IRCAM, the Institute for Research and Coordination Acoustic/Music, is one of the world’s largest public research center dedicated to both musical expression and scientific research. IRCAM is a unique location where artistic sensibilities collide with scientific and technological innovation. Frank Madlener has directed the institute since 2006. IRCAM's three principal activities - creation, research, transmission - are manifest in IRCAM's Parisian concert season, in the institute's annual festival, and in productions throughout France and abroad.

IRCAM is a major center of musical creation as well as being a production location and a unique residence for international composers. The institute's season is full of unique encounters with composers and artists from the contemporary stage and it supports contemporary composition with a commission policy. Numerous artist-in-residence programs result in the creation of multi-disciplinary projects (music, dance, video, theater and film).  Finally, the institute's annual festival, AGORA, makes contemporary music creation available to the public.

In the realm of music and sound, IRCAM is on the cutting edge of scientific and technological innovations. Research, carried out in partnership with several universities and international companies, covers a broad spectrum of scientific disciplines including acoustics, signal processing, computer science (languages, real-time, databases, man-machine interfaces) musicology, and musical cognition. IRCAM's scientific findings are often applied to other artistic domains (multimedia, fine arts, or live performances) as well as to diverse fields in the industrial world such as cultural industries, telecommunications, computer science, and transportation and automotive.

IRCAM is also a center for computer-music education. The institute is a reference point for professional training thanks to its Cursus program and workshops carried out in collaboration with researchers and composers from different countries. IRCAM's educational activities also include the general public and the institute has developed interactive teaching software programs in collaboration with the French Ministry of Education and music conservatories. IRCAM also offers a university-level program in collaboration with the University Paris VI. This master's program, ATIAM, concentrates on signal processing and information technology applied to music.

Since 2006, the institute's artistic policy has become the guiding principle for the institute. A series of reforms has invigorated artistic creation and technology as well as their transmission to the public. The concert season has been reformed with numerous co-producers and with new aesthetics. The Performing Arts Technology team has been reformed by moving it from a laboratory to musical and performance stages. The Cursus Program has been reformed by extending it to a two-year program and by working with new partners. The documentation of musical works has been reformed so that the transmission and continuity are assured. The "Compagnie IRCAM", a company that brings the IRCAM repertoire to stages in France and abroad has been created. Cultural outreach and an journal of the artistic creation carried out at the institute as well as other means of communication with the general public have also been put in place. These changes place IRCAM at the heart of a shared space.

Founded by Pierre Boulez, IRCAM is an institute under the aegis of the Centre Pompidou and the French Ministry of Culture. Since 1995, IRCAM and the CNRS have come together to form the mixed research laboratory (Sciences et technologies de la musique et du son - UMR 9912).