After a scientific conference in Lyon in May 2024, members of the Franco-Indian campus "Innovation by plants and AI for India and France" (ILIADE) met in Reunion Island from November 6 to 9. This university cooperation project led by the University of Reunion Island intends, through a transversal and innovative approach, to offer a joint master's and doctoral level degree offer in the fields of biotechnologies of natural products and AI for health data.

The Indo-Pacific is a developing area for infectious and metabolic diseases, a key region for preserving global health. With this in mind, 7 French and Indian higher education institutions joined forces in 2022 within the ILIADE cooperation project, "Innovation through plants and AI for India and France". This is aa real Franco-Indian campus, intended to strengthen academic and scientific cooperation with India around these strategic themes and by structuring bilateral France-India cooperation in this sector.

This project is led by the University of La Réunion, in partnership with the universities of Lyon 1, Lyon 2, Poitiers and 4 Indian partners: the Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT), the Central Institute of Medicinal & Aromatic Plants (CIMAP), Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research (JIPMER) and the National Center For Biological Sciences (NCBS). ILIADE sets itself the following main objectives:

• to offer French, Indian and, more broadly, IORA and ASEAN students, the possibility of following a Franco-Indian course in the field of biosciences and health sciences. In particular, ILIADE has already created a twinning degree at master level in biotechnology at VITThis diploma is linked to an existing first cycle within each partner establishment and leads to a doctoral cycle in more than 1 associated research units;
• to build a multidisciplinary ecosystem that is conducive to the development of innovative multi-actor partnerships in this strategic sector of biosciences and health (French industries present on site and Indian, competitiveness clusters, etc.);
• and to enable cross-mobility of students and teachers between the different French and Indian establishments that are members of this project.

For three days, the participants in the ILIADE seminar took stock of this first phase of the project, with a budget of 1 euros thanks to the participation of the Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs (MEAE), and established the schedule of activities for the second phase of the project, with a new budget of 260 euros granted by the MEAE. This will involve completing the implementation of the biotechnology master's degree, made up of two courses (one specializing in medicinal plants and the other in artificial intelligence applied to biomedical and health data) but also developing the doctoral cycle and research projects between partner institutions via student and researcher mobility, paying particular attention to the academic-industry link. To do this, the Franco-Indian consortium has also won an ERASMUS+ project worth 240 euros, which will finance these mobilities over 327 years.

Several round tables dedicated to research and innovation were held on the issues of plant breeding, production of therapeutic molecules by plants to fight infectious or vascular diseases and the application of artificial intelligence to biomedical data.

Visits to our research platforms have also been planned:

• To the north: the PIMIT, EnergyLab and DSIMB (Dynamics of Structures and Interactions of Macromolecules in Biology) laboratories and the CYROI (Cyclotron Réunion Océan Indien)
• In the south: UMR DETROI (Diabetes Atherothrombosis Therapies Réunion Indian Ocean) and CIRAD (Centre for International Cooperation in Agronomic Research for Development)

With this unique project, the University of La Réunion is continuing the deployment of its university diplomacy policy in the Indo-Pacific region and its anchoring in its geographical area.

With the participation of the Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs