Definition
PIA 1 (Premier Programme d’Investissements d’Avenir — First Future Investments Programme) was France’s inaugural large-scale innovation investment program, launched in February 2010 with a budget of €35 billion, financed by the Grand Emprunt government borrowing operation. PIA 1 represented the first systematic attempt to use dedicated public investment — outside the annual budget cycle — to rebuild France’s innovation and research capacity through competitive grants, repayable advances, and equity investments in universities, research institutions, industrial demonstrators, and technology startups.
Role in France 2030
PIA 1 is the foundational program from which France 2030 directly descends. The institutional model PIA 1 established — competitive project calls evaluated by independent panels, operational execution through Bpifrance and ADEME, strategic oversight from an inter-ministerial coordinating body (the CGI) reporting to the Prime Minister — has been maintained intact through PIA 2, PIA 3, and France 2030.
PIA 1’s major investments across its seven focus areas (higher education and training, research, industrial filières, sustainable development, digital economy, health and biotech, and exceptional research infrastructure) seeded the research and institutional ecosystem that France 2030 is now scaling. Key PIA 1 investments include the Instituts de Recherche Technologique (IRTs — Technology Research Institutes) at Grenoble, Toulouse, Bordeaux, and other locations that merged industrial and academic research and became the predecessors of France’s current deep tech ecosystem hubs.
PIA 1 also established Bpifrance (through the merger of OSEO, CDC Entreprises, and FSI in 2012 that was enabled by PIA 1’s structural investments) as the primary vehicle for public innovation financing in France — creating the institution that now manages the bulk of France 2030’s operational activity.
Key Facts
- Budget: €35 billion (largest public investment program in France since postwar reconstruction)
- Financing: Grand Emprunt government bonds, 2010
- Duration: 2010–2016 (commitments made; projects ran to 2020+)
- Seven focus areas: higher education, research, industrial innovation, sustainable development, digital economy, health/biotech, exceptional research infrastructure
- Created Instituts de Recherche Technologique (IRTs): merged academic-industrial research institutes
- Contributed to creation of Bpifrance (2012) from OSEO + CDC Entreprises + FSI
- Launched i-Démo competition predecessor for large industrial demonstrators
Why It Matters
PIA 1 proved that France’s investment plan model was institutionally viable and politically durable. When the Socialist government of President Hollande won the 2012 election, it could have dismantled a program initiated by the center-right Sarkozy government — but chose instead to expand it with PIA 2. This continuity, repeated through every government change since 2010, demonstrates that France’s innovation investment model has achieved the cross-partisan legitimacy that makes it a reliable long-term institutional commitment.
For investors and companies engaged with France 2030 today, PIA 1’s legacy is everywhere: in the research institutions it funded, the companies it supported in their early stages, the competition formats it established, and the institutional actors (Bpifrance, ADEME, the SGPI) it helped create or strengthen. France 2030 is building on foundations that PIA 1 laid fifteen years ago.