Mehdi Gmar Appointed Deputy Director General for Innovation at CNRS

As of March 1, 2025, Mehdi Gmar has been appointed Deputy Director General for Innovation at CNRS. This appointment, made by Antoine Petit, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), aims to strengthen the ties between public research and the socio-economic world.

A career driven by innovation

Mehdi Gmar brings a robust track record in research and innovation. A physics graduate and holder of a doctoral degree in nuclear instrumentation, he has built his professional path across several strategic institutions.

At the Commissariat à l’Énergie Atomique (CEA), he held progressively senior roles directing research in instrumentation and managing technological research for business innovation. In 2016, he joined the Secrétariat général pour l’investissement as deputy program director responsible for the valorization of research. He returned to the CEA in 2019 to lead the CEA Tech Institute for regional technology diffusion.

His career took a more political turn in 2021 when he joined the cabinet of Frédérique Vidal, then Minister of Higher Education, Research and Innovation, as a policy advisor specifically responsible for research and industry issues.

In June 2022, he assumed the leadership of CNRS Innovation, which is charged with protecting CNRS laboratory results through intellectual property rights, managing the portfolio of patents and software thus created, and ensuring their transfer to the socio-economic world. Recently, CNRS Innovation has also taken on the management of new CNRS support programs: OPEN for the valorization of open-source software, and PISE for the valorization of projects with societal and/or environmental impact.

Mission and objectives

In his new role, Mehdi Gmar will lead the CNRS innovation and valorization strategy for research. His mission will be to strengthen the transfer of knowledge and technologies from laboratories to start-ups and companies, while amplifying the societal impact of scientific discoveries.

CNRS holds a portfolio of about 7,000 patent families, with roughly one third co-filed with industry partners. The organization has established 24 framework agreements with companies of all sizes and maintains over 280 joint CNRS/industry research structures. Each year, CNRS generates around 1,000 new research contracts with companies and supports the creation of more than 100 start-ups.

“Drawing on my experience leading CNRS Innovation, I am convinced that we must continue to strengthen the bridges between fundamental research and the socio-economic world, guiding researchers, start-ups and industrial partners toward fruitful collaborations. My objective is to bolster CNRS’s role as an actor of innovation, both in France and internationally, in close collaboration with all our academic partners and the broader innovation ecosystem,” Mehdi Gmar states.