Improved nuclear inputs for nuclear model codes based on the Gogny interaction

The need for cross sections far from the valley of stability, for applications such as nuclear astrophysics or future nuclear facilities, challenges the robustness as well as the predictive power of nuclear reaction models. Traditionally, cross section predictions rely on more or less phenomenological approaches, depending on parameters adjusted to generally scarce experimental data or deduced for systematic relations. While such predictions are expected to be reliable for nuclei not too far from the experimentally accessible regions, they are clearly questionable when dealing with exotic nuclei. To improve the predictive power of nuclear model codes, one should use more fundamental approaches, relying on sound physical bases, when determining the nuclear inputs (ingredients) required by the reaction model. Thanks to the high computer power available today, all these major ingredients have been microscopically or semi-microscopically determined, starting from the information provided by a Skyrme effective (and efficient) nucleon-nucleon interaction. These microscopic inputs have shown their ability to compete with the traditional classical methods as such, but also when they are used in actual nuclear cross sections calculations. We will discuss the current efforts made to improve the predictive power of such microscopic inputs using a more coherent nucleon-nucleon interaction, namely the finite-range Gogny force. (authors)