About La Synapse

Deeptech is a term used to describe cutting-edge technologies based on scientific and technological innovations with the potential to break new ground in their field of application. Unlike traditional technology, which focuses primarily on improving existing products and processes, deeptech aims to create innovative new products and services that breakthrough current technological boundaries; it is often associated with long-term research and development, longer funding cycles and greater time-to-market challenges than traditional technology.

Deeptech is therefore a continuation of scientific research. This is why the Embassy of France’s Office for Science and Technology (OST), which is responsible for scientific diplomacy, has made deeptech diplomacy one of its core missions, through a structure dedicated to accelerating deeptech on the transatlantic axis: La Synapse.

La Synapse’s mission is to promote France as a leading innovation ecosystem in the United States, and to contribute to the efforts to promote the France 2030 plan; it aims to build bridges between deeptech communities on both sides of the Atlantic, and foster international cooperation in the fields of disruptive innovation, to help solve major global challenges such as climate change, pandemics and food security.

La Synapse’s ambition is to enrich French deeptech with entrepreneurial know-how, scientific talent and international perspectives, in partnership with transatlantic leaders of innovation ecosystems and institutions such as Bpifrance, La French Tech, Team France Export and Choose France.

La Synapse bridges the gap between research and entrepreneurship, science and technology, France and the United States, to reveal France’s technological potential and position it as the partner of choice for innovators in North America.

In concrete terms, La Synapse’s action is based on the OST experience of over twenty years in supporting technological innovation at the frontier between research and entrepreneurship. Through its programs, New Technology Venture Accelerator (NETVA), Young Enterprise Initiative (YEi) and French American Innovation Days (FAID) the OST has had a significant impact on transatlantic links in the areas of academic research, technology development and science-based entrepreneurship. The NETVA program, launched in 2010, has supported 202 French deeptech startups, stemming from scientific research or backed by research laboratories, in their quest for best practices for technology transfer and international perspectives. Conversely, between 2005 and 2020, the YEi program attracted nearly 200 foreign talents to France to discover its innovation ecosystem. Since 2001, the FAID program has been creating synergies between transatlantic researchers, entrepreneurs and industrialists. Building on the positive track record of these programs and its network of more than 1,400 French and Francophile professors, researchers, scientists, entrepreneurs and executives across the United States, the OST aims to bring together its activities of support for deeptech innovation within La Synapse, around 4 training, immersion and networking programs, relying on 3 major assets: an exceptional human capital, key geographical locations and strategic thematic competencies.