ESPCI Paris has set up a tradition of excellence in research, with distinguished faculty that have contributed to its history, such as Pierre and Marie Curie, Paul Langevin, Frédéric Joliot-Curie, Pierre-Gilles de Gennes, and Georges Charpak. The five Nobel laureates in this list are emblematic of the exceptional ethos embodied in the permanent culture of excellence at ESPCI Paris.

ESPCI Paris hosts 10 research units, all associated with CNRS and/or INSERM and/or other Parisian Universities in the form of joined research units, covering the fields of physics, chemistry, and biology. Favouring interdisciplinary, and operating at the frontiers between fundamental research and innovation, are two major objectives of ESPCI Paris. This is achieved through a flexible organization (without departments) that ensures a cross-fertilization between scientific disciplines, as well as a direct connection between basic science and applications.

One of ESPCI’s distinctive features is that it carries out fundamental research into areas of major interest to industry while developing various approaches to practical industrial problems through the deep, fundamental understanding of the mechanisms at play. Performing fundamental research while keeping an eye on applications enables ESPCI research scientists to make an impact at multiple levels.

Scientists at ESPCI Paris publish more than one scientific paper a day, and at the same time apply for one patent a week and create several technology-driven start-ups every year - over the last 10 years. ESPCI has a long experience in the management of European projects. With a large place for collective guidance as part of the management inside the consortium, the organization will provide strong administrative support to such projects, with dedicated staff on financial, legal, and administrative issues.

ESPCI is also a part of Paris Science et Lettres (PSL) University – an ambitious collaboration project of 26 research institutions in a broad range of disciplines from engineering, chemistry and oncology to economics, management, the humanities and the performing arts.

The IMAP, a joint CNRS ENS ESPCI unit created at the end of 2016 (and previously the Porous Solids Team at Institut Lavoisier de Versailles) and composed of 9 staff members and ca. 20 PhD or post-doc research assistants, is one of the world leaders in the synthesis, structural characterization, and applications of porous MOF solids with more than two hundred reported new porous solids within the last decade.

It has developed a well-established expertise in the hydro/solvothermal synthesis and structure determination using when required computer modelling, of new porous MOFs. This know-how has been developed in conjunction with the understanding of their formation mechanism through the development of in or ex-situ studies (solid-state NMR, X-ray diffraction, PDF...) and the identification of the inorganic or hybrid building units present in solution.

The group also developed a large network of collaborations to deeply characterize these hybrid solids (in-situ PXRD, IR, Raman as well as Mössbauer spectroscopies, molecular simulation...) as well as study their properties in several strategic and/or societal domains of application (greenhouse gases sorption, liquid-phase separation, CO2 conversion, magnetism, lithium-ion insertion, proton conductivity, water remediation, drug delivery, thin films...) including H2 production since very recently.

The IMAP, a joint CNRS ENS ESPCI unit created end of 2016 (and previously the Porous Solids Team at Institut Lavoisier de Versailles) and composed of 9 staff members and ca. 20 PhD or post-doc research assistants, is one of the world leaders in the synthesis, structural characterization and applications of porous MOF solids with more than two hundred reported new porous solids within the last decade. It has developed a well-established expertise in the hydro/solvothermal synthesis and structure determination using when required computer modelling, of new porous MOFs. This know-how has been developed in conjunction with the understanding of their formation mechanism through the development of in or ex-situ studies (solid state NMR, X-ray diffraction, PDF...) and the identification of the inorganic or hybrid building units present in solution. The group also developed a large network of collaborations to deeply characterize these hybrid solids (in-situ PXRD, IR, Raman as well as Mössbauer spectroscopies, molecular simulation...) as well as study their properties in several strategic and/or societal domains of application (green-house gases sorption, liquid phase separation, CO2 conversion, magnetism, lithium ion insertion, proton conductivity, water remediation, drug delivery, thin films...) including H2 production since very recently.

The CNRS is the largest public research organisation in France, accounting for around 1 100 research units (either joint or not) throughout the country. As a multidisciplinary institution, it covers all fields of scientific research driving various programmes and actions designed to address society and industry expectations. Most particularly, CNRS has the following missions: i) to evaluate and carry out all research capable of advancing knowledge and bringing social, cultural, and economic benefits for society, ii) to contribute to the application and promotion of research results, iii) to develop scientific information, iv) to support research training and v) to participate in the analysis of the national and international scientific climate and its potential for evolution in order to develop a national policy. In MOF2H2, the CNRS involves three different academic labs: the #Institut Charles Gerhardt Montpellier (ICGM) (www.icgm.fr) , the #Catalysis and Spectrochemistry Laboratory of Caen (LCS) (https://www.lcs.ensicaen.fr/en/) and the Institut des Matériaux Poreux de Paris - (IMAP) (https://www.chimie.ens.fr/recherche/laboratoire-imap/imap/) with expertise encompassing from the synthesis and the advanced characterisations to the computational studies of porous solids.