SMAI

What SMAI does

SMAI (Société de Mathématiques Appliquées et Industrielles) is a French learned society organized as an association Loi 1901 and recognized as being of public utility, headquartered at the Institut Henri Poincaré in Paris. Founded in 1983 and operating with a 26-employee secretariat plus a 24-member Board of Directors renewed by thirds annually, SMAI serves the French applied mathematics community — academic researchers, instructors, and graduate students working in numerical analysis, probability, optimization, signal/image processing, and mathematical biology — through five specialized thematic groups (SMAI-GAMNI, SMAI-MAS, SMAI-MODE, SMAI-SIGMA, SMAI-MABIOME).

Its core offerings are membership subscriptions (€55 annual base, with optional donation tiers ranging from a donateur at €30 additional to a grand bienfaiteur at €150 additional), major recurring conferences such as CANUM (National Numerical Analysis Congress) and CEMRACS (six-to-eight-week summer research session at CIRM Marseille), a portfolio of prestigious prizes (Prix Louis Bachelier jointly with the London Mathematical Society and Fondation Natixis, Prix Jacques-Louis Lions, Prix Marc Yor, Prix Demailly for open science), and grant programs for young researchers (BOUM projects, congress travel support, Forum Emploi Maths student grants). SMAI also operates the Opération Postes platform — the de facto recruitment-transparency system for French academic positions in mathematics sections 25, 26, 27, and 61 — together with the MOUVE geographic-mobility exchange service and a pan-European postdoctoral/ATER job board.

Revenue is generated from individual and institutional membership dues, tax-deductible donations (66% reduction for French taxpayers under Article 200 CGI), conference fees, and corporate/institutional sponsorships. Distribution is primarily community-led through the website (smai.emath.fr), email newsletters, conference participation, and partnerships with peer societies (SFdS, SMF, SIF, LMS). The technology base is a content and platform stack (SPIP CMS, Belenios electronic voting, web-based recruitment tools) rather than a proprietary software product; the durable asset is the community itself rather than code.

Name

SMAI

Legal name

Société de Mathématiques Appliquées et Industrielles

Website

https://smai.emath.fr

Company type

Private

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

SMAI is a French non-profit learned society (association Loi 1901, reconnue d'utilité publique) serving applied mathematicians through memberships, major conferences (CANUM, CEMRACS), prestigious prizes, young-researcher grants, and the Opération Postes academic recruitment platform.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Paris

HQ country

France

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Revenue model

1. Membership Dues: Annual membership fees from individuals and organizations: basic adherent 55€, adherent donateur 55€ + 30€ donation, adherent bienfaiteur 55€ + 90€ donation, adherent grand bienfaiteur 55€ + 150€ donation. Corporate/organization memberships also available.
2. Donations: Tax-deductible donations (66% tax reduction for individuals) supporting young researcher programs (BOUM projects, congress grants), SMAI prizes (Blaise Pascal, Jacques-Louis Lions, Marc Yor), and Ukraine support via PAUSE program.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

SMAI is a French learned society that delivers services to the applied mathematics community through tiered individual and corporate memberships, annual national and summer conferences (CANUM, CEMRACS), thematic working groups across numerical analysis, probability, optimization, signal/image processing, and life sciences, and a cluster of academic recruitment platforms including Opération Postes and MOUVE. The society also administers prestigious prizes (Prix Louis Bachelier, Prix Jacques-Louis Lions, Prix Marc Yor, Prix Demailly), funds grants for young researchers (BOUM projects, congress fellowships), and runs the Forum Emploi Maths career event.

Product overview

SMAI (Société de Mathématiques Appliquées et Industrielles) is a French scientific society (association Loi 1901, recognized d'utilité publique) dedicated to advancing applied mathematics through research support, industry applications, publications, education, and public outreach. Rather than a single product, SMAI operates as a membership organization offering tiered subscriptions, organizing major conferences (CANUM, CEMRACS), administering prestigious awards (Prix Louis Bachelier, Prix Jacques-Louis Lions), providing grant programs (BOUM projects), and operating recruitment platforms including Opération Postes for academic positions and MOUVE for geographic mobility exchanges. The society also supports thematic working groups covering specialized areas from numerical analysis to mathematical biology, and runs the Forum Emploi Maths career event. Revenue derives from memberships, corporate partnerships, donations (with 66% tax deductibility), and conference fees.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• CANUM: Congrès National d'Analyse Numérique - National Congress on Numerical Analysis, organized by SMAI and IRMAR (Université de Rennes)
• CEMRACS
• Opération Postes
• MOUVE
• M2AI

Quantifiable outcome

• Annual grants to young researchers totaling approximately 25k€
• +1 more outcomes

Segments1 record

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

Six partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• London Mathematical Society (LMS)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2026Joint awarding of the Prix Louis Bachelier, a prestigious international mathematics prize recognizing contributions to applied mathematics. Partnership with LMS and Fondation Natixis pour la recherche et l'innovation.
• SFdS (Société Française de Statistique)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaborating societies in the French mathematical community. Joint initiatives include the Prix Jean-Pierre Demailly and mutual support for academic initiatives.
• SMF (Société Mathématique de France)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaborating societies in the French mathematical community. Joint support for Opération Postes and other initiatives.
• SIF (Société Informatique de France)minorStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartner society supporting the Opération Postes initiative for academic recruitment.
• SAGIPminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerSupporting partner for Opération Postes initiative.
• ARDM (Association pour la Recherche en Didactique des Mathématiques)minorStrategic or Co-development PartnerSupporting partner for Opération Postes initiative.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Broad incumbents

• European Mathematical Society (EMS): Pan-European learned society covering all of mathematics; overlaps SMAI's role in conferences and prizes at a supranational level, serving as both partner and potential alternative affiliation for European researchers.
• American Mathematical Society (AMS): Largest US mathematical society with analogous membership, conferences, journals, and an academic recruitment platform (MathJobs); comparable structure but broader scope spanning pure and applied mathematics.
• International Mathematical Union (IMU): Global umbrella organization for mathematical societies; operates the ICM congress (which SMAI has publicly declined to attend in Philadelphia), setting the international agenda that national societies like SMAI align with.

Direct peers

• Société Informatique de France (SIF): Partner society on Opération Postes; comparable French learned-society model but focused on computer science, directly serving the same academic recruitment audience that SMAI covers for math.
• Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM): International applied mathematics society providing membership, conferences, prizes, and career services — the closest global analogue to SMAI's mission and product mix, though at much larger scale.
• London Mathematical Society (LMS): UK learned society for mathematics that co-awards the Prix Louis Bachelier with SMAI; mirrors SMAI's structure of memberships, prizes, and academic recruitment support in a parallel national ecosystem.
• Société Mathématique de France (SMF): Sister French learned society focused on pure mathematics; jointly organizes the Prix Demailly with SMAI and is listed as a partner on Opération Postes, sharing the same membership/conference/awards model for an adjacent mathematical subfield.
• Société Française de Statistique (SFdS): French statistics learned society that co-awards the Prix Demailly with SMAI; overlapping French academic audience and complementary scientific scope, sharing the same non-profit association model.

Regional players

• Association for Computing Machinery (ACM): Listed as a partner ('ACM.smai') on the SMAI website; the world's largest computing society, overlapping with SMAI-MABIOME and SMAI-SIGMA interests where applied mathematics meets computer science.

Others

• Institut Henri Poincaré (IHP): SMAI's Paris headquarters host and a leading French mathematics research institute; not a peer organization but a tightly coupled ecosystem partner providing physical infrastructure, scientific events, and overlapping research community.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/smai-maths

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about SMAI