Philippe Laredo is research director at Université Gustave Eiffel (UMR LISIS) and professor at the University of Manchester (AMBS, Manchester Institute of Innovation Research). He has been a co-director of the newly created French institute on research and innovation in society IFRIS), which was granted the status of ‘lab of excellence’ in 2011 (French Programme d’investissements d’avenir, PIA) and a co-founder of the new mixt research unit LISIS (between CNRS, INRA and UGE).