In April 2011, the Institut Lagrange de Paris “Laboratoire d’Excellence” (LabEx - “Laboratory of Excellence”), managed by the IAP, was created as part of a national program to enhance future investments in the sciences and other research disciplines.

The Institut Lagrange de Paris (ILP) LabEx works at the intersection between theoretical physics, particle physics, astrophysics and cosmology. It offers an opportunity to understand physics of the Universe by using the combined knowledge and constraints of each of these disciplines. Recent developments enable us to better grasp the properties of our Universe and its content, emphasizing the importance of two major components: dark energy and dark matter, whose unknown nature remains one of the greatest challenges in physics today. Observational, experimental and theoretical projects led by this LabEx will enable researchers to pinpoint fundamental physical laws of the origin and evolution of the Universe and its constituents.

The LabEx project needs that the various disciplines share their expertise, drawing from common tools of numerical simulations and data analysis.

The core of the ILP is made up of three labs within the UPMC and the CNRS: the Institut d’Astrophysique de Paris (IAP), the Laboratoire de Physique Nucléaire et des Hautes Energies (LPNHE - “Nuclear Physics and High-Energy Laboratory“), the Laboratoire de Physique Théorique et des Hautes Energies (LPTHE - “Theoretical Physics and High- Energy Laboratory”).

Two other institutions complete the LabEx: the Fédération de Recherche Interactions Fondamentales (FRIF - “Federation for Research Fundamental Interactions”), and the Institut Henri Poincaré, which provides international expertise in physics and mathematics, as well as facilities to organize and host academic courses and international colloquia. Two other research groups are also associated to the ILP: François Combes’s group (LERMA, Observatoire de Paris, UPMC, CNRS) and Gabriele Veneziano’s group, professor and chair of the “Elementary Particles, Gravitation and Cosmology” department at the Collège de France.

The ILP prepares new generations of researchers thanks to a scientific training program and an international schools program. These initiatives attract the most talented students within this highly-advanced science. Annual international conferences, as well as foreign professors’ regular visits, enhance these projects.

By ministerial decree on November 2011, Laurent Vigroux was once again named director of the Observatoire Institut d’Astrophysique de Paris of the Université Pierre et Marie Curie, for a second five-year term.