THE February 18 and 19, 2026THE Paris-Saclay Summit will hold its third edition at CentraleSupélecat the heart of the Paris-Saclay cluster. In less than three years, the event has established itself as a special event in the European landscape, not a showcase of innovation, but a space for debate on the strategic role of science in a world marked by geopolitical fragmentation, disinformation and technological competition.
Placed under the high patronage of the President of the Republic, this 2026 edition takes place in a particular context. Science is no longer approached as a simple engine of progress, but as a critical infrastructure: a condition of industrial sovereignty, decision-making capacity and democratic resilience.
Scientific rigor remains an essential counter-power.
This line runs through the entire program, from major interviews to thematic conferences, including debates on artificial intelligence, energy, climate, health, cybersecurity and quantum technologies. Here, science will be questioned, confronted, and sometimes put into tension with political, economic and societal issues.
Demanding programming
With more than a hundred international speakers and several dozen conferences, the 2026 program favors depth rather than spectacle. Nobel Prizes, Fields medals, directors of major research organizations, industrial leaders and international experts follow one another around structuring subjects: future of AI, dependence on digital infrastructures, energy transition, climate, health, disinformation, European strategic autonomy.
Will be present in particular Julie Galland, director of technological research at the CEA, Didier Queloz (Nobel Prize in Physics 2019), Edith Heard (CNRS gold medal 2024), Stéphane Mallat (CNRS gold medal 2025), Gaël Varoquaux (Inria, co-founder of scikit-learn) and Sasha Luccioni (Hugging Face, AI and climate), as well as Jean-Marie Tarascon (Collège de France, CNRS gold medal 2022), for exchanges focused on critical European research infrastructures, from artificial intelligence to data centers, and from semiconductors to quantum.
Scientific mediation as a strategic issue
Another unique feature of the Paris-Saclay Summit: the place given to scientific mediation. Middle and high school students are integrated into the heart of the system, through workshops, visits to large research infrastructures and meetings with doctoral students. The objective is to rebuild the link between science, youth and citizenshipat a time when scientific vocations are eroding and mistrust is increasing.
Why this is a meeting to follow for decision-makers
For business leaders, investors, public officials and innovation players, the Paris-Saclay Summit 2026 offers an observation point to grasp, for 2 days, the lines of fracture and convergence between science, industry, regulation and geopolitics.
Paris-Saclay Summit 2026
📍 CentraleSupélec, Gif-sur-Yvette
📅 February 18–19, 2026
🎟️ Free access, upon registration
