On the 1st of December, CRFTech officially became AKM Technology France, whose head office is based within the EffiScience Science Park in Colombelles; the team will shortly be reinforced with an ultimate 15 to 20 jobs, and will be heading for larger premises within the Science Park in March. For the company director and integrated circuit designer Fabrice Jovenin, this move is the product of painstaking efforts and a total R&D investment of around €800,000.

www.connexions-normandie.fr

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StarTech61 offers premises specifically designed to welcome innovative businesses in the field of information and communication technology. The remaining office space can accommodate three further new companies. Any businesses interested in the premises are invited to contact Line Briard, Project coordinator for the Orne Council’s Economy and Finance Centre.

Tel: 09 71 00 21 40

E-mail: briard.line@cg61.fr

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Candidate projects must be in keeping with the themes identified by the Regional Innovation Strategy: health, materials, digital technologies and sustainable development. The 2012 edition will be rewarding projects from 3 different categories: Hopes (projects that have not yet led to business creation. Their innovative potential will be an essential ingredient). Creation (Innovative projects currently under business creation or recently created businesses - less than 2 years). Development (Innovative development projects initiated by a VSME/SME/SMI or a group of companies with significant territorial impact). Contest calendar Launch: 2nd April 2012 Deadline for submitting applications: 29th June 2012.

MIRIADE –

Yves Triboulet /

triboulet@miriade-innovation.fr

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SYNORG, “organic synthesis of living molecules”: the project’s aim is to invent new eco-friendly manufacturing techniques for therapeutic molecules. GANEX, in the field of materials, specialising specifically in the design of Gallium nitride-based electronic components whose properties enable the development of high-performance electronic and photonic components with a low ecological footprint. IRON, in the field of healthcare, involves research on innovative radiopharmaceuticals for use in oncology and neurology, with contribution from Cyceron and in partnership with the Pays de la Loire.

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Three project types were rewarded in the “Wood, Polymer and Composite” category: Interior arrangement, Transport and Urban furniture. Twelve schools participated in this fourth edition, for a total of 19 projects.

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A process developed by researchers from the LCS and the CRISMAT, in partnership with the University of Munich, is among the noteworthy results for 2011. This new process consists in preparing a material with high industrial potential but a low cost: zeolite EMT.

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A temporary board was formed, also including Josette Travert, UCBN President, Cafer Özkul, President of the University of Rouen, Camille Galap, President of the University of Le Havre, Jean-Louis Billoët, Director of the INSA de Rouen and Dominique Goutte, Director of ENSICAEN.

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Caen la Mer recently opened its “Digital Forum”: a space specifically devoted to digital technology usage and located within the EffiScience Science Park in Colombelles. A total of 1,000m2 of premises for creating, training, informing, collaborating, co-working and exchanging.

EffiScience, in Colombelles, is one of Lower Normandy’s emblematic sites for the development of the digital technology sector. The science park recently welcomed a new recruit: the Digital Forum. Located on the ground floor of the Erable building, this new digital space offers businesses a total surface area of 1,000m² and its vocation can be resumed in just six words: “creating, training, informing, collaborating, co-working and exchanging,” explains Ludivine Bigot, in charge of coordinating this new Caen la Mer initiative, managed by the economic development agency Synergia.

The Digital Forum’s services include business accommodation in the form of an incubator or business centre for young companies which make use of digital technologies. More specifically, a project incubator will also accommodate companies which are members of the TES (e-secure transactions) Competitiveness Cluster. Omware, a company based in Montrouge (Hauts de Seine), has shown a particular interest in the concept.“The forum will enable us, from time to time, to bring two to three of our staff members to work on specific projects with our Caen-based partners; we may even, ultimately, set up a branch here,” explains Thierry Leclercq, the company’s financial director.

The forum will also include a co-working area in order to facilitate networking for independent professionals.“This area will also be available for hire for creative business meetings, coordinated by a specialised consultant,” Ludivine Bigot adds.

All your training needs

Our region boasts many players and a multitude of skills in the field of digital technologies. The Digital Forum will offer them a genuine 80m2 showcase, which will not only present regional skills in the field, but also the varied training offer dispensed to professionals by the Échangeur Basse-Normandie (EBN), Novea and the Pôle ATEN, all partners in the project.
“The Digital Forum will offer us an opportunity to open a new regional branch to complement existing structures in Argentan and Saint-Lô,” highlights Didier Breux, Managing Director of the EBN. “It will also help us get closer to the professionals to whom we offer support in the use of information and communication technology.” .

For Novea, “A unique and leading skills and training centre on digital services and networks,” as the centre’s director Marie-Françoise Dujarrier is proud to describe it, “Getting involved in the life of the Digital Forum will also offer us an opportunity to expose our various training and awareness programmes to other stakeholders (public authorities, telecom installation providers, electricians, consular bodies…).” “Gaining exposure”is also a among the objectives for the Pôle ATEN, a Lower Normandy Regional Chamber of Trade and Crafts department whose aim is to assist businesses in new technology usage. “The Digital Forum generates synergies among all of the players involved,” confirms Jean-Pierre Conraud, vice-president of the chamber and manager of the Pôle ATEN. “It’s motivating for us to know that a place like this can be created and can continue to exist.”

Practical information: www.forum-digital.fr

The Digital Forum is a Caen la Mer initiative, managed by Synergia, in partnership with the Echangeur de Basse-Normandie, the Novea association, the Pôle ATEN, the TES Competitiveness Cluster and i2N / Lower Normandy Regional Council.
It is funded by Caen la Mer and the French State.

Download the dossier de presse as the plaquette du Forum digital

Ludivine Bigot
Administrator and coordinator of
Synergia’s Digital Forum
Tel. 02 31 46 74 54
WebSite : www.forum-digital.fr

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The new director of the GANIL (National Heavy Ion Accelerator) was appointed on the 1st of January 2012. As stipulated by the facility’s governance (see below), a new director, Florent Staley, has freshly arrived from the CEA (Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission). He has taken over from Sydney Galès (CNRS).

His diary has been fully booked since January. His “horrendous days” have continued, one after another, each of them with dozens of new appointments.“Perfectly logical, for I am looking to meet with all of GANIL’s associated players, either individually or in groups. I see the entire staff, i.e. 300 permanent employees,”the man who has taken control of this major national research facility since January is proud to highlight. Not forgetting his many appointments and encounters with political and institutional leaders. “We need to develop our communication efforts so that local inhabitants¹ can fully grasp exactly what we do here and be proud to have the GANIL facility in their region.”

It was with that policy in mind that Florent Staley, formerly a nuclear physicist at the CEA (Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission), took on his new position in Caen.“It’s one of the greatest jobs in the field,” he adds with a smile. GANIL’s new director was born in Châteaudun (Eure-et-Loir) in 1961. After studying in Grenoble and preparing his thesis based on an experiment conducted at the CERN (European Organisation for Nuclear Research) - one of the most prestigious scientific laboratories in the world - with his PhD in nuclear physics in hand, he joined the CEA in Saclay in 1989, initially in the nuclear physics department.
His extensive experience includes a position at the SLAC (Stanford Linear Accelerator Center) in California, before returning to the CERN as project manager of ALICE (A Large Ion Collider Experiment), then heading for the French Ministry for Higher Education and Research as project coordinator from 2008 to 2009. He took part in international conferences on major research facilities such as ESS, FAIR and XFEL, the linear electron accelerator in Hamburg, where he signed a national commitment agreement on behalf of France. In 2010, he returned to the CEA as Director of the Materials Science department , “GANIL is among the major facilities that are dependent on the department.”And here he is, in 2012, director of that very facility.

“I had already come here several times, but never for experiments,” ,Florent Staley recalls. He is genuinely proud to be “in charge of one of the five leading nuclear physics laboratories in the world. Did you know that, thanks to GANIL, Caen is famous the world over? Every year, we welcome 700 physicists from the five continents.” And barely was he settled behind his desk, a multitude of projects awaited him. “My work consists, first and foremost, in maintaining the laboratory’s high level of excellence, then in ensuring that SPIRAL2 is taken to completion. With this new machine, we will not be welcoming 700, but around 1,200 researchers from across the globe.”

Currently under construction within the GANIL grounds, the future SPIRAL2 ²(Production System of On-Line Radioactive Ions) will, once operational, be« “the most powerful accelerator in the world”. And that’s not all“We also need to look ahead, to 2020, to the period after SPIRAL2, to the European project EURISOL (European Isotope Separation On-Line Radioactive Ion Beam Facility) - to ensure that it is hosted here in Caen.”There’s no doubt that Florent Staley’s five coming years as director of GANIL promise to be busy ones. The site’s new “chief accelerator” is in the starting blocks.

(1) You can visit the GANIL facility when the accelerator is not operating. Every year, it welcomes 2,000 visitors.

For further information, contact the reception department. (see article on pages 14 & 15).
Tel : 02 31 45 46 37 - Mail : accueil@ganil.fr

Florent Staley
Director of GANIL
Tél : 02 31 45 45 91  
Site : www.ganil-spiral2.eu

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From industry to research and training, Lower Normandy boasts a comprehensive range of skills in the microelectronics field. So how can we guarantee prosperity for this regional sector? A few suggestions were put forward over the Synergia breakfast debate held on the 31st of January within the premises of NXP.

In the fields of telecommunication, the automotive industry, digital technologies, healthcare, aerospace… although it remains somewhat in the shadows, microelectronics is everywhere. This applies particularly to Lower Normandy’s microelectronics network, which coverscovers “a continuum of activities and skills that are rare in other French regions,” , highlights Philippe Guétin, vice-president of the Lower-Normandy Economic, Social and Environmental Council (CESER), and spokesman for the study on on “microelectronics and associated activities in Lower Normandy”. .

From electronic chips to the most innovative of new consumer usages, the region has, over the past fifty years, developed industrial, research and training skills. Today, over ten companies are at the very heart of this activity: the product of business transfers, spin-offs and the optimisation of research results. Located in California, , “During contacts with NXP, one of our clients, I discovered that here in Normandy, all the expertise and skills to develop our activity were reunited,” recalls Michel Villemain, managing director of Presto Engineering, which now employs a staff of 35 in Caen. The region has even succeeded in maintaining production activities, “by positioning itself in highly innovative market niches,” explains Jean Fergon, general manager of IPDIA in Caen (100 employees). It is through the development of skills in highly specific functionalities that Fabrice Jovenin and his Caen-based team of 12 engineers appealed to the Japanese group. Hence CRFTech became AKM Technology.

Creating a network

“The region offers a propitious environment for developing new usages,” confirms Samuel Cazin, NXP France’s communication and marketing director. “Yet whilst everyone develops their own specificities, although they are essential to survive, we nevertheless need to federate these highly fragmented activities.”
Lower Normandy’s microelectronics network lacks exposure. In terms of research, “My dream is to see a vast microelectronics laboratory,” admits Philippe Descamps, director of the Semiconductor Physics and Micro-electronics Laboratory (LaMIPS)⁽¹⁾. We need to develop collaborative projects.” .” This is precisely one of the recommendations put forward by the CESER in its report (downloadable at
www.cesr-basse-normandie.fr). Just like networking the sector’s various stakeholders. And Synergia’s breakfast debate was an excellent opportunity to pave the way.

(1) Joint CRISMAT/NXP/Presto Engineering – CNRS-ENSICAEN-UCBN laboratory

Philippe Guetin
Vice-President of the CESER
Tel : 02 31 06 98 90
WebSite : www.cesr-basse-normandie.fr

Jean Fergon
Managing Director of IPDIA
Tel : 02 31 53 54 00
WebSite : www.ipdia.com

Michel Villemain
PDG Presto Engineering Europe
Tel : 04 57 42 93 80
WebSite : www.presto-eng.com

Fabrice Jovenin
Senior manager, AKMT France
Tel : 02 31 46 22 74

Samuel Cazin
Communication Project Leader, NXP France
Tel : 02 31 45 31 99
WebSite : www.nxp.com

Philippe Descamps
Director of the Semiconductor Physics and Micro-Electronics Laboratory (LaMIPS)
Tel : 02 31 45 60 29

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