Launched in 2024, the research program Mathematics in Interaction for Life, the Environment and Society — also known as PEPR Maths-Vives (PEPR standing for "Priority Research Programs and Equipment") — is part of the France 2030 investment plan and aims to advance knowledge on major societal issues and foster interaction across these areas. Led by the CNRS, this wide-ranging program brings together scientists — both men and women — from different fields around a shared goal: developing mathematics for modeling, analysis and simulation in the service of life sciences, the environment and society.
At the heart of contemporary challenges
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Through this program, mathematics becomes the meeting point where fields such as biology, climatology, geography and the social sciences converge. With a budget of €50 million, this research program aims to place mathematics at the heart of the scientific process, not as an isolated discipline, but as a dynamic force in constant interaction with the major challenges of our time.
Arnaud Guillin, director of the program and scientific director at the Institut national des sciences mathématiques et de leurs interactions (Insmi), sums up its philosophy: "The goal of the Mathematics in Interaction research program is to bring mathematics into dialogue with other disciplines in order to innovate around contemporary challenges."
The key word here is "dialogue." Mathematics is no longer just a tool serving other disciplines. It becomes a partner, even a catalyst, within a multidisciplinary research framework, where theory and experimentation enrich one another. In other words, mathematics no longer simply equips the sciences — it becomes a co-author of their advances.
