Published on October 1, 2020 | Updated on February 2, 2023

Blaise Pascal Foundation

The Blaise Pascal Foundation is a national foundation whose mission is to promote, support, develop and sustain scientific mediation initiatives in mathematics and computer science for all citizens. Its actions focus on women and young people who face social and geographical disadvantages.

In november 2016, it was created under the aegis of the Foundation for the Université de Lyon now called the Innovation and Transitions Foundation. Its founders are the Institut national de recherche en informatique et en automatique (Inria), the CNRS and the Université de Lyon.

The Foundation’s ambition is to change perceptions of mathematics and computer science by stoking young people's interest in these fundamental fields of knowledge and to place these disciplines at the heart of the training of the younger generations to anticipate the trades of tomorrow.

The Blaise Pascal Foundation has five major objectives:
  • Dispel social and gender stereotypes and prejudices, which prevent some young people from embarking on studies in computer science and mathematics;
  • Improve the general perception of formal sciences, by the general public and especially by young people in school, by making it easier to understand their impact, usefulness and vitality;
  • Increase the overall flow of students undertaking long-term studies in a scientific field;
  • Multiply the means by sharing resources and structuring the offers of mediation actors;
  • Reduce social and geographic disparities by improving the distribution of projects at the national level.
Find out more (FR)