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The cluster members have set themselves ambitious objectives:

• To increase the competitiveness of the ceramics and surface treatment industry, especially in the four areas of Limousin, Centre, Tarbes and Cavaillon 
• To create new business: development of new products or processes within existing businesses, creation of new businesses and new laboratories, attracting and setting up production or research units.

5 strategic areas have been identified:
- Table arts: New products and processes   
- Construction: Materials & Surface treatments   
- Energy: production and energy saving measures   
- Health: biomaterials, bone prostheses    
- Optics and Electronics: components

Attributes

The Cluster covers the full range of Ceramics trades, from suppliers of raw materials and parts manufacturers, producers (high tech or traditional ceramics), to end users.

The ceramics businesses participating in the Cluster
Businesses and Jobs 
60 businesses
5,000 jobs amongst the suppliers, parts manufacturers and ceramics manufacturers   

Research   
700 researchers in public and private laboratories
150 employees in technical and technology transfer centres
1/3 of all French public-funded research in the sector is centred in the Limousin district   

Training
900 students, from CAP to postgraduate
3 engineering colleges, the science and technology faculty of Limoges University, 2 lycées and
1 professional training body

Members

100 members in June 2008

Businesses  65
•    Companies: Air Liquide, Alcan, Alstom, Areva, Bekaert, Bodycote, Ceradyne, Cilas, Eurofarad, Ferro, Imerys, Keyria, Saint Gobain, Terreal…

Over 35 small and medium-sized businesses: Avignon Ceramics, Bernardaud, Boostec, Ceradrop, Cerinnov, CTI, Haviland, Pillivuyt, SCT…

Centres techniques et de transfert de technologies (Technical and technology transfer centres)

The Commissariat à l’Energie Atomique (CEA), the Centre d’Ingénierie en Traitements et Revêtements de Surface Avancés (CITRA), the Centre de Recherche sur les Arts du Feu et de la Terre (CRAFT), the Société française de Céramique (SFC), the Centre Technique de Matériaux Naturels de Construction (CTMNC), the Centre Régional d’Innovation et de Transfert de Technologies Z3T (CRITT Z3T), the Centre de Transfert de Technologies Céramiques (CTTC), Ecole Nationale d’Ingénieurs de Tarbes, Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Céramique Industrielle (ENSCI), Université de Limoges…

Research laboratories
Science des Procédés Céramiques et de Traitements de Surface (SPCTS), Groupe d’Etude des Matériaux Hétérogènes (GEMH), Laboratoires de Recherche Associés sur l’Electronique de Puissance (PEARL Alstom), Laboratoire Génie de Production (LGP), Centre Inter-universitaire de Recherche et d’Ingénierie des Matériaux (CIRIMAT), Conditions Extrêmes et Matériaux : Haute Température et Irradiation (CEMHTI), Centre de Recherche et d’Etudes Européen de Saint-Gobain (CREE)

Training organisations
The Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Céramique Industrielle (ENSCI), the Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’Ingénieurs de Limoges (ENSIL), the Ecole Nationale d’Ingénieurs de Tarbes (ENIT), the Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’Art de Limoges Aubusson (ENSA), the Faculty of Science and Technology of the University of Limoges with the Institut des Procédés Appliqués aux Matériaux, the Mas Jambost and Henry Brisson lycées, the AFPI Limousin professional training organisation.

16 other bodies are also members of the Cluster, including the Limousin district council, the Haute-Vienne county council, the Agglomération de Limoges Métropole, the CCI of Limoges and Haute Vienne, Cher and Tarbes, the Confédération des Industries céramiques de France (CICF), the Groupe Français de la Céramique (GFC), the Union des Fabricants de Porcelaine de Limoges (UFPL), Ceramic Enterprises, Limousin Participations, Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations…
4 partners give support o the Cluster: the AILE business incubator, the economic development agency Limousin Expansion, the Association pour le Développement Industriel et Economique du Massif central (ADIMAC), the Chambre de Commerce et d’Industrie de la Haute Vienne, the Chambre Régionale de Commerce et d’Industrie du Limousin, all local and national ceramics associations, and the Musée National Adrien Dubouché.

Current R&D collaboration (cf. appendix)

41 projects were earmarked between 2005 and May 2008 with a budget of 81 million€

Example of public support between 2005 and 2007:
•    nearly 8 million Euros paid out by the Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR)
•    over 5 million Euros allocated by the Fonds Unique Interministériel (FUI)
•    over 4 million Euros allocated by the Limousin regional council

The creation of 3 research centres and 4 production units

International collaboration

Current
•    Partnership with KZM and Bayreuth University in Bavaria
•    participation in the network of ceramic-producing regions: Stoke-on-Trent, Selb, Faenza, Vezprem and Limoges
•    collaboration with Enterprise Europe Network: Ceramica Innova (technology exchange)
•    Organisation of a Franco-Indian technology seminar in Hyderabad, India, with financing from the CEFIPRA
•    identification of possible European R&D collaboration projects
•    Support with setting up a ceramics cluster in the Aveiro region of Portugal
•    Participation in the UNIC network of ceramic-producing towns

Planned
•    participation in the creation of the Institut Européen de Technologie Céramique (European Ceeramic Technology Institute)
•    participation in programmes included in the7th PCRD
•    third Franco-Japanese ceramics conference IWAC 03 in Limoges

Appendix: examples of R&D projects

• More information on the European Ceramics Cluster