 Introduction History and geographical location of the unit

The laboratoire de Physique Théorique (LPT) is an interdisciplinary, medium size research unit. It was created 51 years ago with three research directions: statistical physics, mathematical physics and high-energy physics. An activity around cosmology and gravitation has later been created.

The laboratory is located in the building 210 in the Valley part of the Orsay Campus. It is supported by Paris-Sud University (for offices, funding, and several professor, lecturer and technical staff positions) and by CNRS (for funding, a majority of the research positions, most of the technical staff).

Management team

The laboratory is directed by Mr Hendrik-Jan HILHORST (Université Paris-Sud) since 2005, the deputy director being Mr Philippe BOUCAUD (CNRS). 2  Assessment of the unit

AERES nomenclature

ST2

Unit workforce

Unit workforce

Strengths and opportunities related to the context

The laboratory has an excellent track record for developing theoretical physics in several research areas: highenergy physics, cosmology and gravitation, mathematical physics and statistical physics. The scientific production is excellent, and several members enjoy a remarkable recognition at the international level. The laboratory has a unique role at the interface between theory and experimental data (on flavor, LHC, neutrino, Planck, dark matter and also traffic). Its multidisciplinarity is also a key characteristic that should continue and be fostered especially between groups. It has also shown its ability to develop several new research directions. The laboratory has excellent collaborations, within the campus, at the national and also international levels. It is funded at a very good level (directly from partner institutions and through many competitive national and European research grants) and benefits from a constant flux of graduate students.

Weaknesses and threats related to the context

Because of an impressive retirements rate in the last 10 to 15 years, associated to spin offs of talented previous members for various reasons, the number of researchers has decreased by 30 % since 2005 notwithstanding the arrival of several recruitments in the last period. Several groups have now attained subcritical conditions to develop collaborations simultaneously within and between teams. The added value of a multidisciplinary laboratory is in danger. Moreover, despite their high quality and reputation, the very low success rate in ANR competition of some groups generates difficulties in securing their future developments.

Another threat resides in the difficulty to control the dynamics of a medium size laboratory within a perpetually moving landscape especially because of the development of the surrounding huge structure of Paris-Saclay University. Moreover, the critical juncture for P2IO labex is not a simple matter due to the presumable difficulties for funding the P2T project. The position of the small groups in statistical and mathematical physics in a project mainly devoted towards high-energy physics has to be carefully prepared, to avoid dilution. The next years are decisive for the future.

Recommendations

The committee recommends taking advantage of the potential for more collaboration between and inside groups: profiting from its multidisciplinarity, the laboratory should strengthen its coherence, to improve the role of a theoretical physics laboratory. It is also important to compensate the loss of several members and anticipate coming retirements by attracting new talented physicists in several of the broad topics already covered by the activity of the laboratory. It is also recommended to attract more graduate students and to develop a proactive attitude to the gender issue aiming at a more balanced composition, in particular for the younger sector of the group: future hirings of permanent scientists and non-permanent ones (PhDs and postdocs).

A larger implication of the members of the laboratory at the level of the university, in the different committees in charge of the management of the university would be highly valuable. The management cannot rely only on the involvement of a very few members around the direction. A better recognition of people taking up collective charges should be encouraged in order to guarantee the laboratory a correct level of participation in the local and national committees. The management of the Paris-Sud University could be instrumental in this respect by facilitating the exchange between teaching duties of "enseignants-chercheurs" with CNRS researchers, the rotation of teaching subjects among the different "enseignants-chercheurs" and by facilitating the delegations of professors and associate professors to CNRS.

 Detailed assessments

Assessment of scientific quality and outputs

The activities of LPT cover a remarkably broad scientific scope, ranging from high-energy physics and cosmology to mathematical and statistical physics. In all the fields covered, the different teams of the laboratory have made important contributions during the last five years. The scientific production is excellent: there is a longstanding and recognized expertise in high-energy physics with good connections with experimentalists, at CERN, in the neutrino and Dark Matter experimental community, within the Planck collaboration but also on the campus. Recent developments of other research themes are also excellent. One might emphasize for example random tensors, transport problems, and the analogy between black hole radiation and hydrodynamics. These subjects generated a large number of high impact publications, which result from the development of highly innovative research in theoretical physics.

Assessment of the unit's academic reputation and appeal

The unit has a high international visibility. Laboratory members have also reached a relatively high success in competitive national or European bilateral calls. The number and quality of conferences organized by the different members are excellent. This very high reputation and international visibility of the laboratory members might allow them to attract slightly more postdocs and graduate students.

In the last five years, the laboratory has been able to attract several young researchers on junior CNRS or university positions. A number of researchers, with a strong scientific profile and leadership potential, have left the laboratory for various reasons. It recognizes of course the high quality of the research developed in the laboratory. However, as it is not limited to the present period and although no single cause can be identified, it is also a weakness if the flux is strong and not compensated by arrivals through recruitments or mutations.

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

The activity of the laboratory to disseminate knowledge and popularise science is really excellent, especially for a theoretical physics laboratory. One can in particular emphasize the scientific blog "Resonaances" focused on particle physics and related areas of science such as astrophysics or cosmology, together with several actions related to popular science, books, journals and conferences and outreach events.

Really remarkable are also the activity to improve the pedagogical accessibility of science in high school for disabled pupils, and the installation of a centre for mathematics in Senegal, which provides to selected African graduates a high-level education in mathematical sciences and financial support, enabling them to pursue careers in research, industry and government.

Assessment of the unit's organisation and life

The general organisation pattern is typical for such a medium size research lab, with a laboratory council and scientific council that represents the different research teams and is consulted by the director on scientific policy issues or on practical aspects of the laboratory life. The laboratory life seems to be of very good quality, with an excellent atmosphere between scientists, administrative and technical staff, students and post-docs.

The laboratory benefits from an excellent support from the staff. Their efficiency and competence have been emphasized not only within the activities strictly related to the laboratory but also through several commitments at the national level.

It appears that three teams over four are relatively small (typically four permanent researchers). They do have neither a well identified internal life, nor many collaboration programs. The scientific policy seems to be defined really at the personal level. The latter is generally excellent but an additional collective dynamics could be welcome. Therefore the committee suggests that the definition of a scientific policy at a more coarse grained level would be profitable to the entire laboratory.

In the same way, the general seminar for students/postdocs appears to be excellent to mix scientific interests for the youngest part of the laboratory, a refreshment of the existing common seminar in a general colloquium could be efficient to foster the scientific coherence and multidisciplinarity of the laboratory.

Assessment of the unit's involvement in training through research

The implication of the laboratory members in graduate training is very good. The number of PhD students (about one student for two researchers on average) is reasonable for a theoretical physics laboratory, and guarantees a good quality of the training. Most former graduate students of LPT find postdoctoral positions in very good groups at the international level. The origin of the students is diverse, and illustrates the appeal of the scientific themes of the laboratory. The LPT students look very well integrated, well tutored and have been active in initiating interactions within the laboratory through the Sinje seminar.

Another positive aspect is the implication of some researchers in the organization of graduate studies at various levels or through their involvement of the Master, European networks (exchange between students). The potential to tutor more PhD students, to carry their research is clear; solutions to get additional fellowships have to be found. Some difficulty seems to reside in the rules imposing a researcher to selectively choose to recruit PhD students from only one local doctoral school in the Paris area. This makes no sense for a laboratory in which "multidisciplinary" is a keyword.

Assessment of the strategy and the five-year plan

The new direction seems most keen to be very active and gave us an excellent impression. It deserves support, resources. The committee has also appreciated the quality of the numerous scientific projects presented by the different teams, which are discussed in the team-by-team assessment below. Although most of projects are more or less in close continuity, they seem ready to adapt to unexpected directions for example if experiments evolve rapidly.

The lab space does not appear to be an issue. However, a possible moving to a neighbouring building after renovation has been mentioned; the uncertainty of this project not only for its financial funding but also for its scientific goals has to be clarified.

The permanently moving and sometimes turbulent landscape in the surroundings has led many members to adopt a ''wait and see'' attitude with respect to possible developments of the laboratory, while the direction (present and future) is trying to look for opportunities. The committee would like to encourage all researchers to take advantage of the many exciting opportunities that are offered by the new structures within the different labex the laboratory is associated to, the different connections with neighbouring laboratories, … in particular, attracting new members (by recruitment or mutations) in the laboratory could be a way of strengthening the laboratory in the long term leading a theoretical initiative in contact with experiments, possibly in the center of the P2T. The requirements of excellence and originality with respect to the broad and high-level scientific environment are of course challenging, but consistent with the track record of the laboratory.

Overall, the committee believes the LPT has a very strong potential to continue developing research in theoretical physics. If the laboratory acts in a collective way along the lines that have been proposed by the present and future direction, there is no doubt that it will remain a leading scientific center in this field. The particle physics team has a wide and very high quality scientific output in the most reputed international scientific journals. The team is the largest in the laboratory, embracing a wide number of subjects, which are often connected, giving rise to different collaborations. Among the main subjects, one can mention Higgs Physics, QCD (both perturbative and non-perturbative, in particular lattice), Flavour physics of quarks and leptons, Neutrino physics and Dark Matter physics. Activity in these fields is closely related to issues Beyond the Standard Model of Particle Physics, such as the explanation of the electroweak hierarchy problem, the origin of masses including that of neutrinos and dark matter, Dark Matter, Supersymmetry, Leptogenesis, Neutrinos, ... There is also a quite close relation to data from various experiments in all these fields (LHC, TeVatron, low energy precision experiments, B-physics and neutrino experiments, dark matter experiments both for direct and indirect detection, CMB data from Planck, low energy precision experiments, B-physics, neutrinos, etc.) as the group is mainly active in phenomenology and model building in all these fields. Collaboration and discussion with the experimental groups is also a strong and unique characteristic of the group allowing a rapid reactivity to experimental results.

The Higgs discovery in 2012 has boosted the activity in most of these fields, either directly (for Higgs physics) or indirectly (bounds, models, precision calculations) for the other fields. The team has explored new aspects of these subjects, which in some cases are now leading results at the international level (Higgs properties analysis, NMSSM, Bphysics limits and fits, alpha strong calculations lattice results, unitarity/universality limits in the neutrino sector). It is to be stressed that this is a leading and almost unique laboratory in the Paris area doing in depth phenomenology of particle physics in close contact with actual data, with results of worldwide relevance.

Assessment of the team's academic reputation and appeal

The team has one ERC advanced grant, is node of a large EU ITN (to which several other subnodes in France are attached via CNRS), and has one junior member of IUF, which is a strong external indicator of its academic reputation. One can also mention many participations to EU programs, ANR programs, and the team members are involved in international bilateral programs present in the laboratory, including co-directions of PhD thesis. A large number of workshops and conferences were held over the last five years at LPT or outside, most at the international level thanks to the direct implication of the team members.

Assessment of the team's interaction with the social, economic and cultural environment Being a theory laboratory, interaction is mainly trough divulgation to the general public of the results in the field. Level is very good and most recent actions were triggered by the Higgs boson results, but not only. A considerable number of outreach events have taken place and others are planned (e.g. a full afternoon on Neutrinos is scheduled at Palais de la Découverte next July). On the other side, a fruitful connection to the economic world was mainly linked with the development of massive parallel computing for lattice QCD. The activity in improving pedagogical accessibility to disabled pupils at high school level is a remarkable action. The blog Resonaances by one of the team members is also a landmark on the internet for discussion of particle physics results in a way which is accessible to a larger audience.

Assessment of the team's organization and life

The particle theory team has a coherent repartition of the forces in the different projects, with large possibilities of cross-project interaction. A journal club organized by team members weekly has attracted young researchers and postdoc and PhD students (even from outside the laboratory: Ecole Polytechnique, APC, units at the Saclay plateau) around the discussion of recent articles and also "historical" ones, with often discussions drifting to collaborations and new research papers. The atmosphere is quite good both among the staff members and the students.

Assessment of the team's involvement in training through research

Very good involvement of the team through doctoral student training and also at Master level, with key positions held by team members. Good involvement in international exchange programs for the students. We encourage the team to maintain this level of involvement and to increase it.

Assessment of the strategy and the five-year plan

The team gives a realistic plan based on present and future data results that will be available in the five-year period (LHC, JLab, Neutrino physics, precision flavour experiments, Dark matter experiments, LHCb etc.). Strategy in beyond the standard model physics (neutrino, supersymmetry, extra-dimensions) is strongly related to the interplay of all these fields and also to flavour bounds and precision QCD calculations. Reactivity to new data is also a key point, which they have shown to master. Quite naturally the strategy of the team is to reinforce the interactions among the different related subjects both internally in the team and with external collaborators. Also increased collaboration with the other teams at LPT, especially Cosmology and Gravitation group would be an interesting point. The team has shown a good ability to obtain fundings and grants at the national and international level and should keep doing so.

Conclusion

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Strengths and opportunities:

This is a flagship theory team in the interplay with the experiments. Excellent initiative in taking active part in the P2T pole, and in attempting to have a leading and accreting role in the theory activities; this will also reinforce visibility both locally in the university and in the Paris area. LPT faces important changes ahead and it seems well positioned to meet them.

 Weaknesses and threats:

There is a lack of young people to assure continuity in all the activities. The incertitude in the "Plateau" project and its evolution may be a threat.

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Recommendations:

As a world-level centre in phenomenology of particle physics, care should be given to foster renovation and high-level hirings. The Higss and BSM activity is stabilized at a satisfactory level with recent hirings. The neutrino aspects of the flavour sector, and their interplay with the quark flavour activities and with the cosmological activities, should be encouraged as research topic to expand, and as interesting hiring ground as well as those related with lattice QCD (an activity in which the group is also internationally very reputed) which risks losing part of the knowhow in the short term. The scientific quality of the "cosmology and gravitation" team is very high. This is the most recent LPT team, created around the year 2000, and gradually expanded to cover a variety of topics and expertise within the field of gravitation and cosmology. These include black holes (classical and quantum properties), late time acceleration, modified gravity, cosmic inflation, primordial perturbations and cosmic microwave background (CMB) data analysis, among others. The group combines theory and observations of the CMB and, within the LabEx network, is collaborating with experimental groups in the area to study the analogue of Hawking radiation and cosmological pair creation in condensed matter systems under the project QEAGE.

Assessment of the team's academic reputation and appeal

The reputation of the "cosmology and gravitation" team is very high. Some members of this group play a key role in the Planck collaboration, which gives the group very high international visibility and scientific impact (Planck is a satellite mission of the European Space Agency ESA that is measuring the fluctuations in the cosmic microwave background radiation). The group's work on modifications of gravity and models of dark energy is solid and very well recognized internationally. Finally, some group members have pioneered the study of condensed matter analogues of gravitational phenomena such as Hawking radiation, for over a decade, and are world leaders in this area.

The group maintains strong international collaborations, in particular within Europe but also in the US, and group members have many nationalities.

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

Their interaction with social and cultural environment seems adequate. The group has organized a number of very nice conferences, has been involved in some outreach activities and has written scientific reviews at both the professional and layman level.

Assessment of the team's organization and life

In general, the organization and the life of the team are very good. The relations among all members of the group (staff, postdocs and PhD students) appear to be excellent, and there seem to be many interactions within the group. The group also has frequent interactions with other groups in the greater Paris area with common research interests. The same apply to the relations with the rest of the teams in the laboratory, although it would be desirable for this group to have an increased daily presence and scientific interaction with the other LPT groups, which should at the same time have a needed centripetal scientific impact inside the team itself.

Assessment of the team's involvement in training through research

This group has a very good record of getting funding for PhDs and postdocs in the previous five years. Their involvement in training of PhD students and postdoctoral fellows is above the average at LPT, and they are keen to continue this level of training through research.

Assessment of the strategy and the five-year plan

The group presents a five-year plan that is, on the whole, closely related to their current activities but it also includes branching into new areas of possible collaboration with the particles group in the area of reheating and dark matter and with the mathematical physics group in the area of quantum gravity.

Conclusion

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Strengths and opportunities:

This group has high scientific impact with much flexibility and diversity of research projects and collaborations, but maintaining coherence. It contributes strongly to the training of early-stage researchers. It is particularly well placed to establish new collaborations with some of the other groups in the LPT, as well as with experimental groups in the valley-plateau area. This makes it a very important element in maintaining multidisciplinarity within LPT and in P2IO labex. Contact with experimental data is also a clear strength. The group has benefited in recent years of bright and productive young hirings, and there are no retirements in sight; in this sense the group is strong and in no critical need of expansion.

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Weaknesses and threats:

The group is potentially vulnerable to becoming subcritical in the future, for instance by losing some of its members to larger, nearby groups in the Paris area. Recent changes in the organization of doctoral schools in physics and in the funding of ANR projects in the area of astronomy and cosmology are also threatening the group's ability to maintain a strong influx of MSc and PhD students.

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Recommendations:

This group has high international impact and visibility, it could be a key element in maintaining and strengthening the multidisciplinary character of the LPT, and in opening new research directions within the P2IO labex. It deserves the full support of the laboratory and the University in order to maintain the current level of activity in research and training. The group is encouraged to increase their daily presence in scientific interactions within the whole team and with the other teams in the laboratory, which may have a centripetal effect in its activities. The mathematical physics group at LPT has been traditionally specialized in algebraic and analytic aspects of theoretical physics. The group, which contains actually three permanent members (a full professor PR, an associate scientist CR and an associate professor MCF), and two emeriti, has maintained in the last years a high level of activity in these directions. Its recent research has been concentrated on quantum gravity theories, including the new "tensor track" approach developed to a large extent by members or collaborators of the group, on the quantum field theory on non-commutative spaces (including gauge theories) and their renormalization, on metric and differentiable aspects of non-commutative geometry, on non semi-simple quantum groups and quantum affine algebras and, last but not least, on the scattering theory for long-range non-linear evolution equations. The results obtained by the group were published in international journals, including leading ones, and in conference proceedings. Their visibility ranges from good to excellent for the works on tensor field theories, which attracted a lot of attention in the mathematical physics and quantum gravity communities, or on non-commutative geometry, a theme with a long history in LPT.

Assessment of the team's academic reputation and appeal

The more senior members of the group have a long record of scientific excellence in mathematical physics, in particular in the study of mathematical aspects of statistical physics, quantum field theory and non-commutative geometry as well as in nonlinear PDEs of mathematical physics. A recruitment of an MCF has strengthened the group activity in the direction close to the preoccupations of its members. The group was involved in two ANR projects. It has also profited from a Marie Curie grant and a specific exploratory program PEPS-CNRS funding. The members of the group organized four international conferences and workshops in LPT and participated in organizations of such events in other centers. They maintained multiple international collaborations, participated in international advisory boards, and directed international scientific journals (Ann. H. Poincaré, J. Noncomm. Geom., J. Geom. Meth. Mod. Phys.) or were members of the editorial boards.

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

The leader of the group has been actively involved in promoting science and building research and higher education structures in Africa, in particular in the creation and development of the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences in Senegal. He is one of the founders and organizers of "Séminaire Poincaré" that plays an inestimable role in the dissemination of knowledge on frontline subjects of research in physics.

Assessment of the team's organisation and life

The group runs an irregular "mathematics seminar" at LPT and occasionally contributes to the activity of the "Sinje" seminar on the spot. Much of its activity is concentrated on collaborations with members of other laboratories of the Paris region or from abroad. It seem that the possibilities of stronger integration within the group (whose members often work on related subjects) and with other groups in LPT have not yet been fully used.

Assessment of the team's involvement in training through research

The group had one postdoctoral fellow in last years and was involved in direction of three defended PhD's whose recipients continue scientific careers. The postdoctoral fellow and some of the PhD's supervised in the recent past by the members of the group have already obtained permanent positions in scientific institutions. Presently, there are three PhD students in the group who interact strongly also with regular visitors from other Paris area laboratories.

Assessment of the strategy and the five-year plan

The five-year project of the group is somewhat sketchy, which is understandable in the theoretical domain were the most interesting progress comes often from unexpected results. The group plans to continue investigations of the tensor track approach to quantum gravity and to this aim it has developed a good network of collaborations. This seems a potentially very promising research direction. The possibilities of future interactions with cosmology and statistical physics are briefly evoked in this project. The plan predicts also to continue the research and the related collaborations in two other active directions represented in the group: the non-commutative geometry with the study of associated quantum field theories and quantum groups of infinite type.

Conclusion

In spite of its small size, the mathematical physics group at LPT maintains a high level of activity, with development of new and promising directions and an opening toward mathematical combinatorics, with well developed national and international collaborations, and with good involvement in training of young researchers and in teaching.

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Strengths and opportunities:

Mathematical Physics has a long tradition at LPT. Originality of the interdisciplinary research conducted in recent years by the mathematical physics group, its high productivity and visibility, as well as a net of national and international collaborations, are undeniable the strong assets of the team, as is its placement in a pluri-disciplinary university laboratory, a source of inspiration for theoretical research and of contacts with students.

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Weaknesses and threats:

The small size of the group, that has considerably shrank due to retirements in spite of the hiring of a MCF, as well as some internal tensions not unrelated to slow pace of CNRS promotions, pose question about the future development of the team in the changing local environment. In comparison to other, usually more numerous, mathematical-physics teams in France, the activity of the group is more focused on conceptual research (namely the search of a proper framework for description of quantum gravitational effects) than on analysis of models of experimentally accessible physical reality. The concentration of activity on more speculative (at least from physics point of view) directions is not devoid of risks that could be attenuated by development of interfaces with other teams in the laboratory, in particular with the general relativity and cosmology and statistical physics groups. Such interfaces could provide a good base for the development strategy of the mathematical physics team that is presently not very transparent.

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Recommendations:

More effort should be made to strengthen the collaborations within the group and with the other teams of LPT and to diversify further the activity of the team, especially in view of the predictable discontinuation of certain directions of research. The group should work out, together with the rest of the laboratory, a sustainable strategy for its future development. The statistical physics group at LPT is composed of five permanent members and pursues a variety of research directions in theoretical statistical mechanics, ranging from studies of equilibrium systems through the renormalization group technique, to studies of non-equilibrium systems through exact solutions, and numerical analysis (using new original algorithms) of models of the states of matter (liquids, crystalline and multi-layered systems, plasmas) and phase transitions. The group also develops several interdisciplinary applications, to road traffic, pedestrian traffic, and cellular traffic in biology. Some of the pursued directions were initiated by the group during the report period (for example the studies of collective dynamics in pedestrian flows), some were extensions of existing activities.

The group has published 98 articles, mostly in reputed international journals, including one PRL, two PNAS, one Physics Reports, one PLOS Computational Biology, and a research highlight in Nature Physics. Those were fruits of numerous collaborations within the group as well as on national and international levels.

Assessment of the team's academic reputation and appeal

The group members are well known specialists in their respective fields. They coordinated two ANRs (PEDIGREE and Walkmat) and two "Partenariats Hubert Curien", and have obtained two grants from "Triangle de la Physique". They have organized three international conferences and workshops at LPT and maintained a network of national and international collaborations. One member of the group is a corresponding member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences.

The group is active and has a well established academic reputation, as well as a very good national and international visibility. Unfortunately, all of its members are "senior" (DR or PR), and the only junior (CR/MdC) member of the group that was recruited during the report period left it shortly after recruitment. Moreover, several very well-known scientists that were members of the group left for various reasons in the last decade.

Therefore, even if the scientific quality of the group is very high, it is important to develop strategies to improve its appeal, in order to attract junior members in the future. Strengthening the group by attracting permanent personnel from other labs (e.g. already recruited CNRS staff, or professors in other universities), in order to compensate the outgoing flow that happened in the past, could also be important.

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

The members of the statistical physics team participated in outreach activities by giving interviews popularizing the results on the traffic flows obtained by the team. They also developed a collaboration with Laboratoire Central des Ponts et Chaussées to test lane changing rules in commercial softwares for traffic simulations.

Assessment of the team's organisation and life

The group runs an informal "tea group" in LPT, and co-organizes a monthly seminar series together with the statistical physics groups of the neighboring LPTMS and IPhT. The group has profited from Labex funding to organize seminars of interest to LPT, LPTMS and IPhT, and to invite shared visitors together with IPhT. The PhD students of the group participate to several activities organized by the PhD students at LPT. Despite its very diverse interests, the group maintains its coherence and frequent exchanges of ideas happen between the group members. The atmosphere in the group seems very good both from the scientific and the management point of views. Increasing the presence of young members, in particular of PhD students and post-docs, could contribute to maintain the dynamism of the group.

Assessment of the team's involvement in training through research

One postdoctoral fellow and five PhD students were involved in the research of the group during the report period, and at least one has already defended his thesis and works now in the European Patent Office. Some of these PhD students follow a joint international program between LPT and another country (Germany, Colombia), which provides an important contribution to the international connections and visibility of the group. A member of the group is responsible for a Graduate School at the University. The group actively participates in the internship program.

It should be noted that the group has no planned postdoctoral position openings for the next years. Finding support from the lab and from other institutions (CNRS, ANR) to keep at least one postdoctoral position in the group for the next years is very important. It should also be noted that the distribution of effort in training is very unevenly distributed between the senior members of the group. It would be very beneficial for the group if all of its members were involved in training PhD or Master students.

Assessment of the strategy and the five-year plan

The future strategy of the group is based on its achievements up to date. Its project includes further continuation of research on fundamental questions and applications, with the numerical studies of phase diagrams and transitions, and further work on response theory in non-equilibrium physics and on pedestrian flows.

The group is also planning to expand its activities in the direction of biophysics. This seems a good choice, given the large number of resources that are invested in this direction in the Orsay region. Many neighboring labs have theoretical and experimental teams working on similar topics, which provide many opportunities for the group to bring its expertise in non-equilibrium processes to interdisciplinary collaborations.

Conclusion

The statistical physics group at LPT sustains an active research in selected fields of statistical physics at an excellent level. It is an active and productive group, with a very good publication record, working on a range of different topics, with good interactions between the members and the other groups of the lab. It is an active participant of wider activities in the subject stretching over the southern Ile-de-France area.

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Strengths and opportunities:

It is very important for the preservation of the group to be able to recruit at least one new young member during the next five years. The opening of a "Maître de Conference" position in the Orsay University in 2014 seems an excellent opportunity.

The involvement of the group, together with the rest of LPT, in the present reconstruction of the local scientific landscape in the Orsay-Saclay area may provide a real opportunity to extend the contacts and collaborations with the other statistical physics teams on the campus, or more generally, in the region, as well as with experimentalists and other isolated theoreticians in the framework of the new Paris-Saclay University, and possibly attract some already permanent scientist (e.g. CNRS or MdC) to the group.

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Weaknesses and threats:

The main threat to the group activity is the seniority distribution in the group. In fact, out of five permanent members, one will retire in a few years, and one is PRAG and therefore has an excessive teaching load and might leave to obtain a better position elsewhere. The absence of junior (CR and MdC) scientists in the group is therefore quite worrying for the future. Also, the number of young non-permanent members of the group (especially PhD and Master students) is not very high and increasing it could be very useful to bring new energies to the group. LPT thanks the AERES committee for its careful and positive assessment of its activities.

LPT agrees fully with the AERES committee that it needs to strengthen multidisciplinarity and rejuvenate teams by hiring young researchers in the coming years. In addition, LPT stresses that its long-term strategy hinges on the creation of a new "Pole de Physique Théorique" within the future Paris-Saclay campus.

For LPT to reach these goals, a strong support of its supervising bodies (CNRS and Université Paris-Sud) appears essential, as illustrated in several instances of this report.

With my best regards,

S. Descotes-Genon

Director of LPT

N3:

  Permanent EPST or EPIC researchers and similar positions 7 7 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

  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

Friday

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

	Unit Doctoral students	16
	Theses defended	28
	Postdoctoral students having spent at least 12 months in the unit	24
	Number of Research Supervisor Qualifications (HDR) taken	7
	Qualified research supervisors (with an HDR) or similar positions	21	19
		Number as at	Number as at
		30/06/2013	01/01/2015
	N1: Permanent professors and similar positions	10	10
	N2: Permanent researchers from Institutions and similar positions	13	13
	N3: Other permanent staff (without research duties)	7	6
	N4: Other professors (Emeritus Professor, on-contract Professor, etc.)
	N5: Other researchers from Institutions (Emeritus Research Director, Postdoctoral students, visitors, etc.)	16	7
	N6: Other contractual staff (without research duties)	1
	TOTAL N1 to N6	47	36



Recommendations:

It could be useful to strengthen the identity of the group to improve its visibility and increase attractiveness. It could be also useful to strengthen the ties with neighboring labs (e.g. the neighboring LPS, LPTMS or the biophysics team at IMNC) and other teams in LPT. The planned increase of the group's activity in biophysics seems very promising in this direction.

To increase the group's activity in training, it is recommended that all the members of the group participate to training PhD and Master students.

The recruitment of a new member in 2014 seems crucial for the future of the group. The candidate should be carefully chosen to bring new energies to the group, in particular concerning training of young students, bringing funding through ANR and other grants, and developing the research directions that are already present in the group.


 Introduction History and geographical location of the unit

The UMR 996 unit is the continuation of INSERM UMR 764 created in 2006(contract 2006-2009) and was formerly directed by Mr Dominique EMILIE until his sudden death in 2011. Mr Marc PALLARDY has headed it during the last two years with the contribution of Ms Françoise BACHELERIE. The overall scope of the unit is the study of mechanisms involved in immunopathology and inflammation.

During the last term, five teams jointly investigated the patho-physiology of immunological and inflammatory disorders, in order to identify potential therapeutic targets.

For the following term, four teams will follow this original goal with common interests in the molecular mechanisms regulating host susceptibility and response to inflammatory, immune, and infectious diseases, with a continuum from genes to animal in vivo studies and human analyses in the context of:

-team 1: chronic immune stimulation and host susceptibility factors (including CXCR4) during persistent infections, immunodeficiencies and cancers, -team 2: allergies induced by adjuvants and chemical or drug agents and autoimmune diseases, -team 3: inflammation of the liver due to metabolic disorders (alcohol intake and obesity) taking into account the role of the intestinal microbiota, -team 4: the role of chemokine receptors (including CXCR4) in immunodeficiency, autoimmunity and cancer associated with disorders of leukocyte migration.

The unit is localized on two sites: in an INSERM facility close to the Antoine Béclère University Hospital in Clamart (teams 1, 3 and 4) and in the Faculty of Pharmacy (University Paris-Sud) in Châtenay-Malabry (team 2). The two locations are distant by 5 km representing a 15 minutes drive by car.

The unit is belonging to the Institut Fédératif IPSIT "Institut Paris-Sud d'Innovation Thérapeutique" allowing access to 8 technical research platforms and Ms Françoise BACHELERIE is the deputy director of the IPSIT Institute.

Management team

Mr Marc PALLARDY and Ms Françoise BACHELERIE successfully helped the UMR996 unit overcome the trauma of Mr Dominique EMILIE's passing and maintained the good quality of research characteristic of this unit. Ms Françoise BACHELERIE is the candidate for heading the unit during the next term.

The unit is composed in 2013 of four teams gathering about 67 persons including 44 permanent staff scientists from INSERM and from CNRS, Teacher/Researchers from the Medical and from the Pharmacy Schools of Université Paris-Sud, including Clinicians.

UMR 996 has set up the following management organization: a monthly meeting of the teams' heads and the administrative manager of the unit to discuss e.g. budget, equipment, and student recruitment. The permanent scientific staff is always consulted on strategic decisions.

The general assembly is gathered at least once a year for budget approval and when needed for any request from the staff.

The budget depends on INSERM and university allowance and on external grants. It is established per team and part of the resources is pooled for the common laboratory expenses and for strategic decisions (15 % contribution from all grants): equipment, young investigators or emerging projects.

In addition, 5 % of university budget allowance was given each year to the Institut Fédératif de Recherche (IPSIT) for access to platforms. 2  Overall assessment of the unit

AERES nomenclature

Overall, the good scientific quality of the unit is characterized by discoveries of new mechanisms, focusing mainly on the chemokine receptor CXCL12/CXCR4-7 axis, chemical sensitizers and intestinal microbiota, in a broad variety of inflammatory, allergic, auto-immune or alcoholic/non-alcoholic liver diseases and of immunodeficiency diseases. These successes result from the ability of the various teams to develop excellent basic and translational researches strongly linked to the university hospital and highly efficacious collaborations in the Pharmacy sector and industry. Despite the relatively small size of each team, productivity has been good with some high quality, but not outstanding, publications assessing the highly recognized reputation of the team, which should be strengthened by lectures in international conferences. The attractiveness of the unit is also supported by an impressive series of external collaborations, patents, coordination of large local or international highly competitive programmes and a capacity to generate strong financial support. Most of the unit's researchers are strongly involved in higher education, training through research and produce key expertise for regulatory bodies in public health institutions. These achievements are a strong asset for the next five-year research programme which is relying on several solid and innovative findings and should prove to be as productive. Overall, the multiplicity of projects in each team might, however, jeopardize the scientific outputs during the next period that would benefit from a clearer strategy to prioritize on the most promising projects to reinforce internal collaborations and to recruit full-time experienced researchers.

Strengths and opportunities related to the context

High impact publications with good international recognition and visibility despite a lack of publications or invitations in major journals and international meetings.

Solid interactions with medical and pharmaceutical organisations.

Good reputation of the unit leader based on a 10 year-old breakthrough and on solid recognition of the other team leaders.

Definitely the strongest points of the unit are:

-very high level of interactions with Regulatory bodies at high decisional level; -numerous patents and collaborations with the industry; -very strong Involvement in training through research of the whole unit.

Overall good five-year plan projects in each team particularly in teams 1 & 3, which developed relatively well focused projects, and some good projects in the two other teams despite a multiplicity of small sub-projects.

Weaknesses and threats related to the context

Few invitations in international meetings limiting the unit's international visibility.

Relatively poor organisation and life of the unit with lack of scientific advisory board, lack of systematic analysis of potential internal collaborations in research projects and lack of a clear strategy in expanding the strongly limited human resources.

Weaknesses in the strategic five-year plan with: 1) lack of clear unifying strategic scientific plan despite an effort to focus on chemokine/chemokine receptors;

2) Multiplicity of small sub-projects in each team that jeopardize their strengths and chances of success due to the small size of each team.

Few internal collaborations.

Recommendations

-to set up an External Scientific Advisory Board to help to prioritize and refocus on the best projects in each team;

-to strengthen interactions within and between teams; -to recruit more young full time scientists.

 Detailed assessments Assessment of scientific quality and outputs

Overall, the good scientific quality of the unit is characterized by its recent discoveries of some new mechanisms and pathways of inflammation or immunopathogenesis in a broad spectrum of inflammatory, allergic, auto-immune or alcoholic/non-alcoholic liver diseases and of immunodeficiency diseases. These successes result from the ability of the various teams to reasonably combine their efforts by focusing on two molecular axes from the host inflammatory pathways, including the chemokine receptors (mainly the CXCL12/CXCR4-7 axis) and a glucocorticoid receptor (GILZ), and on two external factors, chemical sensitizers and intestinal microbiota. There is an excellent focus of all groups on translational research.

Despite the relatively small size of each team and the multiplicity of projects, productivity has been good with some high, but not outstanding, quality publications in 'Blood' and the 'Journal of Clinical Investigation', and notable contributions to e.g. CXCR4 and CXCR7 biology, representing major achievements largely driven by teams 1 and 4.

They also set up an impressive series of external collaborations, particularly with the industrial sector, that lead to several patents and strong financial support from the industry.

Assessment of the unit's academic reputation and appeal

The good academic reputation of the unit is based on a good track record of publications, but is limited as assessed by the lack of invitations in major international meetings.

The strong appeal of the unit members is assessed by their role as coordinator and/or their involvement in recently appointed major local, national, and international networks, in particular as partners of:

several "Investissements d'Avenir":

-LABEX LERMIT "Laboratory of Excellence in Research on Medication and Innovative Therapeutics". The unit's current director is member of the steering committee and of the "Maturation and early drugability group" and in charge of the educational program. Two other team-chiefs are members of the LERMIT council, one is also member of the "Project call" research group and one is the co-coordinator of the "T2 research project"; -EQUIPEX project allowing access to the innovative "mass cytometry" technology;

-the new IDMIT Center (National Center for Infectious Diseases Models and for Innovative Therapies).

DHU "Départements Hospitalo-Universitaires" recently created by AP-HP: DHU "TORINO: Thorax innovation" for team 2 and DHU "Hepatinov" for team 3; the five-year/38 partner/34.9 M€ EU-IMI (Innovative Medicine Initiative) ABIRISK "Anti-Biopharmaceutical Immunization: prediction and analysis of clinical relevance to minimize the RISK" project (unit's director).

In addition the unit's attractiveness is assessed by its capacity to recruit highly qualified postdoctoral researchers.

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

This aspect is one of the highlights of UMR 996, which has shown a strong involvement in technology transfer with several patents. All teams have set up numerous collaborations with the industrial sector and big pharmaceutical companies.

This strong major involvement in collaborations with the pharmaceutical industry is emphasized by the coordination of the ABIRISK IMI network and involvement in the LERMIT Labex (see above), which will both give them strong opportunities for breakthroughs in the next five years.

Assessment of the unit's organisation and life

The unit has set up an appropriate organization with monthly meetings of the teams' heads and the administrative manager to discuss budget, equipment and student recruitment. The permanent scientific staff is consulted on strategic decisions and the general assembly is gathered at least once a year for budget approval. The budget depends on INSERM and university allowance and on external grants. It is established per team and part of the resources is pooled for the common laboratory expenses and for strategic decisions.

In addition, 5 % of university budget allowance was given each year to the Institut Fédératif de Recherche (IPSIT), of which the future unit's director is vice-chair, thus allowing access to the eight research high-tech platforms.

However the experts committee is concerned by the lack of an external scientific board and of a scientific policy to define strategic scientific orientations or help teams in difficulty at re-orienting their projects. Although one of the new programme aspirations is to strengthen synergy between teams and coherence of the scientific perspectives, the evaluators were not convinced by the capacity of the future unit's organisation to favour cohesion and coherence among a too broad variety of projects that jeopardize the unit's strengths.

Furthermore, the scientific life and organization of the unit is limited by its localization on two distant sites, a problem that will be solved at the end of the next term, by reunification in the Faculty of Pharmacy.

Finally there is no strong internal incentive to favour interaction between scientists or to help solve the staff's acute needs linked to the paucity of full time researchers or the lack of permanent technical staff.

Assessment of the unit's involvement in training through research

A major strength of the unit is its strong involvement in the organisation of higher education. Most of the researchers are Professors or Assistant-Professors at the Faculty of Medicine or Pharmacy and two team-chiefs are members of the steering committee of the Université Paris-Sud.

In addition, the four teams are part of the Doctoral School "Innovation Thérapeutique: du Fondamental à l'Appliqué" and its governance, as well as in active medical and nurses training.

Assessment of the strategy and the five-year plan

Altogether the past unit's research accomplishments have paved the way for high quality future research programmes. The four teams of the future unit tentatively set up an ambitious programme to further understand some of the immune mechanisms of a variety of inflammatory, auto-immune, allergic diseases and immunodeficiencies they recently described, with a real effort to focus upon two axis of the CXCR4/CXCR7 chemokine receptors and of the GILZ glucocorticoid receptor. Each of the teams, most of them being relatively small and lacking full time researchers, has developed several research projects involving these two axes.

The unit has set up an impressive number of original animal models that should allow them to explore the basic mechanisms involved in the various pathogeneses they wish to explore, while analysing in parallel the validity of these mechanisms in human and patient-samples to which they have a large access. In addition, their ability to conduct state of the art experimental investigations is assessed by their good access to technological facilities and their demonstrated capacity to raise substantial funding.

However the multiplicity of the fields studied by this small unit has limited its ability to produce novel breakthroughs. There is no clear strategic plan for this relatively small unit. The topics covered within each team appear extremely diverse, with a lack of focus and little unifying science within and between each team despite efforts to concentrate on the two common axes of research but in a broad range of cellular and pathological contexts. 9 4  Team-by-team analysis  Detailed assessments

Assessment of scientific quality and outputs

Strong scientific output developing a 10 year-old breakthrough on the role of the CXCL12/CXCR4-7 axis in various immunodeficiencies (e.g. the WHIM syndrome) and infectious diseases (HPV infection, filariasis), and with original descriptions of the role of the GATA2 transcription factor as a new predisposing factor for myelodysplastic syndromes, and of new immunoregulatory molecules (GILZ and TRPM4) in inflammation and tolerance.

The team produced several cutting edge original gene-modified mouse models of great potential for the WHIM syndrome to investigate CXCL12/CXCR4-7 antagonists or the role of the CXCL12/CXCR4-7 axis in filariasis, as well as models to study the interplay between the CXCL12/CXCR4-7 axis and GATA2 transcription factor, while developing the French WHIM patient cohort to be included in a future NIH-clinical trial.

Very solid scientific production including 15 high Impact publications with an IF>10.

Assessment of the team's academic reputation and appeal

Overall, the good reputation of the team's leader is assessed by her regular participation/invitation to national and international meetings despite lack of invitation in high impact international conferences. In addition, the team's researchers and leader are regular peer reviewers for well-established international journals.

The team's strong appeal is assessed by a very good financial support with 25 national grants mainly from public and associative national sources, participation and/or coordination to local and national "initiatives d'excellence" (Labex LERMIT, Equipex FlowCytech, IDMIT) as well as EU programmes (E-Rare, IMI-ABIRISK)

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

The strong contribution of the team to its environment is assessed by a solid intellectual property protection with four patents, by its regular consulting services for private companies, by its participation to several clinical trials, to publications in professional and technical journals and textbooks, to regulatory agencies as well as to the implementation of standards and guidelines.

Assessment of the team's organisation and life

The profound reorganization of the team after its former leader's accidental death has allowed introduce strong new scientists and expertise but has delayed the development of some programs. The team leader is deputy director of the IFR141-IPSIT and is a member of local steering committees (School of Medicine, LERMIT, FlowCytech, IDMIT).

However the team is limited by its small size with 2,4 FTE including 3 assistant-professors and the lack of postdoctoral researchers, research technicians or engineers to support the research activities. In addition, despite some collaborations with other teams of the unit, the there is no clear strategy in the interactions to be set within the rest of the unit nor in the reinforcement of human resources.

Assessment of the team's involvement in training through research

The team members are heavily implicated in teaching activities and in the organization of teaching for Master and PhD degrees and involved in the Doctoral School "Innovation et thérapeutique: du fondamental à l'appliqué".

Since 2008, the team trained six Master-, two PhD-, and one EPHE-students and is currently supervising four Master degrees and three PhD-students since 2011.The quality of the doctoral theses is assessed by publications with students in prominent position.

Assessment of the strategy and the five-year plan

The team proposes an ambitious project subdivided in four parts with pathophysiological and therapeutic orientations. The proposed project is well constructed and ambitious and builds upon promising preliminary data achieved in the previous contract. Overall the proposal is coherent, focusing on the CXCL12 and GILZ axes and their molecular interplay between receptors, studying their implication in chronic immune activation-associated diseases (cancer and HPV infection) as well as new therapeutic strategies. However several other research objectives such as the identification of new markers of skin-specific Treg cells aiming and potential therapeutic targets might jeopardize the strength of this small team.

Nevertheless several original tools and mouse models as well as established relevant collaborations are obviously an asset for the success of the project. However, the project would benefit from being more focused in order to increase its chances of success, particularly the project described in part three.

Conclusion  Strengths and opportunities:

-strength and originality of the project (CXCL12/CXCR4-7 axis in the WHIM syndrome and HPV infection); -development of tools and experimental settings to investigate the contribution of CXCR7 to CXCL12/CXCR4 functions;

-very good scientific productivity with some publications in high impact journals; -good attractiveness of the team for PhD students; -strong national and international collaborative network; -good international scientific visibility; -good capacity to obtain grants.

 Weaknesses and threats:

-the team members have only few invitations to plenary lectures in international meetings;

-the group has shrunk significantly. The size of the team is thus modest to achieve all the objectives listed. The number of post-doctoral fellows (especially international ones) and perhaps PhD students is not sufficient; -lack of experienced researcher, postdoctoral researchers, research technicians, or engineers; -lack of clear specific strategy for connection with institutional organisms for the HPV project.

 Recommendations:

-to limit the number of projects (in particular the Treg project which appeared as the weakest among the team's ones) and to prioritize research objectives (as an example refocus on the WHIM syndrome and the HPV project which appear to be promising) in order to remain competitive; -to move from national recognition to international visibility; -to strengthen its manpower by increasing the number of tenured positions (technicians or engineers) and to recruit postdoctoral researchers; -to favour efficient synergy with others teams of the unit sharing complementary expertise and scientific questions.  Detailed assessments

Assessment of scientific quality and outputs

Quality of the scientific production is good. It is based on the analysis of various aspects of inflammation and allergy, with a particular strength of the Nrf2 research focusing on the mechanism of inflammation caused by the alum vaccine-adjuvant with relevant collaborations with the academic and industrial sector, a reasonable production on the role of neutrophils in chemical allergy and regulation of inflammatory responses but a weaker impact of the research on T cells specific for drugs involved in allergic reactions.

Assessment of the team's academic reputation and appeal

Overall national and international visibility is good and has high impact in the toxicology field of the Team leader. There is also a strong international leadership of a highly funded EU programm in partnership with the industry. However, the team's reputation and appeal is somewhat limited with a lack of invitations in international meetings and of recruitment of young world-class researchers.

Assessment of the team's interaction with the social, economic and cultural environment A major strength of the team is its strong and numerous interactions at high national and international levels with industry and with regulatory bodies and its contribution to national and international guidelines in the field of toxicology and therapeutics of allergy and vaccines.

Assessment of the team's involvement in training through research

Another strength of the team is its major involvement in teaching and training through research, in the steering committees of doctoral school and university governance.

Assessment of the strategy and the five-year plan

The team proposes pursuing its previous research programm along three research axes on: I) the well focused Nrf2 project with solid background in the exploration of the role of Nrf2 in chemical allergy and vaccine adjuvants, II) the regulation of inflammatory responses by neutrophils, particularly on the role of neutrophil extracellular traps and glucocorticoid-induced leucine zippers (GILZ), in immediate and delayed hypersensitivity and in inflammation and acute respiratory syndrome; III) the identification of drug-specific naïve T cells involved in allergic reactions. The last axis however appeared largely speculative and risky.

The chances of success of the project are supported by the team's original mouse models, new technologies, and relevant collaborations as well as by the high impact EU and local pharmacology programms the team coordinates or is involved in. However, the experts committee feels that the range of programmes is too broad, while the feasibility and the pertinence of the NET programme and of axis three are weak.

Conclusion  Strengths and opportunities:

-strength and originality of the Nrf2 project; -the team's original mouse models and new technologies; -relevant collaborations, particularly with the industrial sector; -high impact programs; -high visibility in the toxicology field; -strong involvement into higher education and doctoral school; -major involvement and recognition in social environment (regulatory agencies and industrial sector).

 Weaknesses and threats:

-multiplicity of projects for a small team; -weakness of the highly speculative emerging project on neutrophil extracellular traps; -weak pertinence and feasibility of axis 3; -few internal and intra-unit collaborations.

 Recommendations:

-to set up a clear scientific strategy refocusing on the most promising projects; -to set up strong internal and intra-unit collaborations; -to attract full time researchers. Despite its small size (composed of eight persons), the team and its leader have a strong expertise in the field of inflammatory mechanisms involved in liver damages related to overweight (NAFLD, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease) and alcoholic liver disease (ALD) thanks to its strong association with the department of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition of the Béclère University Hospital. The past four-year research program was well focused and produced major achievements with the identification of the key role of the CXCL12/CXCR4 axis in obesity-related liver inflammation, of GILZ as a regulator of inflammation in Kupffer cells, and of intestinal microbiota in ALD and in obesity-induced liver diseases, with several strong papers in good impact specialized journals (Gastroenterology, Hepatology, J. Hepatology, Gut).

Assessment of the team's academic reputation and appeal

Although this young team has not yet gained strong international visibility, it is highly respected and has a recognized expertise in the field with frequent invitations to relevant meetings. It has developed numerous and relevant collaborations with local and national teams and coordinates the DHU (Département Hospitalo-Universitaire) "Hepatinov" allowing development of translational research. The team has also demonstrated a very good capacity to raise national and international funds.

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

The team leader has skills to develop academic and hospital interactions with the DHU and strong collaborations with pharmaceutical companies.

Assessment of the team's involvement in training through research

The team and its leader are strongly involved in higher education for medical students and nurses. Their important activity in training through research is assessed by the supervision of 11 Master-degree students and 3 PhD theses with good publication levels in the last four years while currently supervising three more PhD students.

Assessment of the strategy and the five-year plan

The project has a well-balanced mix of state-of-the-art mouse models with a clear relevance to human liver diseases. The team has reasonable preliminary data identifying specific microbial species predisposing to excessive inflammation. The proposed experiments are a logical continuation from the obtained results. The project will focus on inter-connected themes studying the role of the CXCL12 and GILZ axis and of the intestinal microbiota in liver inflammation and immune dysfunction in liver inflammatory diseases linked to alcohol and obesity.

Altogether, the team's combined basic/translational research and key local and external collaborations put it in arobust position to continue in the next period along a cohesive research programme.

Conclusion  Strengths and opportunities:

-good expertise in the proposed line of research; -strong capacity to produce significant scientific outputs; -appropriate combination of basic and translational research will help contribute maximally to the field; -strong external and internal collaborations supporting the viability of the studies.

 Weaknesses and threats:

-a small group in a highly competitive field; -multiplicity of projects is a real danger for this small and young team; -number of scientists dedicated per project may not be adequate.

 Recommendations:

-a new staff member should be recruited in the near future; -if recruiting a new staff-member is not possible, the team will certainly have to make choices and prioritize certain themes;

-more presentations at international meetings would also be good to increase international visibility. This team successfully developed an original project on the role of chemokine receptor CXCR4 in disease development associated with rare immune-deficiency disorders of leukocyte migration, by combining investigations in human and mouse models. The team produced several scientific outputs on CXCR4 function in the WHIM Syndrome in collaboration with the unit's leader and team 1 and in Idiopathic CD4+ T-cell Lymphocytopenia, on CXCR7 and CCR1 in Systemic Lupus Erythematous, and on the CXCL12-CXCR4 axis in cancer. Collaboration with the industrial sector allowed the team to propose a chemokine-receptor antagonist as a new therapeutic target. Altogether, this scientific production was associated with a good publication record in good general or specialized strong impact journals.

Assessment of the team's academic reputation and appeal

Overall high impact publications have been shared with team1 but, without invitations in international meetings, the team's visibility is still limited. Nevertheless, the team's expertise is well recognized as assessed by numerous national and international collaborations allowing high number of co-authoring publications while the team leader is active in peer-reviewing for international journals. The team has set up several medical collaborations and is involved in clinical trials and cohort organisation. It is also part of the LABEX LERMIT, member of the LERMIT council and co-coordinator of one Labex project. The team's scientific attractiveness is also assessed by its capacity to recruit a very promising post-doctoral researcher who should greatly improve the research power of this small team. The team leader has shown strong ability to obtain significant national and international grants.

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

The team leader has set up strong animation activities in the scientific field and serves as an expert for national and international evaluations. The team leader has licensed the design, characterization and application of the mouse model of the WS.

Assessment of the team's involvement in training through research

The team is strongly involved in the education/teaching programs of the Université Paris-Sud and in the doctoral school. Its huge training activity for young investigators is assessed by the supervision of 14 Master-and seven PhD-students with good level publications for the majority of the PhD theses.

Assessment of the strategy and the five-year plan

The team's translational research project aims at developing novel drugs to target inappropriate migration of immune cells, with a special focus on chemokines and their receptors and their related intracellular partners. It proposes to extend the CXCR4 theme further to two human rare immunodeficiencies. Team 4 also plans to examine aspects of autoimmune and malignant B cell-biology with many goals for each section.

Altogether the WHIM syndrome and ICL project is persuasive but some of the approaches proposed are not supported by solid evidence (particularly the iPS cells) and it seems unlikely that this small group will develop therapeutics in this highly competitive field. The autoimmune B cell-theme is not supported by team's track record in this competitive area (apart from the newly recruited post-doc) while the malignant B cell-project seems to be risky and is therefore not strongly persuasive.

Conclusion  Strengths and opportunities:

-high quality and good attractiveness of the team leader with scientific competence, enthusiasm, great ability to obtain financial support, establish internal and external collaborations, perform scientific animation, and teach; -innovative project is based on complementary skills of newcomers.

 Weaknesses and threats:

-suboptimally focused proposals, some based on tenuous and not persuasive scientific links; -many goals for each section with a number of persons involved in each program too low to efficiently address the different questions during a five-year period; -no clear strategy to recruit post-doctoral scientists.

 Recommendations:

-to prioritize on the most promising projects such as the strong CXCR4 axis oriented towards stem cells and the plasma cell project while the CD5 project should interact more with the CXCR4 axis and/or focus on Waldenström's disease; 19 -to develop more interactions between the groups of the team; -to recruit post-doctoral scientists and senior researchers; -to limit the number of collaborations that do not favour scientific visibility.

N6

  Permanent EPST or EPIC researchers and similar positions 5 4 N3: Other permanent staff (without research duties) 1 N4: Other professors (PREM, ECC, etc.) 1 N5: Other EPST or EPIC researchers (DREM, Postdoctoral students, visitors, etc.) 2 spent at least 12 months in the unit 1 Number of Research Supervisor Qualifications (HDR) taken 3 Qualified research supervisors (with an HDR) or similar positions 6 5

N6

  Other professors (PREM, ECC, etc.) N5: Other EPST or EPIC researchers (DREM, Postdoctoral students, visitors, etc.) 1 spent at least 12 months in the unit 1 Number of Research Supervisor Qualifications (HDR) taken 3 Qualified research supervisors (with an HDR) or similar positions 5 5

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

  Other professors (PREM, ECC, etc.) N5: Other EPST or EPIC researchers (DREM, Postdoctoral students, visitors, etc.

  la Porte de Trivaux, 92140 Clamart Conduct or programme of visit: 08.00 am Closed-door meeting: expert committee members and scientific delegate (DS) of the AERES (Mr Joost vAN MEERWIJK) 08.30 am Presentation by the head of the unit (Ms Françoise BACHELERIE and Mr Marc PALLARDY): Meeting of the experts committee with representatives of the Université Paris-Sud and Inserm: • Prof. Jean-Jacques GIRERD, Vice Président, Université Paris-Sud • Ms Laurence PARMANTIER, head of Paris Sud Inserm delegation • Prof. Jean-Charles DUCLOS-VALLÉE, faculty of Medicine 02.00 pm Meeting of the experts committee with a representative of the "Therapeutic Innovation Doctoral School" (ED n°425) of the Université Paris-Sud • Prof. Christian POÜS, head of the "Physiopathology" axis 02.15 pm Three parallel meetings of the experts committee with: • PhD students and postdoctoral fellows • Engineers, technicians and administrative assistants • Researchers with permanent position (except the unit's director and team-chiefs) 03.00 pm Closed-door meeting of the experts committee and AERES representative with the unit's directors, Ms Françoise BACHELERIE and Mr Marc PALLARDY 03.30 pm Tea-break 04.00-06.00 pm Closed-door meeting of the experts committee members and DS

OBSERVATIONS DE PORTÉE GÉNÉRALE

The unit and teams' heads thank the experts of the AERES Committee for their analysis of the assessment of the "Cytokines, Chemokines, and Immunopathology" unit and their recommendations in the context of the creation of the "Inflammation, Chemokines and Immunopathology" unit.

To strengthen interactions within and between teams is a major aspiration of the unit's program as the committee noticed. The committee is expecting "high quality future research programs" from the unit's accomplishments and its recommendation to prioritize on some projects in each team with the help of an External Scientific Advisory Board will certainly contribute to pursue this goal.

To maintain the unit's attractiveness and especially to recruit postdoctoral fellows and young full time scientists is also a major objective of the unit and teams' heads and is specially challenging in this period of job and funding scarcity. This a conducted strategy for all teams recently illustrated with the recruitment in Team 3 of a postdoctoral fellow, in Team 4 of a senior fellow who will be supported by the unit for an academic recruitment as a full time scientist, and in Team 2 of a young assistant professor in toxicology starting in September 2014.

Team1 will also pursue recruiting postdoctoral fellows and engineers in order to increase its workforce and remain competitive and strengthen its collaboration with Paris XI hospitals and its focus research effort within the members of the team and also with the 3 other teams.

To prioritize research objectives will also be a goal of Team 2. As noticed by the committee the Neutrophil Extracellular Traps-related project bloomed from a relatively emerging concept, the pertinence of which is supported by more than 400 PubMed citations since 2004. This project developed in the context of the anaphylactic shock is clearly translational and its feasibility relies on strong collaborations with clinicians and on institutional organisms' financial supports. Recent results of the Team identifying 5 new human serum albumin-derived peptides that bind penicillin (33) 1 46 32 79 93 e-mail : u996.inserm@u-psud.fr provide further evidence supporting the concept of drug-specific naive T-cells involved in allergic reactions and the feasibility of the project. The scientific program of Team 4 notably includes developing the CD5 project within a context of industrial valorization (thus not the scale of a research project). Team 4 will pursue its research effort within the autoimmunity field, which will be strengthened by the new recruited post-doc and on two immunodeficiencies notably modeled through the development of the innovative iPS cells method with the particular aim to identify gene targets that might contribute to the development of new therapeutics.

Docteur Françoise Bachelerie Professeur Marc Pallardy

Candidate à la direction Directeur