Yves Lévy, CEO of Inserm, has just been appointed President of the Aviesan, the French national Alliance for life sciences and healthcare. He succeeds André Syrota, the Institute's former CEO, who has occupied this post since Aviesan was created in 2009.

Aviesan arose from the desire held by major academic institutions involved in life science and healthcare research to strengthen their national coordination both at European and international level. Aviesan now has nine founder members and ten associate members. The Alliance is organised into two Multi-Organisation Thematic Institutes (ITMO), each providing scientific leadership in their respective field, irrespective of the institution to which the scientists involved belong.

Over these five years, the Alliance has been tasked with organising and coordinating the scientific programming of the French national agency for research in its themed field, promoting cross-disciplinary projects and transferring fundamental knowledge to their clinical applications, as well as encouraging the implementation of projects linking the academic and business worlds. Aviesan has also facilitated expert meetings, during health crises, in order to define the priority research areas in very short deadlines.