Lille stands out for transplantation, diabetes research and cancer care. Its university hospital, the CHU de Lille, performed 704 transplants in 2025, including pancreatic islet transplants; the Centre Oscar Lambret is entirely dedicated to cancer; and the Institut Pasteur de Lille anchors a research community focused on diabetes, obesity and precision medicine. All of this sits on the Belgian border.
Lille rarely tops the list when nurses, doctors or therapists abroad think about moving to France. Paris and the south tend to get the attention. Yet if you trained in the EU and care about the kind of medicine you will practise, the northern capital deserves a closer look: a very large teaching hospital, a few genuinely distinctive specialties and a city that feels European by geography. Here is the overview.
The main hospitals and institutes in Lille
Everything revolves around the CHU de Lille. According to its 2025 key figures, it brings together 12 hospitals, 16 clinical divisions and 3,256 beds and places. Its 16,279 staff work in 246 different occupations, and it made 1,383 hires in 2025. Around it you will find a cancer centre, a historic research institute and a business park for health companies.
| Institution | Focus | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|
| CHU de Lille (university hospital) | All specialties, transplants, genomics | 12 hospitals, 16,279 staff, 136,115 emergency visits and 4,751 births in 2025 |
| Centre Oscar Lambret | Cancer care | Dedicated cancer centre, member of the Unicancer group; 25,000 patients treated in 2024 |
| Institut Pasteur de Lille | Research, prevention, vaccination | 34 teams in 8 research units; international vaccination and travel medicine centre |
| Eurasanté (Loos) | Health businesses | Regional economic development agency for health and nutrition; its park hosted 206 companies in 2025 |
Picking a city before you start the paperwork is a smart move. Suxens supports EU-trained healthcare professionals from that first choice all the way to a complete application. Join the waiting list →
Transplantation: Lille's clearest signature
If one field defines Lille, it is transplantation. In 2025 the CHU performed 704 transplants: 308 organ transplants (188 kidneys, 92 livers and 28 hearts), 224 allogeneic transplants, 158 corneal grafts and 14 islet of Langerhans transplants. It also carried out 175 organ retrievals.
Islet transplantation is worth explaining. The insulin-producing cells of the pancreas are transplanted into selected patients with type 1 diabetes, a form of cell therapy. In 2022, the Line Renaud – Loulou Gasté prize was awarded to Professor François Pattou and Lille's islet transplant team, as announced by the University of Lille.
In practical terms, that level of activity means complete care pathways: organ procurement coordination, operating theatres, intensive care, then long-term follow-up of transplant recipients in wards and outpatient clinics. It is demanding work, but you learn fast and you work in genuinely multidisciplinary teams.
Diabetes and precision medicine
Diabetes runs through Lille's research like a thread. The LabEx EGID, coordinated by the University of Lille with the CHU, CNRS, Inserm, the Université d'Artois and the Institut Pasteur de Lille, received state funding from April 2011 to the end of 2024, according to its French National Research Agency (ANR) record. Its scope covers diabetes, obesity, metabolism and precision medicine, including the PreciDIAB programme.
Precision medicine also shows up in day-to-day hospital activity: 23,153 high-throughput sequencing analyses and 42,196 patients who had a molecular analysis at the CHU in 2025. The hospital's 2026-2030 strategic plan adds a cell and gene therapy priority and a federation of five rare-disease reference centres. One clarification, since the label is often misused: Lille does not have an IHU, the French designation for state-funded university hospital institutes. Its research is built on the university, the CHU, the national research bodies and the Institut Pasteur.
Cancer care: Centre Oscar Lambret and the CHU
The Centre Oscar Lambret is Lille's dedicated cancer centre (a centre de lutte contre le cancer) and a member of Unicancer, the French network of cancer centres. It highlights paediatric, breast, gynaecological and head and neck cancers. In 2024 it treated 25,000 patients, including 3,770 in radiotherapy and 3,670 for women's cancers. It describes itself as the first institution in the Hauts-de-France region to be accredited as a Comprehensive Cancer Center by the OECI, the Organisation of European Cancer Institutes.
The CHU recorded 42,545 cancer-related stays and 12,082 PET scans in 2025. So if oncology is your field, Lille gives you a choice between two cultures: a specialist centre where everything is about cancer, and a general university hospital where oncology works alongside every other discipline.
Institut Pasteur de Lille and the wider health ecosystem
The Institut Pasteur de Lille has 34 teams in 8 research units and describes itself as home to "more than 800 talents". Its recent research covers cancer, Alzheimer's disease, obesity and diabetes, liver disease, infectious diseases and antimicrobial resistance. It also sees the public, with an international vaccination and travel medicine centre, a rabies centre and preventive health check-ups.
Just outside Lille, in Loos, the Eurasanté park hosted 206 companies and 3,800 employees in 2025. Eurasanté is the regional economic development agency for the health and nutrition sector, working with the CHU and the University of Lille. Worth remembering if clinical research or industry ever tempts you.
Which healthcare professionals will find their place?
- Doctors: in 2025 the CHU counted 1,117 senior medical staff, 471 academic clinicians and 953 residents, with advanced specialties such as transplantation, genomics and rare diseases.
- Nurses: a very wide range of units, from intensive care and transplantation to oncology; the CHU runs its own nursing school and trains nurse anaesthetists.
- Midwives: 4,751 births at the CHU in 2025 and a midwifery school attached to the hospital.
- Physiotherapists and occupational therapists: rehabilitation follows transplantation, surgery and cancer treatment, and the CHU provides rehabilitation care (SMR).
- Healthcare assistants: present in many units, with a training institute (IFAS) within the CHU.
None of these figures is a job offer. They simply show how large the teams are and how varied the positions can be. Vacancies are published on each institution's own website.
Living in Lille: a city facing Belgium
Lille is the main city of the Hauts-de-France region, and its metropolitan area runs up to the Belgian border. That proximity is formalised: a Franco-Belgian framework agreement on cross-border healthcare cooperation, in force since 1 March 2011, covers Hauts-de-France and, on the Belgian side, districts including Kortrijk, Mouscron and Tournai. In its 2026-2030 strategic plan, the CHU says it wants to strengthen cooperation with Belgian hospitals in the border area and make it easier for patients and professionals to move between the two countries.
For everything else (neighbourhoods, transport, arrival formalities, finding a flat), our guides on settling in France and finding housing in France walk you through it. To compare pay, read our article on healthcare salaries in France.
From the idea to your application
Choosing Lille is only the first step. How you get the right to practise depends on your profession and your qualification: see the guide for your profession (doctor, nurse, midwife, physiotherapist, occupational therapist, healthcare assistant) and our general guide to working in France with an EU healthcare qualification.