© agsandrew

National research programme Light matter interaction (LUMA)

Light, omnipresent in our natural and technological environment, is the central focus of the LUMA programme. LUMA aims to study, understand and develop this unique tool as a means of exploring and controlling physico-chemical and biological systems. It brings together physics, chemistry, engineering, life sciences, health, heritage and the environment. LUMA will promote the emergence of green technologies, protection systems and the understanding and control of physico-chemical and biological systems on the ultimate scales of space and time.

  • Exploration national research programme
  • Programme leaders : CEA, CNRS
  • Programme directors :
    • Rémi Métivier - CNRS (Photophysique et Photochimie Supramoléculaires et Macromoléculaires - PPSM)
    • Catalin Miron - CEA
  • Allocated budget: €40m over 8 years

PEPR LUMA aims to exploit the unique properties of light to explore and control numerous physico-chemical and biological systems, at the interfaces between physics, chemistry, engineering, life sciences, health, heritage and environmental sciences.

LUMA's ambition is to unite groups of scientists around interdisciplinary projects encompassing the experimental and theoretical aspects of exploiting the interactions between light and matter. With the firm intention of transcending the boundaries of pre-established scientific communities and fostering the emergence of new, high-impact sciences, LUMA proposes a synergistic structure, based on major interdisciplinary scientific challenges, driving the entire LUMA implementation strategy:

  • Towards intelligent photoscience,
  • Photons for green technologies
  • Light to protect

To meet these major cross-disciplinary scientific, technological and societal challenges, which form the basis of the programme's objectives, and at the same time stimulate the emergence of new scientific knowledge through the cross-fertilisation of the LUMA community, several large-scale targeted or open actions will be implemented in the LUMA programme:

  • 2 targeted ‘Distributed Research Infrastructures’ projects: enabling the networking and management of user access to infrastructures:
    • ULTRAFAST, dedicated to time-resolved experiments in the attosecond to millisecond range and to the nanostructuring of matter
    • OPERANDO/PROTOTYPAGE, which brings together instruments for characterisation and analysis under operando conditions and equipment for the study and prototyping of photoactive materials.
  • 4 targeted ‘Moonshot Projects’ (MP), one for each theme:
    • Chirality
    • Photochemistry and materials
    • Energy and the environment
    • Health
  • Calls for projects to complement and develop thematic research activities, modelling and simulation, or joint instrument development.

As the European and international leader in the field of ‘harnessing light-matter interactions’, with three Nobel Prizes since 2016, France must maintain and consolidate its position, both academically and industrially. The CEA and the CNRS, leading organisations in these fields, are co-leading the programme and, in partnership with several higher education establishments, will use the resources requested to structure and channel the efforts of the scientific community towards selected high-impact subjects and to strengthen national research infrastructures at the highest international level.

PEPR LUMA website

PEPR LUMA LinkedIn page

For more information

PEPR LUMA : la lumière éclaire la recherche et les innovations de demain

Financé par le plan France 2030, le programme de recherche LUMA vise à exploiter les propriétés de la lumière pour explorer et contrôler de nombreux systèmes physicochimiques et biologiques. Les débouchés, prometteurs, sont nombreux : technologies vertes, systèmes de protection, santé...

Audiodescription