I-PhD Innovation competition : Two winners from FEMTO-ST in 2025

Valentin Reynaud (microforce metrology) andGaultier Gibey (predictive maintenance of hydrogen sytems) are the winners of this sixth edition of the national innovation competition .

Launched in July 2019 by the Ministry of Higher Education, Research, and Innovation, in partnership with Bpifrance, the i-PhD competition aims to promote entrepreneurship among young researchers, particularly in the creation of “deep tech” startups that offer disruptive innovations based on scientific and technological advances.

Since the launch of this annual innovation competition, 234 winners have been awarded prizes and 78 startups have been created by winners.

The 2025 winners include 40 winners, two of whom are from Bourgogne-Franche-Comté and more specifically from FEMTO-ST:

Valentin REYNAUD (SensiTips project) is developing a new generation of instruments capable of quantifying forces that were previously inaccessible to human perception. These instruments are based on ultra-sensitive MEMS sensors and high-precision robotics.
The goal of SensiTips is to enable the precise measurement of forces on a very small scale, thereby meeting the growing needs of cutting-edge fields such as robotics, microtechnology, and life sciences.

Contact : valentin.reynaud@femto-st.fr

Gaultier GIBEY ( SupervHyse project – Hydrogen system maintenance) offers a predictive maintenance software tool dedicated to hydrogen systems, which monitors equipment status in real time and predicts the optimal date for intervention, much like a doctor monitoring a patient. The result is a longer service life, enhanced reliability, and lower maintenance costs.

Contact : gaultier.gibey@femto-st.fr

These two projects are supported by PUI BFC, la SATT SAYENS and the Researcher-Entrepreneur Program In the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté Region

Our two winners this year join the list of four previous winners in 2019 (Maya Geagea – micro fuel cell and Gael Matten – programmable noise absorption systems), in 2021 (Giacomo Clementi – vibration energy recovery through piezoelectric effect) and in 2023 (Julien Dufourmantelle – acoustic sensor for online monitoring of milk coagulation).

Our six winners thus illustrate the diversity of skills and innovative capabilities present at FEMTO-ST.

Detecting problems of the anti-bleeding system of patients in 60 minutes
Researchers from FEMTO-ST institue and the Universitiy of Geneva have developed an innovative device that investigates a patient’s platelet capacity in near real-life conditions so that bleeding can be stopped.
Read more
Focus on the european MiMédi project
On Tuesday 11 June 2019, the teams of the FEMTO-ST Institute and the EFS Bourgogne-Franche-Comté will present, in the presence of representatives of the regional district, an important European research project on regional smart specialisation. Bringing together 10 industrial and academic partne
Read more
The W. G. Cady Prize awarded to Serge GALLIOU at the IEEE IFCS 2019
This award recognizes Serge Galliou's exceptional and pioneering contributions in the development of cryogenic acoustic resonators with extremely high quality factors (very low mechanical losses) for sensor, oscillator or fundamental physics applications.
Read more
Closure of the S3-4AlpClusters project
The final conference of the S3-4AlpClusters project was held in Venice on the 13th and 14th of March, in attendance of all the partners (including FEMTO-ST), observers, policy makers and members of the European Commission.
Read more
Two CNRS bronze medals for FEMTO-ST
Aude Bolopion (biomedical micro-nano robotics) and Nadia Steiner (fuel cell diagnostics) are awarded with the CNRS 2019 bronze medal for their promising research.

Each year, the CNRS bronze medals welcome some 40 young scientists whose career start is extremely promising
Read more
Best student paper award for Rémi Meyer
Remi Meyer got the best student presentation award at SPIE-Photonics West conference for his work on ultra-high aspect ratio Bessel beams. Shaping the beam of ultrafast lasers has become now an essential tool for ultra-high intensity laser-matter interaction.
Read more
Visit of the CNRS President to FEMTO-ST
Antoine Petit, CEO of the CNRS, was welcomed on February 11th at FEMTO-ST.

Read more
John Dudley awarded by the international Society of Optics and Photonics (SPIE)
He obtains the "SPIE Harold E. Edgerton" Award 2019 for pioneering applications based on ultra-short light pulses in optical fibers.
Read more
Jean-Antoine Seon : awarded with the 2nd national PHD prize in robotics
Jean Antoine was distinguished on November 22th at the CNRS headquarters for his pioneer international work on a micro robotic dextral hand.
Read more
Entrepreneurs-PhD Award : Second place for Vladimir Gauthier at the national level
Awarded for his « CellSelect project » he proposes a robot capable of improving the precision and speed of cell sorting in the field of innovative therapies.

His work is the result of research carried out of Biomedical Microrobotics Team of FEMTO-ST Institute.
Read more