A rich community life
Institute Imagine is proud to have a very active community life. The Imagine Young Researchers Association (YR2I) and Imagine Sport Association (ISA) organize various scientific, social and sport events throughout the year, which helps to create connections and promote interactions.
Imagine Institute’s Young Researchers Association (YR2I)
It groups together more than a hundred Masters students, PhD students, post-docs, engineers, technicians and administrative staff.
It aims to promote scientific and social events, while preparing the professional future of its members: monthly seminars for PhD students, invitation of renowned researchers for weekly seminars, professional breakfasts, annual Young Researchers Congress, monthly afterworks, etc.
The aim of YR2I is to support young researchers throughout their journey at Imagine, meaning to help them grow scientifically and socially by helping them to integrate within Imagine and the scientific community. But we also want to help them to develop their skills and their vision for their career. We also aim to take part in the common effort wanting to create a place of unity at Imagine through moments of high quality scientific interactions in an inviting and friendly atmosphere
Imagine Sport Association (ISA)
ISA aims to promote sport and interactions within Imagine Institute.
By creating the Sport Association, we hope to make sport affordable, practical and above all fun. For only €20 a year, you can take part in various classes for all levels, sport and social events both in and out of the Institute, and benefit from discounted rates for races. These classes and events contribute to the physical and mental well-being of members of the Institute, they contribute to internal cohesion by creating meetings and connections in a relaxed, friendly and informal context, to the quality of life at Imagine and therefore, to the quality of research
A place conducive to scientific competition
Institut Imagine is a place for scientific enrichment and openness, an attractive and stimulating environment.
Throughout the year, members of the Institute benefit from scientific seminars and lectures organized within the Imagine conference center. A place for scientific and community activities, every year it hosts about 40 scientific seminars and symposiums open to the outside world.
Since its founding, Imagine Institute has not stopped encouraging interactions between researchers, doctors, PhD students, engineers and support staff. For that reason, there are several places to make it easier to share experiences and have discussions, helping to tackle issues in an informal and flexible way while being taken into account by management.
Researchers café
Thanks to this monthly meeting, we can meet a large number of Imagine researchers, share information about the institute and platforms and find out about all the facilities available to us. These discussions are informal. This café gives rise to discussions about tutors for PhD students in order to support them, as well as an overview of all equipment to identify needs and point out obsolete technologies.
Post-docs café
The post-docs café was created in December 2018 on the initiative of 4 post-docs. “This new monthly meeting came from the observation that as post-docs, we did not have the same problems as PhD students and researchers, stated Audrey Desgrange, one of the initiators of this “café”. And therefore our needs were not the same”.
In addition to facilitating meetings and interactions between post-docs, these cafés provide information on funding methods dedicated to post-docs, advice to apply in research organizations. “Each session is of course an opportunity to discover the work of one of our colleagues through a scientific presentation, adds Audrey. But above all, it is a unique moment to share about specific topics”.
Unique, the same word that Audrey used when she talked about Imagine. She did her thesis in a university laboratory and within Imagine, she found a young institute, driven by a positive spirit.
“Interactions are easier at all levels and in particular the management, which hugely facilitates the implementation of projects like this post-docs café, which brings together about twenty very motivated people every month, with a sense of family, which perfectly characterizes the Institute” she emphasizes.
ITA café
The last of these places of interaction to come into being at the initiative of the elected ITA: the ITA café, facilitating interactions between engineers, technicians, administrative staff, support services staff, but also to distribute practical and institutional information.
Favoring quality of life at work
One of Imagine’s priorities is the quality of life at work, an essential condition in the development of people and laboratories. All associations and meetings above come within the scope of this approach. Imagine endeavors to put in place conditions and actions to improve the quality of working life, to support individual development to the full.
Collaboration, work in and between teams, sharing skills and knowledge, all contribute to an environment of excellent
Working together for a collective cause, which goes beyond individual interests, for public health and to cure children
Imagine, it has a young, pioneer, innovative, enthusiastic spirit
It emphasizes solidarity, cooperation, kind of like a family spirit