Mila and Inria Agree to Four Years of Joint AI Research and Student Exchanges

Researchers and graduate students at Montreal’s Mila and France’s Inria are set to gain new routes to work together. The institutes announced a four-year cooperation agreement on October 8, 2026, linking joint AI research with exchanges and shared student supervision. Their stated goal is scientific and technological progress grounded in responsible AI.

Shared projects, shared supervision

The agreement’s practical structure centers on bringing research and innovation teams together around shared scientific goals. The partners plan joint projects, exchanges in both directions and support for researchers and students moving between the institutions. They also intend to co-supervise master’s and PhD students, pursue publicly funded initiatives and launch joint innovation projects.

The institutions bring different organizational bases to that work. Mila is a Montreal nonprofit founded by Yoshua Bengio through a partnership between Université de Montréal and McGill University. It brings together close to 2,000 researchers and professionals. Inria, France’s national institute for digital science and technology, has 3,500 scientists, engineers and support staff and leads more than 300 research and innovation projects.

Developing open AI through international cooperation is not just a scientific mission—it is an economic imperative.

Valérie Pisano, President and CEO of Mila

From foundational learning to applied AI

The research agenda spans both the methods behind AI and the settings where the partners want to apply it. Foundational machine learning and agentic AI sit alongside evaluation and safety. The institutions also identify the societal and economic impacts of AI as a research priority, rather than limiting the agreement to technical development.

Other named research areas

• Science and health: AI research for scientific and healthcare applications.
• Energy and the environment: work on energy and environmental sustainability.
• Language, computer vision and robotics: research across these fields, alongside trustworthy and safe AI.
• Advanced computing infrastructure: another strategic area included in the cooperation.

Within that broad agenda, the partners say they will place particular emphasis on applied projects in quantum and AI, open source, and multilingual AI. These are stated priorities for future collaboration, not findings or completed projects presented with the agreement.

A route beyond the research institutes

The partnership’s ambitions extend to commercial activity. The institutions say the applied work can involve companies, foster scientific ventures, and support the creation and international growth of startups between Quebec and France. Those opportunities are part of the proposed research-to-innovation pathway; the announcement does not identify specific companies or startups participating in it.

Other Canadian and French organizations may also become involved as initiatives emerge. A joint Steering Committee will guide the partnership, track progress and identify new areas of mutual interest. That gives the agreement a continuing governance structure as the two institutions develop projects across its four-year term.