INRIA, the national institute for research in computer science and control, operating under the dual authority of the Ministry of Research and the Ministry of Industry, is dedicated to fundamental and applied research in information and communication science and technology (ICST). The Institute also plays a major role in technology transfer by fostering training through research, diffusion of scientific and technical information, development, as well as providing expert advice and participating in international programs. By playing a leading role in the scientific community in the field and being in close contact with industry, INRIA is a major participant in the development of ICST in France.

Throughout its six research units in Rocquencourt, Rennes, Sophia Antipolis, Grenoble, Nancy and Bordeaux-Lille-Saclay, INRIA has a workforce of 3,500, 2,700 of whom are scientists from INRIA's partner organizations such as CNRS (the French National Center for Scientific Research), universities and leading engineering schools. They work in 120 joint research projects. Many INRIA researchers are also professors whose approximately 950 doctoral students work on theses as part of INRIA research projects.

INRIA develops many partnerships with industry and fosters technology transfer and company foundation in the field of ICST — some sixty companies have been founded. Startups are financed in particular by INRIA-Transfert, a subsidiary of INRIA that supports four startup funds, I-Source 1 and I-Source 2 (information and communication technology), C-Source for multimedia and T-Source for telecommunications.

INRIA is participating in such standardization committees as the IETF, ISO or the W3C of which INRIA was the European host from 1995 to 2002.

INRIA maintains important international relations and exchanges. In Europe, INRIA is involved in ERCIM which brings together 18 European research institutes. INRIA is partnerin around 40 actions selected in FP6, mainly in the IST field. INRIA also collaborates with numerous scientific and academic institutions abroad (joint laboratories such as Liapunov, LIAMA, etc., associated research teams, training and internship programs).

INRIA has an annual budget of 135 million euros, 20% of which comes from its own research contracts and development products.

• French National Institute for Research in Computer Science and Automatic Control (INRIA), IRISA
• Institut National de Recherche en Informatique et en Automatique, Sophia Antipolis – Méditerranée