Inria plays an active role in the technological development of some ten or so major industrial groups operating within France, through an initiative geared towards generating innovation tailored to specific needs.
Whether it’s Alstom, Airbus, Astrium, EDF, Nokia, Orange, Total or PSA, all of these major industrial groups enjoy close links with Inria through “strategic partnerships”, set up specifically to promote internal innovation.
The "strategic partnership" benefits companies, Inria and their partners in the ecosystem. It is designed to strengthen the innovative capacity of industries and creates a permanent link between engineers and researchers. The partnership benefits the various business departments (innovation, marketing, regulatory) that contribute to it.
In this partnership relationship, which offers precise conditions and a marked work framework, researchers have access, in return, to detailed questions and quality data on subjects previously identified as strategic for all parties and often for France and Europe.
The "strategic partnership" has several possible components, it can include the creation of one or more joint project teams according to the Inria model which, although including company collaborators and often located on its premises, gets the benefit of the support of the Institute's support structures, access to all the teams and to its academic and industrial network on a worldwide scale.
An industrial chair can also be created around a leading personality in the theme explored.
Lastly, the strategic partnership initiative provides a way of answering challenges raised by partners on clearly identified problems. In the context of an “Inria Challenge” - an interdisciplinary structure used to explore new territories of research - several Inria project teams will be able to respond to requests made by industrial partners, going through them point by point and drawing on their specialist expertise.
In this way, strategic partnerships help to ensure a substantial impact in the digital ecosystem, creating jobs in industry in France and Europe and leading to the possible recruitment of PhD students.
The institute is keen to place an ever greater emphasis on this cutting-edge strategy in the years to come.
"PSA and Inria are joining forces to launch an OpenLab dedicated to artificial intelligence. The work carried out by the OpenLab will focus on artificial intelligence algorithms for driverless vehicles in complex environments, predictive maintenance, traction system design optimisation and modelling the complex systems of towns and cities, the goal being to offer the best possible transport services."
Carla Gohin, director of research and advanced engineering for Groupe PSA
"When we founded the centre, we believed that having researchers from Inria and Microsoft working together would be mutually beneficial, and we were right. Inria researchers enjoy a significant amount of flexibility when it comes to selecting their scientific objectives, and this openness is a real boost for their colleagues from Microsoft Research"
Laurent Massoulié, director of the Inria-Microsoft Research joint research centre
"The partnership with Inria will enable Naval Group to accelerate its quest for innovation in the fields of artificial intelligence, intelligence applied to cyber systems, and signal processing. This will be vital, given the French navy’s need for technological superiority in combat situations and international competition, which is fierce in naval defence. Working with a partner of Inria’s stature will be extremely rewarding and is indicative of a strong collective dynamic."
Hervé Guillou, CEO of Naval Group
Technology and innovation are both central to the development of your company. Entering into a partnership with Inria can help accelerate your R&D. Our business managers will outline the various different partnership and collaboration options offered by the institute.