Innovation & Undertakings

The Paris-Saclay Campus is a pedagogical, scientific, technological...and economic development project !

The Paris-Saclay Campus brings together nearly 10% of all research in France. One of the goals that its promoters have established is for this immense research potential to have a greater impact on the French economy, whether through existing businesses or the creation of new businesses. Two essential factors in business competitiveness are the availability of high-quality human resources, and access to sources of relevant knowledge. All of the member teaching institutions of the Campus already have a long tradition of interaction with the economic sector, and in particular with businesses. Some businesses have sought to extend cooperation with certain academic partners by creating ongoing structures for cooperation. This has translated into common R&D projects and other actions further upstream, such as the creation of corporate chairs.

The plan is to share resources to jointly conduct three activities:

Start-up incubation, by integrating and amplifying the activity of the IncubAlliance incubator to create 40 technology companies per year.
Maturation and supervision, by strengthening the weakest link in the value chain: The lack of maturity in transfer projects (legal aspects, market, economic maturation, technological maturation, and support).
Innovation-Partnership, by responding simultaneously to requests for growth from SMEs through the introduction of innovative technologies and the desire by Campus laboratories to accelerate the transfer of available knowledge.

This project will capitalize on three successful experiments:

The IncubAlliance incubator, which has created 106 companies since it started and which is one of the top performing French public incubators both in the number of jobs created (twice the national average) and in the amount of private funds invested in the start-ups created.
The Digiteo RTRA (Réseau Thématique de Recherche Avancée - Themed Advanced Research Network), which is already carrying out technical-economic maturation and monitoring actions in the information and communication sciences and technologies sector. This know-how must now be generalized to all sectors.

Lastly, the competitiveness clusters offer a privileged link with the industrial world, especially for R&D actions. Among them, the Systematic Paris-Région cluster, with its 500 members including 120 corporate groups and 350 SMEs, has launched over one billion euros in collaborative research.

Already enmeshed in a dense fabric of innovative companies, the goal for the Paris-Saclay Campus is to help advance an ecosystem of companies created from research or attracted by high-level technology, and then to accelerate the development of SMEs and intermediate- sized businesses from this ecosystem.

Campus goals for innovation & businesses:

Strengthen collaborative projects between businesses and laboratories in various sectors: Biotechnologies, information and communication sciences and technologies, energy, health, services, transport, agro-industry/foodstuffs, nanotechnologies, etc. There are a variety of structures for interaction between laboratories and businesses: They are oriented around competitiveness clusters, PRES [Clusters for Research and Higher Education]), RTRAs, Carnot Institutes, etc. What the Paris-Saclay Campus can provide, where necessary, is a point of contact for new arrivals.

Attract innovative businesses, industrials, SMEs, SMIs, large groups, and technological innovators. Businesses now know that Saclay offers exceptional opportunities for collaboration. The dynamic created on the Plateau will attract new actors. Some businesses are planning to move here to benefit from the high potential of the environment. The development of technological platforms open to them may attract others, and available transportation and service offerings are improving to better meet needs.

Become better organised. Part of the research promotion activities will be shared at the campus level to offer current and future businesses resources that are unequalled to date. In particular, this includes technological platforms that will be common to the various institutions (nanoscience and nanotechnology, Nano-INNOV, Technology Hall). This also involves creating reflective and prospective actions involving researchers from all areas as well as industrials. Among the plans for the Campus is the implementation of a Circle of Business Partners: The member institutions on the campus have a long tradition of interaction with the economic sector, and in particular with businesses. The creation of a "Circle of affiliated businesses" would enable those businesses to have greater commitment on their side and to create value from research results. We can also envision collaborative directions: Chairs with international reputations, support for doctoral candidates, a post-doctoral program, etc.

This initiative is part of the larger context of the southern Île-de-France region, which is rich in industrial development clusters: zone de Courtaboeuf, zone de Satory la Minière, and Vélizy. The Government has undertaken several initiatives to develop business here, including the creation of an Opération d’intérêt National [OIN - national interest operation] for the Massy-Palaiseau-Saclay-Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines area (Decree dated 5 March 2009) and the creation of the Etablissement public Paris-Saclay (Paris-Saclay Public Institution), one of whose missions is economic development.