Since its creation, extending the initial strategic involvement of the Institut Francilien Recherche Innovation en Société (IFRIS), the LabEx “Science, Innovations, Technologies in Society” (SITES) has structured a strong research capacity to study different issues related to the relationships between science, technology and society, by connecting two research fields: Science and Technology Studies (STS) and Studies of Policy for Research and Innovation (SPRI). Our activities are fed by the cross-fertilisation of two specific scientific areas. This allows us to be very innovative and to occupy an original international position. More than ten years after grouping approximately 180 French researchers in the Paris Region (ten research units and soon two more to be added), we have made considerable advances in showing that knowledge production in the social sciences can be fruitful for action and policy without having to become an "instrumentalised social science". We engaged the necessary dialogue between researchers, decision-makers, and advocates and stakeholders of science and innovation. Labex SITES aims at sustaining a leading world-class research pole in the cross-disciplinary field of "Studies of Science, Technology and Innovation in Society", by providing French researchers with highquality support to foster research capacities in the social sciences. The Labex was instrumental in positioning French research at the international level, creating an attractive structure able to develop an original scientific production, a renewed research agenda and, above all, to nurture the next generation of researchers.