Aerospace Valley - Aeronautics, Space and Embedded Systems

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Aerospace Valley - Aeronautics, Space & Embedded Systems

Situated in the southwest of France in the Aquitaine and Midi-Pyrénées regions, Aerospace Valley, accredited as a “global innovative cluster” in July 2005 by the French government, is dedicated to the fields of Aerospace, Aeronautics and Embedded Systems.

The Aerospace Valley innovative cluster is a well-defined strategy based around 6 major objectives:

To support its leading global lead in civil aviation
To consolidate its position as European capital of “Space for Humans” in the design of satellites for space applications
To strengthen its position of excellence in embedded systems
To become a research and training cluster of worldwide renown
To promote the innovative potential of SMEs and start-ups
To combat the potential threats to supply chain companies

Advantages

With over 100,000 jobs in 1,300 companies, comprising one-third of the sector in France, Aerospace Valley is the leading European employment pool in the field of aerospace and embedded systems, generating turnover of 10 billion euros each year.
In the field of research and training, with 8,500 researchers and 3 of the 4 major French aerospace engineering schools on its territory, Aerospace Valley is the top French cluster for aerospace research and higher education.

Partners

In 2008 the Aerospace Valley association relied on almost 530 partners of the cluster, divided into 7 electoral colleges, including:

Major Companies

French and international groups: Alcatel-Lucent, Airbus, Air France Industrie, Alstom Transport, Areva, Arkema, Atos Origin, Bureau Veritas, Cap Gemini Sud, Continental, Dassault Aviation, EADS, Freescale Semiconductors, Goodrich, Honeywell, Suez-Gaz de France, Latécoère, Nexter Electronics, Rockwell Collins, Snecma Propulsion Solide (Groupe SAFRAN), Thalès Avionique et Thales Alenia Space, Turbomeca (Groupe SFRAN) , etc.

SME – Small and Medium Enterprises (around 250)

Research and training institutions: CNES (Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales - Centre de Toulouse), CEA (Commissariat à l'énergie atomique), CESI (Centre d'études supérieures industrielles), CNRM, ENAC, ENSMA, EAFAS (European Academy For Aviation Safety), INRIA, Institut National Polytechnique de Toulouse, ISAE (merger of ENSICA and Supaéro), MEDES (Institute of Space Physiology and Medicine), ONERA, the Universities of Bordeaux, Pau and Toulouse, TéSA (Télécommunications Spatiales et Aéronautiques), etc.

Other organizations and local councils: the Regional Councils of Aquitaine and Midi-Pyrénées, the General Councils, Grand Toulouse and the Urban Community of Bordeaux, the towns of Toulouse and Bordeaux, the Chambers of Commerce and Industry, the Association Aéronautique et Astronautique de France (AAAF), Ernst & Young, France Telecom, etc.

R&D Partnerships

Since the creation of Aerospace Valley, there have been a total of 212 partnership projects accredited or approved between 2005 and 2008, including 143 projects financed for an overall budget of € 450 million (refer to appendix) and public support of over € 200 million.

International Partnerships

The Aerospace Valley association has signed bilateral partnership agreements with several clusters:
•    Luftfahrt Standort Hamburg
•    Skywin Wallonie
•    Farnborough Aerospace Consortium
•    Grappe AeroMontréal

Aerospace Valley is also involved in the European activities of the 7th PCRDT:
•    As national point of contact (NPC) on the topic “Aerospace and Air Transport”
•    As partner in the ETNA project (networks of national points of contact on the topic of transport)
•    As partner in the KIS4SAT project on the development of a European hub based on satellite application services
•    As coordinator of the informal “Wings-for-Regions” network, which gathers a dozen or so European “clusters” biannually and which has the purpose of constructing a future European project
•    As member of the ARTEMISIA association (European technological platform on embedded systems) and, together with the German cluster SafeTRANS and the world division System@tic, member of the EICOSE Office.

Internationally Aerospace Valley is also involved in the following:
•    Contacts with Tianjin in China, and notably the “Tianjin Airport Industrial Park”
•    Involvement in the creation of the “Sino-European Institute of Aviation Engineering”
•    Partner (in its role as NPC) in an EU-Africa initiative
•    Participation in aerospace conferences such as CEAS and ICAS