Invest in France Agency spain Office

The cluster’s 3 main objectives are to become:

• a worldwide cluster on laser applications

• a worldwide cluster for research into power lasers

• a leader in France on optics and lasers

Advantages

Aquitaine is a highly dynamic region from an economic point of view and ranks:
• 5th French region for the number of companies created
• 4th for the number of industrial establishments
• 4th for services to companies

A privileged place in the Laser and Photonics sector

- Leading companies:

• Acteon Satelec, diagnostic and treatment systems for dentistry
• Cilas, systems associating laser and precision optics for the military and civil, scientific and industrial markets
• Lectra, supplier of equipment for the textiles industry integrating lasers and imaging systems
• Oxymetal, laser cutting
• Quantel, solid state lasers and laser diodes, scientific, industrial and medical products
• Serma Technologies, expertise in electronic technologies
• Snecma Propulsion Solide, composite materials
• Thales Avionics, optical technologies for pilot assistance

  -New and innovative small- and medium-size enterprises (SME):
• Corduan Technologies*, laser metrology and physicochemical analysis solutions
• Kwele*, Terahertz measurement products
• Syclope Electronique, pollution measurement *2007 winners of the Ministry of Research innovative company creation competition

 - Leading research:
The Aquitaine research cluster, with over 500 researchers, is one of the strongest European concentrations of optics and laser specialists

- Promising prospects for Research:
• Construction of the Laser Megajoule (LMJ), research equipment that is nearly unique in the world

Partners

Over 70 partners as at mid-2008

Companies: almost 45 of which 30 are SMEs
• French companies: Acteon Satelec, Cilas, Electricité de France (EDF), Snecma Propulsion Solide, Thalès Avionics, Oxymetal, Lectra etc.

• International companies: EADS (France/Germany/United Kingdom/Spain), GE Medical Systems (United States) etc.

Research and Educational Institutions
Over 25 centers, including Université Sciences et Technologies Bordeaux 1, Commissariat à l’Energie Atomique-Centre d’Etudes Scientifiques et Techniques d’Aquitaine (CEA-CESTA), Centre Nationale de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Institut d’Optique, Thalès Megajoule, Université des Sciences de la Vie et de la Santé Victor Segalen Bordeaux 2,…
   
Other organizations are also partners of the cluster, including the Aquitaine Region, the Township Committee of Bordeaux, Agence Aquitaine de Développement Industriel…

Current R&D Partnerships (refer to appendix)

9 projects have been certified and financed in 2008, for an investment of almost 7.5 million euros

Example of public support:
 - Almost 800,000 euros granted by the National Research Agency (Agence Nationale de la Recherche or ANR) between 2005 and 2007
- Over 1 million euros allocated by the Single Interministerial Fund (Fonds Unique Interministériel or FUI) during the same period

International Partnerships

Current
Economic missions in Canada
European partnership on photonics training
Future
Photonics cluster of the CNRC, Canada
Appendix: Selected Certified R&D Projects

• More information on Route des lasers