international research networks.

N3:

  Permanent EPST or EPIC researchers and similar positions 1 1 Other permanent staff (without research duties) N4: Other professors (PREM, ECC, etc.) N5: Other EPST or EPIC researchers (DREM, Postdoctoral students, visitors

  Présentation de l'AERES au comité d'experts par le Délégué Scientifique AERES (DS) 9h00 -9h15 Devant l'unité, présentation du comité d'experts et présentation de l'AERES par le DS 9h15-9h50 Présentation de l'unité, bilan et projet du comité d'experts, DS AERES, sans les tutelles, ni la direction Rencontre avec les doctorants et post-doctorants et/ou CDD « chercheurs », Ingénieurs Auditoire : membres du comité d'experts, DS AERES, sans les tutelles, ni la direction Rencontre avec les chercheurs et enseignants chercheurs titulaires. Auditoire : membres du comité d'experts, DS AERES, sans les tutelles, ni la direction, ni les responsables dreprésentants de l'École Doctorale: Auditoire : membres du comité d'experts, DS AERES 15h15-16h00 Rencontre avec les représentants de la tutelle: Auditoire : membres du comité d'experts, DS AERES 16h00-16h30 Rencontre avec la direction de l'unité Auditoire : membres du comité d'experts, DS AERES 16h30-18h30 Réunion du comité à huis clos Présence : membres du comité d'experts, DS AERES

Number as at 30/06/2013 Number as at 01/01/2015

	N1: Permanent professors and similar positions	6	7
	N2: Permanent researchers from Institutions and similar positions	6	6 (+1)
	N3: Other permanent staff (without research duties)	3 (2,8)	3 (2,8)
	N4: Other professors (Emeritus Professor, on-contract Professor, etc.)
	N5: Other researchers from Institutions (Emeritus Research Director, Postdoctoral students, visitors, etc.)	12	11
	N6: Other contractual staff (without research duties)	7	7
	TOTAL N1 to N6	34	34

Unit workforce Number as at 30/06/2013 Number as at 01/01/2015

Supervising bodies' general comments