Two days of visits organised for an official delegation from the city of Seoul.

On March 10 and 11,  2011, the Paris Region Economic Development Agency (PREDA) staged a regional healthcare tour in partnership with the Medicen Paris Region competitiveness cluster, the city of Paris, and the IAU Ile-de-France (Paris Region urban planning institute).

Two days of visits were organised for an official delegation from the city of Seoul: the director of Seoul Business Agency's Digital Media City, the director of the investment promotion department at Seoul's City Hall, and the director and commercial director of the French Korean Chamber of Commerce and Industry. The tour introduced them to the wealth and diversity of Paris Region's healthcare sector offer, focusing on some of the region's flagship sites: the Institut Pasteur, Sanofi-Aventis and the Institut de la Vision (Vision Institute).

The delegation's first visit was to the Institut Pasteur, in the 15th arrondissement of Paris, on March 10. The Medicen competitiveness cluster also presented its activities and the wider Paris Region biocluster as a whole. After this the delegation visited Sanofi-Aventis' R&D facility in Chilly-Mazarin (91 - Essonne).

On March 11, after meeting representatives of the city of Paris, the Korean delegation was welcomed by Professor Sahel who offered a guided tour of the Institut de la Vision. This introduction to one of Europe's leading integrated research centres for vision disorders showcased the excellence of healthcare research in Paris Region.

To find out more about upcoming regional tours please contact Hélène Tinti or Marie Bahsa.

Profiles of Institut Pasteur, Institut de la Vision and Sanofi-Aventis are available on Econovista.com.

Locate these facilities on the following Paris Region maps:

* Institut Pasteur on Spot talents/Public research centres

* Institut de la Vision on Spot talents/Public research centres

* Sanofi-Aventis on My map/pharmaceutical company

Upcoming event. Space Access International Conference, organized by ASTech Paris Region.

The first Space Access International Conference, organized by the ASTech Paris Region competitiveness cluster, will be held in Paris September 21-23, 2011.

This First Conference on Space Access will provide a dedicated forum to all stakeholders in the sector, addressing the following themes:

• Markets, mission requirements, new payloads and services
• Systems, concepts and design methodologies
• Business and programmatic aspects
• Technologies and subsystems
• Regulations and standardisation (including environmental aspects)
• Synergies with other sectors (spin-offs, spin-ins, common methodologies...

Call for papers: deadline to submit your abstracts, March 4, 2011.

Learn more about the Space Access International Conference.

Learn more about the ASTech Paris Region competitiveness cluster.

Paris Region mapped out for you:
Map the Paris Region players in the field of aeronautics, space and defence using the “ASTech map” on Econovista, the free interactive economic map of Paris Region.

New map. Econovista.com putting a new map online in partnership with the ‘Systematic’ competitiveness cluster

Econovista.com has just provided you with a new map, “Systematic’s Ecosystem”.

This new “cluster” map features competitiveness cluster member-SMEs listed by theme (Automotive & Transport, Freeware, System Design and Development Tools, Security & Defence, Telecoms) as well as major Groups and Research and Higher Education facilities.
Beyond cluster members, Systematic nurtures close relationships with over 650 players in optics, electronics and software channels, also featured on the map. As a genuinely integrated ecosystem, the Systematic cluster represents a competitive world-class territory in the market of complex systems design, production and control.

At this time, the following are featured on the map:
• Systematic cluster members:

- SMEs broken down into five categories matching the cluster’s 5 theme groups: (Automotive & Transport, Freeware, System Design and Development Tools, Security & Defence, Telecoms)
- Research and Higher Education facilities
- Major Groups

• A wider selection of players, completing the cluster’s ecosystem:
- SMEs, broken down into three categories: Software, Optics, Electronics

Check out the Systematic map on Econovista.com

Lastly, www.econovista.com provides you with all of the functionalities you need to help you assess your options in getting established: zooming in and out at will, you can locate the business players you wish to see featured on the map, download the address and contact details of appropriate contacts, get the links towards the players’ websites and much more.

Competitiveness cluster. Advancity – the green technologies and sustainable cities cluster

Advancity is a competitiveness cluster serving sustainable cities and green technologies, formed to enable businesses and research organisations to cooperate and undertake collaborative projects. The cluster is organised around seven strategic committees:

• Urban Environmental and Energy Technologies
• Ground-level / Sub-surface Infrastructures and Networks
• Building Energy Environment
• Efficiency of Public Transport
• New Applications and Mobility
• Accessibility and Urban Health Environment
• Eco-friendly Urban Organisation/Systems

The cluster’s primary aim is to stimulate innovation and to irrigate Paris Region’s industrial landscape with new competencies and innovative projects. The rapid deployment of eco-technologies for sustainable urban regeneration draws on a range of fields across fundamental research, technological development and engineering: a spectrum only a network can encompass in its entirety.
Advancity’s strength lies in its ability to nurture synergies between different players, helping collaborative projects to fruition and facilitating concrete, commercially viable outcomes.

Three vectors of excellence lie at the heart of the cluster’s strategy, contributing to the large-scale regeneration of urban environments:

- instrumentation, engineering and urban management systems;
- urban environmental efficiency through the management and development of ground-level and sub-surface networks and infrastructures, sustainable construction, urban planning and transport;
- urban quality of life and services, especially applied to mobility and the urban healthcare environment.

In France, cities account for 90% of GDP, 80% of the population, 75% of energy consumption and two thirds of greenhouse gas emissions. Restoring an urban metabolism that’s more resource-efficient and more environment-friendly while remaining active, attractive and open, is one of the major challenges of the 21st century – with green technologies as one of its primary components.

Source: Advancity

Paris Region mapped out for you:

Map the Paris Region players in the eco-business sector using Econovista, the free interactive economic map of Paris Region

Looking to invest in Paris Region? Assess potential locations using Econovista, the free interactive economic map of Paris Region

Upcoming event. Insight into digital simulation at the Ter@tec Forum on 15 and 16 June at the École Polytechnique

The Ter@tec Forum bringing together leading international experts in digital design and simulation is one of biggest events of its kind in France and Europe. It underpins the sector’s importance in developing a company’s competitiveness and innovation capabilities, as was clearly demonstrated by the 2009 event, which attracted more than 600 attendees. The 2010 Ter@tec Forum at the École Polytechnique will focus on the very fast development of HPC usage.

During the plenary sessions on Tuesday, 15 June, industry players will share their experiences of HPC technologies, which today extend to all economic, industrial and service sectors as a result of more powerful systems (1,000 times more powerful in a matter of years) and the performance of software tools in simulation and design as well as in the complete digital creation of objects and materials, media or services.
Workshops will be held throughout the day on 16 June to address major HPC topics and provide an opportunity for delegates to review the numerous collaborative projects linking industry and research.

For more information or to register for the Forum, click here

Paris Region mapped out for you :

Check out the economic stakeholders in Paris Region on Econovista, the free interactive economic map of Paris Region

Learn more about the competitiveness clusters Cap Digital and ASTech Paris Region on the free interactive economic map, Econovista

Are you interested in investing in Paris Region? Assess your location options with Econovista.com, the free interactive economic map of Paris Region

Competitiveness cluster. SYSTEM@TIC PARIS REGION, the cluster at the heart of the digital revolution

SYSTEM@TIC PARIS REGION develops key tools and technologies in the field of software-dominant systems, focusing its activities on three application markets with a strong social dimension: transport, telecoms and security.
The cluster is based on an ecosystem comprising some 900 SMEs, dynamic drivers of innovation representing more than 35,000 jobs related to the cluster’s core specialisms: software, electronics and optics. They all share certain defining characteristics which mark them out as:

• Innovative – dedicating a significant proportion of their revenues to R&D
• Prioritising a path to growth based on a collaborative approach
• Positioned in the cluster’s target markets and technologies.

Advantages of cluster membership:
• Access to and participation in strategic and specialist projects in each of the working groups
• Participation in R&D projects
• Visibility
• Building contacts (R&D, business, finance, etc.)

In order to help innovative Paris Region SMEs to maintain a global standard of competitiveness and to optimise their innovative capability, SYSTEM@TIC has set itself the mission of supporting SMEs operating in the high-tech fields of software, systems, electronics and optics. The ability to innovate is the key challenge currently facing SMEs in order to maintain their competitiveness in the global marketplace and offer an alternative to delocalisation.

The “AMBITION PME” programme
SYTEM@TIC has been appointed by Paris Region and the French government to lead a programme of initiatives in Optics and Complex Systems, in partnership with the Paris Region network of regional chambers of commerce and industry (CRCIs) and Opticsvalley.
“Ambition PME”, supported by the state and by the regional authorities, aims to help create optimum conditions for the development of innovative Paris Region SMEs with high growth potential working in high-tech sectors: software, systems, electronics and optics. This programme represents an exceptional opportunity to capitalise and showcase one of the region’s key strengths, to support the growth of high-tech SMEs and to raise Paris Region’s profile in the global high-tech sector.

Source: www.systematic-paris-region.com

Paris Region mapped out for you:

Assess your selected locations on Econovista, the economic map of Paris Region

Soon, locate all the economic players involved in System@TIC Paris Region on Econovista, the economic map of Paris Region

Competitiveness cluster. ASTech Paris Region, at the heart of aerospace research

The ASTech Paris Region aerospace competitiveness cluster is France’s leading employment hub in the field of aeronautics, space and embedded systems, concentrating more than 100,000 people and the majority of R&D personnel in this field in France.

Specialisms:
• Vehicle architecture and equipment
• On-board energy
• Employment, training & research
• Testing & instrumentation
• Aeronautical maintenance
• Materials and processes
• Propulsion

ASTech Paris Region helps SMEs position themselves more effectively within the industrial landscape of the region’s aerospace sector by:
• enabling them to participate in collaborative projects such as those supported by the FUI (Fonds Unique Interministériel – Single Interministerial Fund), the ANR (French National Research Agency), and the Framework Programs for Research and Technological Development;
• raising their profile with the technical departments of client operations;
• offering them opportunities to upgrade their expertise (e.g. through EN 9100 accreditation);
• facilitating access to training providers, to the world of science (internships, doctoral research), and to the many, diverse testing facilities in Paris Region.

Beyond questions of market positioning, within the ASTech Paris Region cluster SMEs can find a network of experts, systems for monitoring market developments and economic intelligence empowering them to devise and develop projects capitalising on technological innovations in partnership with other manufacturers and research laboratories.
Thanks to its network and the opportunities offered by state departments, ASTech Paris Region offers its member SMEs the opportunity to develop their commercial activities for export markets. Finally, strong support from the local and regional authorities for the ASTech Paris Region cluster is a major advantage driving the expansion of the region’s aerospace industry, offering unique growth opportunities to innovative SMEs based in Paris Region.

Source: www.pole-astech.org

© Dassault - Falcon

Mapping Paris Region economy :

Map the players involved in ASTech Paris Region on Econovista, the free economic map of Paris Region

Discover the digital sector players on the Cap Digital map

Are you looking to invest in Paris Region? Assess your selected locations with econovista.com, the free economic map of Paris Region

Digital industry. Paris Region – Europe’s no.2 region for software

According to the Truffle 100 European Clusters survey produced by Truffle Capital, Paris Region holds the no.2 spot in the ranking of European software industry clusters, with total revenues of €2.5 billion in 2009. This places the region behind Germany’s Rhine-Main-Neckar region but ahead of South East England in the UK, which includes Greater London.

This is the first edition of Truffle 100 European Clusters produced by the private equity company, ranking Europe’s top 42 regions for the software industry. The mapping is based on the results of Truffle 100 Europe 2009 study, which ranks the top 100 European software companies.

Find out more about the Truffle 100 European Clusters

Source: ITR Magazine

All the key players in digital and complex systems mapped out for you:

-Coming soon to Econovista.com, an online map produced with the Sytem@TIC Paris Region competitiveness cluster, giving contact information and profiles of software companies belonging to the cluster and operating within its ecosystem.

-Find the key players in the digital sector belonging to the Cap Digital competitiveness cluster on Econovista, the free economic map of Paris Region

Cluster. Cap Digital, 500 innovative companies and associations for a common future

Cap Digital, dedicated to development of services, content, and knowledge technologies, leads 6 principal lines of action to serve this community:

1. Development of R&D and innovation
2. Development of shared platforms
3. Implementation of services for businesses development
4. Anticipative management of skills and adapted training
5. Benchmarking and prospection through the Think Digital program
6. Promotion of businesses’ international visibility and competitiveness

Cap Digital, a label of excellence for innovative projects
The « Cap Digital project » label is awarded after a rigorous review process controlled by the association’s executive committee and board of directors. Our label of excellence vouches for the project’s quality and ensures its coherence with the cluster’s strategy. Cap Digital helps businesses and research laboratories build collaborative projects. For example, the cluster promotes the development of shared infrastructures between businesses, small and large, and research labs. An information database for Parisian research labs and member companies enables the cluster to network key actors together, namely for project-building. Finally, to further benefit its members, the cluster is engaged in a European clusters policy. By establishing privileged relationships with world clusters, it works towards its goal of developing businesses’ international activities in these areas.

Services you find in Cap Digital
- Privileged contacts with the major industrial players and institutional structures backing Cap Digital
- Strong ties with Parisian business incubators
- Your company itself or the cluster’s promotion of it at the major trade shows in France and abroad
- Prospecting trips with preferential rates and strategic meetings
- Privileged access to special export subventions
- Access to country-specific workshops on export
- Access to a repertoire of privileged contacts for private and public funding
- Agreements with banking establishments to facilitate the opening of accounts
- Workshops and special training on financing
- Individualized support for the Crédit d’Impôt Recherche (CIR), the national research funding plan

Think Digital, a Plateform to share experiences
The purpose of Think Digital Plateform is to create and share useful information and analytical reports the Cap Digital community. Benchmarking activities are communicated via the Think Digital pages. They cover all of the cluster’s thematic domains as well as legal, scientific, and economic updates. Think Digital communicates articles and analyses produced by the cluster. Meetings with the public, the press, and the Cap Digital community are regularly organized for the members of the thematic sessions or to decrypt Think Digital’s benchmarking activities and specific topics. Think Digital develops think tank activities by holding working groups on targeted themes, for 6 months at a time, which are geared at producing documents of reference.

Source : www.capdigital.com

Discover all members of Cap Digital competitiveness cluster on Econovista.com, the free economic map of Paris Region

Innovation Support. Paris, a place where make your company grow

Paris is unquestionably one of the world’s most beautiful cities. Its image as a romantic city has helped to make it the world’s favourite tourist destination. But there’s another and completely different Paris.

As part of maintaining its dynamic economy at the same time as preserving urban diversity, the City of Paris has earmarked 10% (900 hectares) of its land for the development of major urban projects offering significant economic benefit. By 2020, the stock of commercial real estate will be 18 million m² (see inset), part of which is specifically dedicated to innovation, with the aim of transforming Paris into a laboratory of creativity, innovation and experimentation.

To achieve this reality, Paris has developed business clusters, enterprise zones and business start-up and growth centers to support innovative young companies working on the technologies of tomorrow. By 2014, 100,000 m² of such facilities will be available to house leading-edge businesses, with the focus on the Information Technologies, Telecommunications, Healthcare, the Biotechnologies and Design. The ecoatmosphere of Paris encourages meetings between people working in very different industry sectors, and facilitates collaborative working between laboratories, universities and companies. This enormous network is particularly visible in the competitiveness clusters that pool the expertise and skills of public and private research institutes. They coordinate the community of industry players, and provide support for innovative companies and researchers.

This highly fertile soil is a great place for Information and Communication Technology companies to put down roots. Bruno Maisonnier, Head of Aldebaran Robotics, looks back on the beginnings of his domestic robotics project in 2005. This ambitiously-innovative project would never have seen the light of day without the help provided by the département. “There’s a huge amount of support available in Paris for innovative technologies”, says Bruno Maisonnier. Having begun his business in the Agoranov start-up center, he “received terrific support that helped us cross the threshold to international recognition.” Designed as a practical assistant for incapacitated humans, the company’s humanoid robot is now known all over the world by the name of NAO.

Anticipating the essential role robotics will inevitably play in coming years, Bruno Maisonnier has been able to develop his product with support from Cap Digital, the competitiveness cluster for digital content, which brought together 13 partners (SMEs, leading R&D labs and users) as part of the ROMEO project within the Cap Robotique cluster. Cap Digital also hosts at least 100 other equally avantgarde projects, including TerraNumerica, the hyper-detailed urban environment digital modeling project led by Thales, and Play All, which is developing a crossplatform tool chain standard for the computer gaming industry. There can be no doubt that Paris is an ITC stronghold and hotspot within Europe.

Source : Paris Region Magazine

© Alderaban Robotics

Discover all members of Cap Digital, the competitiveness cluster for digital content, on Econovista, the free economic map of Paris Region

Interactive map. Econovista, the easy way to find economic data on Paris Region

Econovista is a free interactive map designed to help you discover the many facets of the Paris Region economy. This easy-to-use site offers a serie of themed maps, including the “Start and Grow” map, which locates all the services available to help you set up a business, find a home for it and make it grow. The “Visit” map presents must-see places of interest and the map dedicated to the business environment is centered on Paris-Charles de Gaulle airport.

The site also offers maps developed in cooperation with the region’s competitiveness clusters and more precisely Cap Digital and ASTech Paris Region. Soon, a new map will be on line in cooperation with Sytem@TIC Paris Region. This mine of information is easily accessible to anyone interested in finding out more about the region’s economic life and tourism opportunities. And it’s free of charge

Discover the Paris Region economic life on econovista.com, the free economic map of Paris Region

Competitiveness cluster. Medicen’s performance contract

The Medicen competitiveness cluster has signed its performance contract for 2009-2011 with the aim of establishing Paris Region as a European industry leader in the spheres of diagnostic and therapeutic progress and in advanced healthcare technology.

The three major RD priorities identified in this strategy are translational medicine, biological systems for industrial use, and bio-therapeutic products and bio-digital systems (bio-IT, integration and modelling, e-healthcare, brain-machine interfaces). These priorities will be focused on the cluster’s primary research areas: cancers, neurovegetative, sensory and psychiatric disorders, and infectious diseases.

The cluster plans to establish a partnership with Systematic Paris Region to develop bio-digital systems and healthcare information technologies.

Discover the Biocluster map on Econovista, the free interactive map of Paris Region

Find Cap Digital and AsTECH two other competitiveness clusters, on Econovista, the free interactive map of Paris Region

A map dedicated to Cap Digital Paris Region competitiveness cluster

Cap Digital Paris Region is the region’s first competitiveness cluster to team up with Econovista.com.
Now Econovista offers a themed map dedicated to this cluster’s activities, highlighting the exceptional dynamism and density of the digital industry in Paris Region.

This map includes:

• Member companies and SMEs operating in the cluster’s 9 strategic sectors:
  Design ; e-Education and e-learning; Image, Sound and Interactivity; Knowledge Engineering ; Video Games; Digital Heritage; Robotics; Digital lifestyle & Services; Collaborative Technology and Intelligence;
• Facilities (design and exhibition facilities, key players in the sector)
  
• Higher education and research institutions which are members of Cap Digital.

Click here to discover the Cap Digital – digital content map

Cap Digital launches its ‘Futur en Seine’ programme

Cap Digital is staging a programme of events, taking place from 29 May to 7 June 2009, with the aim of:
· offering a live showcase of the latest technologies from companies and laboratories in Paris Region to a wide public;
· presenting a number of talks – both for professionals and for the general public, and all “accredited” by Cap Digital – within a single week in order to attract national and international interest;
· staging a major popular celebration of the digital world to help the public understand the anticipated and potential changes arising from the increasing use of digital applications in their everyday environment.

‘Futur en Seine’ will take place in four main venues – the Wikiplaza in Place de la Bastille, the Cité des Sciences et de l’Industrie, the Bourse de Commerce, and 104 rue d’Aubervilliers – and in a number of additional locations: the Arc de Triomphe, La Seine, Montreuil, Issy les Moulineaux (Le Cube digital design centre), Enghien Les Bains (Centre des Arts), the Château de Vincennes, Saint Denis and Saint Ouen).
‘Futur en Seine’ has already received support from the Paris Region and City of Paris authorities.

To find out more about Futur en Seine. (french only)

Discover Cap Digital – Digital Contents on Econovista, the free interactive economic map of Paris Region.