IVADO-Inria initiative: 4 Other Projects Selected as Part of the Franco-Quebec Exchange Semester on Artificial Intelligence Following the Second Round

In April 2025, IVADO and Inria announced the organization of a Franco-Quebec exchange program around artificial intelligence (AI), with the aim of facilitating encounters and strengthening existing links between the French and Quebec research ecosystems in the field of AI.

This program offers financial support for research stays of 2 to 5 weeks, between mid-June and mid-November 2025, enabling Quebec professors to stay in France, and French researchers to visit Quebec, as part of an existing collaboration or a new Franco-Quebec collaboration. Projects in the priority themes specified in the call, such as AI in healthcare, responsible AI, machine learning, or AI applied to the environment and materials (among others), are encouraged.

Following the success of the initiative with the announcement of eight winners in the first round, IVADO and Inria are pleased to unveil the winners from the second round today.

The scientific exchange projects selected in the second round are: 

• The following projects are funded by IVADO (travel to France)

1. Yannick Dufresne (Université Laval) + Mickael Temporão (Sciences Po Bordeaux)
Field: AI Governance / Social Acceptability of AI / Public Policy
Project: Development of the Canadian AI Social Acceptability Index based on analysis of parliamentary discourse, media coverage, and public opinion polls. This tool will enable decision-makers to assess and monitor the social acceptability of policies incorporating generative AI in real time, thereby ensuring alignment between government technological innovations and citizen expectations in order to preserve democratic trust.

2. Alexandre Marois (Université Laval) + Jean-Paul Imbert (École Nationale d’Aviation Civile (ENAC))
Field: Predictive AI / Cognitive Support / Human Factors in Aviation
Project: This project aims to establish collaboration with Jean-Paul Imbert’s team (National Civil Aviation School, Toulouse) on the integration of predictive AI to support aviation industry personnel facing cognitive limitations. The goal is to develop approaches that use neurophysiological measurements and AI algorithms to predict suboptimal cognitive states (hypovigilance, stress, mental overload) and to develop a research program involving industrial and academic partners.

• The following projects are funded by Inria (travel to Quebec)

3. Magali Richard (Université Grenoble Alpes, MIAI Cluster, Laboratoire d’Informatique de Grenoble) + Qihuang Zhang (McGill University, Department of Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Occupational Health )
Field: Biology/Artificial Intelligence
Project: In the post-genomic era, spatial transcriptomics and single-cell molecular profiling technologies have enabled researchers to address fundamental questions about tissue organization and its role in the development of specific phenotypes, including serious diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease and cancer. However, this field faces significant methodological challenges. The project aims to reduce the impact of these challenges through benchmarks established during scientific competitions.

4. Odalric-Ambrym Maillard (Inria SCOOL Team, Inria Center at the University of Lille) + Audrey Durand (Laval University) + Tisanji
Field: Ecology/Artificial Intelligence
Project: In this project, in collaboration with the Montreal-based company Tisanji, which is developing a digital platform dedicated to garden planning and gardening support, the objective is to offer urban gardening recommendation systems to promote environmental impact on pollinating insects and soil health.