This is immediately obvious when you meet Jenny Benois-Pineau, a researcher at the Bordeaux Computer Science Research Laboratory (Labri - CNRS, Inria, Bordeaux INP and University of Bordeaux), more specifically within the image and sound department. Her team works on data processing and analysis, using "artificial intelligence (AI) methodologies to automate the process of recognising objects, events, actions and people in visual flows". When she describes her work, Jenny Benois-Pineau sounds like a real storyteller, with a sparkle in her eye and a playful voice. She talks with infectious enthusiasm about the sensors, trackers and "egocentric" videos that fuel her research, and about the emergence of deep neural networks, which have revolutionised AI in recent years and, by extension, its fields of application within the Labri.

The difficult "work/life" balance

This passion for research is an essential propellant in a profession that tends to spill over into private life. Jenny Benois-Pineau acknowledges this without bitterness, after a career spanning more than 30 years: "Between my teaching responsibilities and my administrative functions as international relations officer for the College of Science and Technology, as well as my involvement in the editorial boards of various journals, I have to be vigilant to keep as much time as possible for research - because I feel that I am a researcher first and foremost! This has meant a few sleepless nights during my career, and a lot of weekends at work. You need an understanding family."

Aldo Sottolichio shares the same view. For his part, he regrets that administrative tasks and procedures are becoming increasingly time-consuming, despite the fact that the University of Bordeaux has set up services to help researchers cope with these constraints. This oceanography researcher in the Environments and Paleo-environments of the Oceans and Continents (EPOC - CNRS, INP, EPHE and University of Bordeaux) laboratory is also its deputy director: "We work on virtually all environmental issues. We have geologists specialising in the study of the seabed and paleoclimates, chemists studying water and air quality, biologists researching fauna and the biological processes of living organisms, ecotoxicology, and then there are physicists working on waves, coastal erosion, sediments and so on. I personally specialise in coastal and estuary morphology."

Research "in transition"

Aldo Sottolichio begins by highlighting the paradox facing the researchers in his laboratory: in order to study the environment, they are forced to disturb it. "Of course, we try to limit our impact on ecosystems as much as possible. In my specific field of physics, we can rely on remote observation resources - video systems, drones, satellites - but none of these resources are harmless, and their use produces waste. It's quite inextricable". The increased awareness of the challenges of environmental transition is precisely one of the notable developments in the research profession in recent years. The EPOC laboratory, like many others on the Bordeaux site, has signed the "Labs in transition" charter (in French), promoted by the University of Bordeaux and co-constructed with its scientific partners.

Although he believes the charter to be virtuous, Aldo Sottolichio was initially a little taken aback by the way in which environmental and societal issues are linked together in the same document. The researcher is concerned about a new layer of administrative constraints that could be added to the previous ones, "such as maintaining additional indicator tables, which will take up a lot of time". But he concedes that this move is "in the right direction". He also acknowledges that while this "transition" will require some effort on the part of his generation of fifty-somethings, the next generation will have fully integrated it by the time they embark on their research careers, in a scientific world that is perhaps more mixed and inclusive, less polluting and more energy-efficient, and even more ethical than it is today.

Research that is more virtuous in the way it is conducted, but which is also increasingly open to society. Vanessa Desplat is a lecturer-researcher in haematology. She teaches pharmaceutical science students and is a member of the Bordeaux Oncology Research Institute (BRIC - Inserm and University of Bordeaux). As part of the university's Biological and medical sciences department, she contributed to the design and organisation of an "open day" in November 2023 to show the general public what goes on behind the scenes in biological and medical research. "We were hoping to have 200 participants, thinking that it would already be a success, and in the end we welcomed 860 people! We had to adapt and come up with laboratory visits on the spur of the moment, which was extremely stimulating. We all pulled together and that created lasting cohesion between all the staff involved, doctoral students, lecturers, engineers, assistants, technicians, etc.".

Carrying out research also means travelling, and sometimes going abroad. Nicolas Hérault is a professor of economics and a researcher at the Bordeaux School of Economics (BSE - CNRS, Inrae and University of Bordeaux). His studies took him from a university degree in mathematics applied to the social sciences to a Master in financial engineering, followed by a DEA in development economics. At this stage, the young man was not yet destined to become a lecturer-researcher, but as one of the top three students in his promotion, he was offered a research grant which shaped his destiny and led him to complete his thesis, part of which was in Australia. He then spent 15 years there, at the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, before returning to the University of Bordeaux two years ago.

His research focuses on "the evaluation of income inequalities in relation to fiscal and social policies - in other words, tax or benefit reforms: I am particularly interested in the effect of these policies on people's behaviour". This subject, which is often at the heart of the news, through the issue of taxes or the revaluation of the minimum wage, leads him to be regularly interviewed by the media. This is a delicate exercise for a researcher who often spends four or five years analysing the objective, quantified consequences of a public policy, only to find himself called upon to give a concise, definitive opinion, potentially serving as fuel for a superficial debate, if not a polemic. This is the risk associated with their discipline, which can be used as a reference grid for a multitude of societal issues: "economists like to venture into a little bit of everything; there are economists of sport, health, the ECB's monetary policies, household budgets and children's education...".

The absence of routine

When asked about the typical week of a researcher, Nicolas Hérault makes the same observation as his colleagues: "in research, there is no routine: I can spend one week writing computer code and running programmes on data, another reading scientific articles to find out more about a specific question, and yet another writing when my research on a subject is fairly advanced...". Behind him, on his computer, lines of numbers scroll endlessly. His research requires skills in database processing and analysis, estimation and the development of economic models. One of the developments that has had the greatest impact on his field in recent years is "access to huge administrative databases, sometimes covering an entire population, thanks to the development of increasingly powerful IT tools and a change in attitude on the part of public authorities".

Another significant and more disturbing change is the need to constantly seek funding. Not a pleasant prospect for researchers who prefer to devote themselves to their core activities. François Moisan is happy to talk about this, having spent three years at Stanford University in California, where "the influx of private funds into research is not taboo". The job of this skin cancer researcher at the Bordeaux Institute of Oncology (BRIC - Inserm and University of Bordeaux) is a little atypical in its administrative framework, in that it is financed by the university's own funds, thanks to the royalties generated by the licence to exploit a drug discovered and patented a few years ago by the University of Bordeaux, with the help of Aquitaine Science Transfert. François Moisan was recruited as a result of this discovery, "to understand the mechanisms of this drug, which acts on infantile haemangiomas, and to see how it could be applied to other anti-tumour strategies".

Trained as a general practitioner in Paris, this adventurer preferred to travel with the Red Cross to the Congo and Cambodia before returning to France, in Bordeaux, to complete his training in public health. Armed with his two theses and 25 years' professional experience, Olivier Marcy brings his expertise to the health issues faced by developing countries. In his "dry lab", as he describes it - meaning "no lab bench and no tubes" - he works on data collected in these countries to help local researchers and public authorities develop health programmes, such as the detection of tuberculosis in children. His recommendations and those of his colleagues feed into and influence the recommendations of the World Health Organisation.

So although he works remotely, he still travels regularly - this summer to Zambia and Mozambique. "I keep my travel to a minimum, for the sake of my family and my ecological footprint, but meeting our partners on the ground is irreplaceable. Things move faster and more efficiently when we have lunch together and talk face to face". Olivier Marcy is a good example of the interweaving of supervisory bodies that characterises university research: in his laboratory at the heart of the campus, he is paid by the French National Research Institute for Sustainable Development (IRD) and works alongside colleagues from Inserm, the University of Bordeaux, Bordeaux University Hospital and NGOs. Although he is not a lecturer-researcher in the strict sense of the term, he does teach in some Master programmes and supervises students preparing their theses. Despite not being administratively attached to the University of Bordeaux, Olivier Marcy readily admits his attachment to the institution. "I'm proud to work at the university, a place where knowledge is crystallised and constantly updated through research".