In the presence of the IMREDD team and numerous institutional and industrial partners, and with a video message from the Minister of Higher Education, Frédérique Vidal, the outgoing director of 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 University.

Eric DUMETZ, an expert in automatic control, was an associate professor at Polytech-Université des Sciences et Technologies de Lille from 1997 to 2007, overseeing the Professional Master's degree in mechanical engineering and sitting on the adjudication panel 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 played a role in developing relationships between businesses and the «research-education-innovation» knowledge triangle, before being seconded to 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 President of the Fondation Partenariale Université Côte d’Azur.