Dominique Baillargeat, Director and CEO, CNRS@CREATE

Could you please introduce yourself with your name and position?

My name is Dominique Baillargeat. I am a professor at the University of Limoges in France, and I serve as the Director and Chief Executive Officer of CNRS@CREATE. I am based full-time in Singapore.

Could you give us a brief overview of CNRS@CREATE?

CNRS@CREATE is a subsidiary of the CNRS — the French National Centre for Scientific Research. The CNRS is the national research organization of France. We established this subsidiary in 2019 as part of the CREATE program of the National Research Foundation in Singapore.

To give you more context, CNRS is France’s national organization for research, covering almost every field of science: mathematics, physics, engineering, computer science, humanities, chemistry, nuclear biology, and more. The organization is made up of around 30,000 people across 10 institutes.

Our subsidiary in Singapore is the first overseas branch of CNRS. Its mission is to strengthen collaboration between French researchers from academia and universities and the research community in Singapore.

As a premier international research center in both Singapore and France, what have been the key factors driving CNRS@CREATE’s success?

CNRS has had a strong presence in Singapore for over 20 years. Our first international research laboratory here opened in 2007. Today, Singapore hosts four of our international research laboratories, out of a total of 80 worldwide.

This significant presence in Singapore — in areas such as artificial intelligence, quantum science, biology, and nanotechnology — led the NRF to invite us to join the CREATE program in 2019. That is how CNRS@CREATE was formed.

What are CNRS@CREATE’s current focus areas? Could you share some notable collaborations and achievements to date?

Since CNRS@CREATE was established, we have worked on a wide range of topics. Our main current focus areas include artificial intelligence combined with physics, quantum science, decarbonization, and artificial intelligence applied to robotics.

These areas align with Singapore’s priorities in research funding and its goal of achieving strong societal and economic impact. While we have addressed other topics in the past, these remain our primary research directions at present.

How would you describe Singapore’s research and innovation ecosystem, and how does CNRS maintain its position within it?

In the CREATE program, the goal is to conduct research of excellence that has a significant impact on Singapore. This means focusing on applied research that can deliver tangible benefits to the country.

When we design a CREATE project, we think about how it can contribute to Singapore’s future — not only in the long term, which is natural for researchers, but also in the medium term, as short-term horizons are generally not suitable for research. We measure this by identifying use cases, assessing potential impact, and determining how our work can benefit Singaporean society.

This could mean improving the quality of life for citizens in areas such as health and well-being. Singapore is internationally recognized as a smart and innovative city, which makes it possible for us to test and deploy solutions developed in our laboratories directly in real-life urban environments, sometimes at the district level. This capacity to translate research into practical applications is particularly valuable for us.

Are you planning to expand your work beyond Singapore to other regions?

Yes, we are. Expansion depends on the specific topics we are working on. For example, in our large hybrid AI program, called Descartes, we combine physics and AI to develop predictive models for decision-making. This work involves creating digital twins, which can be applied anywhere in the world.

We already collaborate with cities in France and are developing partnerships with Valencia in Spain, as well as with São Paulo in Brazil. These connections are often facilitated by CNRS’s global network — we have 80 laboratories worldwide, including some in Brazil. Our colleagues there reached out to explore how our research could complement theirs.

Similarly, CNRS has research laboratories in Vietnam, Thailand, and Indonesia. One of our aims is to expand the work we are doing in Singapore to other ASEAN countries, potentially creating regional partnerships based on our approach.

How does CNRS engage with academic, industrial, and governmental partners to maximize the impact of its research?

We focus on building ecosystems around the programs we run at CNRS@CREATE. This involves collaboration with academia — from France, Singapore, Europe, and increasingly the United States — as well as with industry.

In Singapore, many French industrial partners work closely with us on applied research projects. These collaborations help companies advance their R&D efforts while also ensuring that our research delivers practical benefits in Singapore. Currently, we have around 15 industrial contracts in place.

We also work closely with Singaporean government agencies such as HTX, DSO, SMI, and EMA. The goal in these partnerships is to identify use cases where our research can be applied in the short to medium term to create meaningful impact.

Is there anything important we have not yet discussed that you would like to share about CNRS@CREATE?

While CNRS had been collaborating with Singapore before the creation of CNRS@CREATE, this initiative has significantly accelerated and deepened our partnership. It has created a major opportunity to strengthen research collaboration between the two countries, and we are now seeing excellent results and promising prospects.

Finally, what is the main message you would like to share with the community and our readers about CNRS@CREATE?

For young researchers, CNRS@CREATE offers opportunities to learn, gain new experiences, and broaden their skills. For senior researchers, it provides a platform to share their expertise, expand their knowledge, and contribute to building strong collaborations.

This is more than just an academic initiative — it is a large-scale project with ambitious goals. In a world where some countries are increasingly focused on closing their borders, we believe research should remain without boundaries. Collaboration is essential for advancing knowledge, and CNRS@CREATE is a strong example of this principle in action.