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U.S. researchers looking to commercialize their innovations are being invited yet again to “Start in France.”
La Synapse, France’s initiative for bringing together “deeptech” startups, is looking to bring American Ph.D candidates, post-doctoral researchers, engineers, professors and entrepreneurs
The Start in France program is taking applications through March 31, offering applicants an expenses-paid, weeklong immersion into one of three French innovation ecosystems: Toulouse (Atlanta’s French sister city), Aix-Marseilles-Provence and Grenoble.
Applicants must prepare projects with a proof of concept; all ages and nationalities are welcome, so the applicants need not be permanent residents or citizens of the United States, even if they’re based or attending school here.
Undertaken by the Office for Science and Technology at the the French embassy, La Synapse launched a hub within the Consulate General of France in Atlanta in 2023.
Last year paid off, as one of the laureates of the program hailed from Georgia, alongside North Carolina (also in the Atlanta consulate’s territory), California and Massachusetts.
The program consists of a virtual prep day, one week on the ground in one of three tech ecosystems and individual followup three months after the immersion program, which will take place between August 31 and Oct. 30, depending on the host ecosystem selected.
Since it launched in 2006 under the Young Enterprise Initiative moniker, the program has netted nearly 200 participants, 15 percent of whom have started a business in France after going through the program, the ultimate goal after giving innovators a chance to test the waters of the French entrepreneurial ecosystem.
Focused on transatlantic exchanges in deeptech, which the French government defines as groundbreaking innovations rooted in new science, La Synapse has also brought more than 200 French startups to the United States, including to Atlanta through its New Technology Venture Accelerator, or NETVA, program, now known as Start in America.
To apply for Start in France, go here.
Looking to learn more? Email Pascale Cohen, Attaché for Science and Technology at the Embassy of France in the United States, at attache-univ@ambascience-usa.org
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