Université de Pau et des Pays de l'Adour
GREEN Graduate Program - Materials Inspired by Nature and for Energy and Sustainable Technologies (MINEST)Pau, France
DURATION
1 up to 2 Years
LANGUAGES
English
PACE
Full time
APPLICATION DEADLINE
Request application deadline
EARLIEST START DATE
Sep 2025
TUITION FEES
EUR 3,879 / per year *
STUDY FORMAT
On-Campus
* For detailed information about the tuition fees, please visit our website: https://formation.univ-pau.fr/en/admissions/enrollment-fees.html
Key Summary
Introduction
The 2022 class was sponsored by L'Oreal.
This master’s degree aims at offering an educational background connecting the laboratory environment and the living world while responding to ecological and sustainable transition challenges. Mimicking strategies elaborated by Nature represent infinite scientific and technological challenges. These challenges will be taken up through bioinspiration and biomimicry angles keeping in mind environmental awareness and ethics.
We offer our students a unique opportunity to explore and get inspired by living systems to develop novel materials. Our biomimetic approach focuses on cross-disciplinary courses that will make students reconsider how they elaborate syntheses, formulations, and processing of tomorrow’s materials as needed by the industrial partners to build our future society
In both the first and the second year of the master's, the students will be trained to draw inspiration from Nature through a biomimetic approach. This multidisciplinary approach, which resorts to both fundamental science and materials engineering, is based on the observation and comprehension of living organisms within their ecosystems. To succeed in this course, students will have to grasp abstract concepts to design biological models adapted to scientific and technological developments.
The teaching program, comprising lectures, supervised and practical work, and case studies, is primarily centered around student-based teaching strategies including Project-based learning. Entirely in English, teaching is performed by university lecturers and researchers as well as socio-professional stakeholders. The practical works and case studies take place in the laboratories of the Multidisciplinary Research Institute for the Environment and Materials (IPREM CNRS UMR 5254), using high-performance and cutting-edge equipment. Lectures are scheduled at the beginning of the training course to harmonize the basic knowledge of students originating from various educational backgrounds (biology, physics, and chemistry). Through this approach, we wish to develop the student’s soft skills to encourage autonomy and stimulate curiosity, creativity, and emotional intelligence. The primary objective is to train future young researchers with special know-how in collaborative thinking and able to drive bio-inspired research projects.
Assets
- Scholarships
- Training in English
- More than one-third of ECTS acquired in research
- Integrating research laboratories right from the 1st semester of M1
- Student-centered learning
- Multidisciplinarity (Chemistry, Physics, and Biology)
- Post-graduate studies with a Ph.D. thesis - if the criteria of excellence are recognized
- Tutorship and tailor-made programs: each student will have a tutor with whom he/she will build his/her curriculum related to his aspirations and research interests. The tutor will also help the student define a series of face-to-face or e-learning courses (up to 20 or 25% for the STEE GP) that s/he can easily keep up with.
Admissions
Curriculum
The teaching program, comprising lectures, supervised and practical work, and case studies, is primarily centered around student-based teaching strategies including Project-based learning. Entirely in English, teaching is performed by university lecturers and researchers as well as socio-professional stakeholders. The practical works and case studies take place in the laboratories of the Multidisciplinary Research Institute for the Environment and Materials (IPREM CNRS UMR 5254), using high-performance and cutting-edge equipment. Lectures are scheduled at the beginning of the training course to harmonize the basic knowledge of students originating from various educational backgrounds (biology, physics, and chemistry). Through this approach, we wish to develop the student’s soft skills to encourage autonomy and stimulate curiosity, creativity, and emotional intelligence. The primary objective is to train future young researchers with special know-how in collaborative thinking and able to drive bio-inspired research projects.
Objectives
- Prepare students at an advanced specialized level to meet present and future challenges by adopting the biomimicry philosophy
- Obtain basic and requisite knowledge in physics, chemistry, and biology
- Awake curiosity and inspire respect for living systems
- Develop environmental awareness
- Develop collaborative and open working skills
- Adhere to the principles of the living world in their scientific approach
- Adopt a biomimetic approach with materials from concept to development
- Develop engineering research skills to engage in quality and successful research,
- Prepare students for leading positions in industry and government Research and Development departments
Trainings:
- Master 1: A Minimum of 2 to 4 months of immersion in an academic or private research lab, in France or abroad.
- Master 2: Applied research project of at least a 6-month duration in an academic or private research lab.
| Master 1 Materials Science and Engineering: Bio-Inspired Materials | ||
| Semester 1 | ||
| Course Title | Course Description | ECTS |
| Mandatory courses | ||
| Elaboration of materials 1 | Organic materials/Polymers: Phases transition and different classes of polymerization | 2 |
| Biochemistry | Presentation of principal families of bio-inspired peptides: Cell Penetrating Peptides, Self-Assembled Peptides (Foldamers, Hydrogels, etc.), Peptidomimetics, Conotoxins, etc. Introduction to their applications in tissue engineering reconstruction, drug delivery, and therapeutic. Study of the solid-supported synthesis of bio-inspired peptides and their characterization/analysis. | 2 |
| Cell Biology | Cell structure and function: This course aims at recapitulating the main functions and roles of eukaryotic cell structures. Particular attention will be paid to pathways by which cells sense the environmental conditions and how they stimulate, according to conditions, anabolic or catabolic processes to maintain homeostasis. Finally, we will see how cells are capable to induce their own death by initiating a genetically programmed cell death pathway called apoptosis | 2 |
| Biomimicry | Introduction and awareness | 4 |
| Introduction to Polymer physics | Main polymer families and recycling | 2 |
| Materials analysis methods | Structural analysis, scattering techniques | 2 |
| Biomimicry approaches | Active pedagogy | 3 |
| French for foreigners or English as a Foreign language |
| 2 |
| Electives (10 ECTS) | ||
| The different types of materials and their properties | General introduction, synthesis and materials processing, properties, and applications | 2 |
| Environmentally sustainable chemistry:
|
| 3 |
| Composite materials 1:
|
| 2 |
| Project |
| 2 |
| Advanced part design | Fast prototyping, 3D printing | 1 |
| Master 1 Materials Science and Engineering: Bio-Inspired Materials | ||
| Semester 2 | ||
| Course Title | Course Description | ECTS |
| Mandatory courses | ||
| Global challenges ecological transition | Global Climate change (Climate Economics, Risk, Anthropocene...) | 2 |
| Thermodynamics macromolecular solution | Polymer solution physical chemistry | 2 |
| Materials chemistry in the lab |
| 2 |
| Elaboration of materials 2 | Sol-gel chemistry 2 ECTS Polymer chemistry 2 ECTS | 4 |
| Scientific communication | Communication | 2 |
| Characterization methods | NMR | 2 |
| Work and study internship |
| 3 |
| Carbon footprint and life cycle analysis |
| 2 |
| Project |
| 5 |
| French for foreigners or English as a Foreign language |
| 2 |
| ELECTIVES 6 ECTS | ||
| Physical chemistry of macromolecular solutions |
| 2 |
| Characterization methods | Microscopies | 2 |
| Analytical Chemistry | Molecular Mass spectrometry | 2 |
| Biochemistry |
| 2 |
| Master 2 Materials Science and Engineering: Bio-Inspired Materials | ||
| Semester 1 | ||
| Course Title | Course Description | ECTS |
| Mandatory courses (22 ECTS) | ||
| Materials for energy storage and conversion | Get Skills in materials and processes in the field of energy (from storage to conversion) in an industrial and environmental context | 4 |
| New materials | Emerging materials in relation to the original properties expected (block copolymers, polymer brushes, gels, sol-gel chemistry, interactive chemistry …) | 4 |
| Colloidal systems and surfactants:
| Basics of the physical chemistry of colloids | 4 |
| Polymers and the Environment | Chemical and physicochemical behaviors of natural polymers, their specific features, and potential applications. Behavior and properties of biomass materials | 2 |
| Introduction to biological soft matter | Polymers for the living organisms | 2 |
| Bio-inspired project | Student-based learning in the project mode | 6 |
| French for foreigners or English as a Foreign language |
| 2 |
| Electives (6 ECTS) | ||
| Biology | Plant biology and physiology | 2 |
| Nanocomposites and Nanomaterials:
| Nanomaterials composites | 4 |
| Adhesion & Adhesives |
| 4 |
| Composites based on bioresources |
| 2 |
| Master 2 Materials Science and Engineering: Bio-Inspired Materials | ||
| Semester 2 | ||
| Course Title | Course Description | ECTS |
| Internship | 6-month internship in a private or academic laboratory | 30 |
Gallery
Program Outcome
Interdisciplinarity and Research immersion in laboratories
In order to promote transversal and interdisciplinary activities, all the Graduate Programs proposed by GREEN are identically structured. In addition to the research training which represents 40% of a Master’s credits, the courses offered in each GP are a combination of common thematic culture courses in the field of Energy and Environment (Sustainability Science, Resilience Alliance, Ecological Economics and Political Ecology, Health & Ecotoxicology, Energy Law & Policy…..) and basic soft skills completed by fundamental and specialized disciplinary courses to fit with the research or topic of interest of the students.
Objectives
- Prepare students at an advanced specialized level to meet present and future challenges by adopting the biomimicry philosophy
- Obtain basic and requisite knowledge in physics, chemistry, and biology
- Awake curiosity and inspire respect for living systems
- Develop environmental awareness
- Develop collaborative and open working skills
- Adhere to the principles of the living world in their scientific approach
- Adopt a biomimetic approach with materials from concept to development
- Develop engineering research skills to engage in quality and successful research,
- Prepare students for leading positions in industry and government Research and Development departments
At the end of this program, the students in the «Materials Science and Engineering: Bio-Inspired Materials master’s degree” will be able to:
- Prepare innovative bio-inspired materials,
- Use surface and volume analytical techniques to achieve a sound command of materials characterization,
- Validate, interpret, and model experimental results,
- Write a report and communicate appropriately with experts,
- Produce quality research,
- Carry out a research project.
Scholarships and Funding
Scholarships
- Region Aquitaine Scholarships for non-EU students
- EIFFEL Scholarship of Excellence
- Specific Master's scholarship
Career Opportunities
Sectors
• Chemistry
• Energy (photovoltaic, batteries, fuel cells, artificial photosynthesis ..)
• Environment (non-polluting materials, pollution control materials, and storage…)
• Aeronautics (composite materials, surface treatments ...)...
• Building (thermal and sound insulating coatings ...)
• Cosmetics & life science
Fields
- Research and Development
Positions
- Project Manager
- Senior manager in design and development (design engineer)
- Senior manager in production (process engineer, production engineer)
- Senior manager responsible for quality operations or even production management
- Technical Director (R & D)
- Teacher-researcher (possible at the end of a doctorate.)