In the presence of the IMREDD team and numerous institutional and industrial partners, and with a video message from the French Minister for Higher Education, Frédérique Vidal, the outgoing director of the IMREDD, Pr Pierre-Jean BARRE, handed over the baton on Friday 24 September to Dr Eric DUMETZ, the new director appointed by the President of the Université Côte d'Azur.

Eric DUMETZ holds a doctorate in automatic control and was an associate professor at Polytech-Université des Sciences et Technologies de Lille from 1997 to 2007, where he was responsible for the professional Master's degree in mechanical engineering and a member of the jury for the agrégation in mechanical engineering. He was Director of the École Nationale des Arts et Métiers in Lille from 2007 to 2013, where he was involved in developing business relations and the «research-education-innovation» knowledge triangle, before being seconded to the Université Côte d'Azur as Deputy Director of the Institut Méditerranéen du Risque, de l'Environnement et du Développement Durable. Since 2018, he has been Chairman of the Fondation Partenariat Université Côte d'Azur.