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18 Sep 2026

FDJ UNITED transmet l'application mobile Play for Plankton au fonds Explore pour accélérer la recherche océanographique

Entrusted by FDJ UNITED to the Explore endowment fund, the participatory science app dedicated to plankton is starting a new chapter. This autumn, a brand-new version will be on board We Explore for the Route du Rhum 2026.

Created three years ago at FDJ UNITED, the Play for Plankton mobile app has changed hands. The lottery and gaming operator has transferred the app to Kaïros, the mission-driven company that founded the Explore fund, so it can become a participatory science tool within Explore’s “Ocean & Society” programme.

This gives new momentum to a free app that turns a few minutes of spare time into a useful contribution to ocean research. And it is about to embark on its greatest adventure yet: from this autumn, it will be connected in real time to the instruments on board the catamaran We Explore, sailing in the Route du Rhum 2026 with skipper Roland Jourdain.

Explore

An app designed to make play useful

It all began at FDJ UNITED, as part of an intrapreneurship programme. A team of employees led by Jean-Guy Escolivet set themselves a challenge: to turn gaming into a lever for participatory science in service of the living world. This conviction gave rise, in late 2023, to Play for Plankton, a free, ad-free mobile game available in French and English on iOS and Android.

The concept is as simple as it is effective: players match images of plankton, marine micro-organisms invisible to the naked eye, collected during real scientific expeditions. This sorting, done by members of the public as they play, feeds into the work of the Villefranche Oceanographic Laboratory (Sorbonne University – CNRS), which studies the impact of climate change on marine ecosystems.

Since Play for Plankton was launched, players have already classified nearly 230,000 images. Just by having fun, anyone can help ocean research save time.

Explore

With Explore, a new adventure for Play for Plankton

As FDJ UNITED did not intend to run a participatory science app over the long term, the Group chose to transfer it to Kaïros, the mission-driven company founded by Roland Jourdain and Sophie Jourdain Vercelletto, who created the Explore fund.

Explore now operates the app in the public interest. A new version is being finalised, with a refreshed identity and a new sorting mechanism co-designed with scientific partners from the Villefranche Oceanographic Laboratory and the French National Museum of Natural History (MNHN).

A fresh start for Play for Plankton, which joins Explore’s “Ocean & Society” programme.

Isabelle Cesari Head of Corporate Purpose and Stakeholders, FDJ UNITED

“Play for Plankton was born at FDJ UNITED from a strong conviction: everyone can play a part in protecting the ocean while having fun. By putting gaming at the service of scientific knowledge, this project shows that it is possible to raise awareness and mobilise citizens around protecting the living world, an ambition at the heart of our Group’s environmental commitments.
Through its approach combining play, science and citizen engagement, Play for Plankton enables as many people as possible to contribute very concretely to preserving and restoring ecosystems. We are proud that Kaïros and the Explore fund can carry this vision forward and give Play for Plankton new momentum.”

Explore

Cooperating to protect the Ocean

The “Ocean & Society” programme rests on a simple conviction: given the scale of the challenges facing the ocean, no one can act alone.

Sailors, scientists, businesses and citizens each have a role to play and a legitimate place in this chain of cooperation, from sampling at sea to data processing and the sharing of knowledge.

Play for Plankton embodies this chain: what sailors collect at sea, citizens analyse from home, and scientists use to better understand, and therefore better protect, the oceans.

Explore

Participatory science, citizen science: what are we talking about ?

“Participatory science” refers to research projects built with the help of non-scientist volunteers, who help collect or analyse data alongside researchers. When this approach also aims to raise awareness and foster civic engagement, giving everyone the means to understand and act to protect their environment, we speak more broadly of “citizen science”.

In both cases, the idea is the same: scientific knowledge is no longer confined to laboratories. It is also built through the collective intelligence of thousands of citizens, each contributing in their own way.

Play for Plankton is a concrete example: in just a few minutes of play, anyone, wherever they are, genuinely contributes to advancing research on plankton, those little-known organisms that produce much of the oxygen we breathe and help regulate the planet’s climate.

Explore

The game as a starting point, never an end in itself

Above all, Explore shares one ambition: not to keep players behind a screen. Play for Plankton is not designed to capture attention time, but to be a gateway, a first step that makes people want to go outside, into nature, and see for themselves the invisible world they have just discovered on their phone.

The game sparks curiosity; it is then by the water’s edge, along coastal paths or on board We Explore, that this curiosity turns into knowledge and lasting commitment.

This ambition is fully in line with the Explore fund’s “Ocean & Society” programme, which since 2025 has brought together a unique think tank: the Explore fund, the Concarneau Marine Station (MNHN), the Villefranche Oceanographic Laboratory (Sorbonne University – CNRS), FDJ UNITED and the company FairScope.

Together, they pursue three goals: bringing to life scientific data that has long gone unused for lack of resources, promoting participatory science by placing citizens at the heart of research, and engaging the widest possible audience through a digital tool accessible to all.

Explore

Heading for the Route du Rhum 2026 : live plankton from the Atlantic

It is in this context that Play for Plankton is about to enter its biggest playing field yet. For the Route du Rhum 2026, a version entirely dedicated to We Explore is being developed. For the first time, it will allow dynamic sorting of plankton collected live on board the catamaran, thanks to the PlanktoScope designed by the Brittany-based company FairScope.

Installed on board We Explore, this small on-board laboratory continuously captures images of the plankton in the water the boat sails through.

Transmitted in real time by satellite to the EcoTaxa scientific platform, these images are then offered to all Play for Plankton players: from their phones, they sort plankton that has only just been sampled in the middle of the Atlantic by Roland Jourdain.

A whole new way to experience a transatlantic race: not just following it, but taking part, mile after mile, in a collective scientific adventure. A moment of citizen engagement open to everyone, from 1 November 2026 in Saint-Malo all the way to the finish in Pointe-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe.

And well beyond! While the offshore race ends at the finish line, the plankton race carries on. Images collected throughout the crossing will remain available for players to sort long after Roland Jourdain has set foot on land, and the work will continue during the catamaran We Explore’s future missions.

Roland Jourdain Skipper of We Explore, co-founder of Explore

“I love the Route du Rhum, I love sailing solo. With We Explore, I want to show, with a great deal of humility, that other paths are possible. This time, I’m taking on board a project that speaks to everyone: just by playing, anyone can help scientists better understand the ocean.”

Explore

After offshore racing, offshore science

Some fifteen years ago, the Virtual Regatta app brought millions of newcomers into the world of offshore racing, letting them follow, and almost live, a transatlantic race from home.

Play for Plankton follows in similar footsteps, but on a different course: where Virtual Regatta opened up race strategy to everyone, Play for Plankton opens up ocean science to everyone.

The principle remains the same: turning a playful gesture into a gateway to a marine world once reserved for a few insiders, with the aim of closing the app and going out to look at the sea differently.

Crédits photos : Explore & Maxime Horlaville / Mxhpics

Explore

Practical information

  • Play for Plankton app : free, ad-free, available on iOS and Android in French and English.

  • New version dedicated to the Route du Rhum 2026 : available to the public from 20 October.

  • Route du Rhum village in Saint-Malo : 20 October to 1 November 2026.

  • 30 October, 3 pm : Public presentation of the Play for Plankton app on the Main Stage of the race village, Saint-Malo.

  • Route du Rhum – Destination Guadeloupe start : Sunday 1 November 2026, 1:02 pm, Saint-Malo.

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