From the institutional plan, which will carry our ambitions forward for the next ten years, a number of projects have been selected to be part of the five-year contract.  This will soon be negotiated with the Ministry for Higher Education and Research. UPS is already on the move: we switched to the Extended Responsiblities and Competence (responsabilités et compétences élargies) regime a year ago; a new culture of self-assessment and quality is taking root in the university; communal efforts are being made in each field; target and resource contracts will be signed this year with all of the component entities, extending their responsibilities for the overall functioning of the university. AERES, the evaluation agency for research and higher education, recently rated our courses, laboratories and establishment as excellent. We were therefore able, with our founder partners of PRES (Pôle de Recherche et d'Enseignement Supérieur - Higher Education and Research Cluster ) and research bodies, as well as with commercial operators, to tender for funds from the government's Grand Emprunt fund for the future.

A number of projects will be initiated this year: the campus plan to restore our buildings, with a view to becoming an Ecocampus; the creation of a new component entity, grouping the Science Department together as a single Science and Engineering Department, with its own internal School of Engineering; restructuring research into four clusters and one axis, governed by statutes and with close ties to the different departments; assigning 4 subject areas to UPS: Science, Technology, Health and Sports, which will make the future Federal University of Toulouse more visible; action by our university and PRES to create a research and higher education roadmap for the Midi-Pyrénées region.

The success of these projects depends on the participation of all those involved, staff and students. This is what the leadership here at UPS will strive for on behalf of our University.