AI Grand Est ENACT – Making Eastern France a European Leader in Artificial Intelligence

Have you heard about the new Grand Est AI cluster ENACT ? This ambitious project aims to make the Grand Est Region a European leader in artificial intelligence. How? By structuring ecosystems for training, research, and innovation.

The Grand Est AI cluster ENACT is led by the University of Lorraine, in partnership with the University of Strasbourg, Inria, CNRS, Inserm, the Nancy University Hospital (CHRU), and the Strasbourg University Hospitals.
Supported by France 2030, it has a budget of €30 million managed by the National Research Agency (ANR) for a period of 5 years (2024–2029), supplemented by funding from the ERDF fund, the Grand Est Region, the Métropole du Grand Nancy, the Eurométropole Strasbourg, and the Eurométropole Metz.

Update 2026

One year after its launch, ENACT is delivering on its promises. The AI cluster now counts 9 research chairs—halfway to the 18-chair target—and 17 funded PhD theses, showing strong momentum toward its 2030 goals.

ENACT has joined AI Factory France, secured European (FEDER) support, and is opening calls for new international chairs. Training programs are expanding to double AI graduates from 2,500 per year, and a 12-engineer team is being built to accelerate research transfer.

These steps confirm ENACT’s ambition: responsible, sovereign AI with real impact for companies and territories in Eastern France.

Key Figures

Thanks to the support of the State, the Region Grand Est , the main cities in Eastern France as well as local authorities, this initiative – funded to the tune of €50 million over 5 years – was officially launched on January 1, 2025.

ENACT already has more than 2,500 students trained each year, nearly 200 researchers and research professors, and 50 companies – mainly from the Grand Est – supporting the project. The cluster’s goal is to double these numbers within 5 years by focusing on themes identified as differentiating strengths of the Grand Est:

• Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Generative AI (Multimodal LLMs)
• AI for Engineering and Scientific Discovery
• Digital Health

ENACT’s Challenges Over the Next 5 Years

With an annual budget of over €10 million, the main challenge of the AI Grand Est ENACT project is to create a sustainable and financially viable ecosystem that links training, research, businesses, and clinicians. This is a structuring project that involves transformations at the academic level, promoting interdisciplinarity around AI and the international influence of its projects.

Within 5 years, the project also plans to deepen new themes such as the use of AI in the fields of environment, geology, and cybersecurity.

Main Actions Undertaken Within ENACT

Increase the Number of Trained Students 

The project aims to double the number of trained individuals, particularly in AI university courses. It also plans to integrate AI into existing university courses, such as Chemistry, Biology, and Medicine. This also include time for reflections and experiments on pedagogical innovation and the evolution of educational content integrating AI.

Promote Transdisciplinary Research Around AI on the Strengths of the Region

 NLP and Multimodal LLMs

Research on the learning of large multimodal models and the trustworthiness of these models in research (ethics, confidentiality, etc.) will be on the agenda.

Use of AI for Engineering Scientific Discovery

Research will focus on AI capable of delivering interpretable results for discoveries in the fields of Biology, Molecular Chemistry, and Medicine. The teams will also lead some experiments with generative AI to accelerate R&D topics.

Digital Health

Research teams plan to research on the use of AI throughout the patient journey (diagnostics, imaging, surgery, etc.). Generative AI (LLM) will also help aggregate knowledge to support doctors in their clinical diagnoses. An evaluation of the clinical benefits of using AI will also be conducted.

Other Actions and Challenges

The objectives include hiring more PhD students to work on interdisciplinary topics. Another key goal is to recruit and secure nine external and permanent research chairs over the next five years.

Strengthen Links Between Academic and Economic Actors to Foster Innovation

 Under the coordination of the Polaris and PUI-A university innovation hubs, the AI Grand Est ENACT cluster aims to support and animate all academic and economic actors (companies, start-ups, competitiveness clusters, chambers of commerce and industry). The idea is to transfer academic research results to companies, thereby enabling new innovations to be deployed for the benefit of users.

In Conclusion

The AI Grand Est ENACT cluster will work to create a dynamic ecosystem around AI in Eastern France It will also ensure the strengthening of links between academic and economic sectors. This should foster innovations in Eastern France and transform the Region into a European leader in artificial intelligence.