The MINATEC IDEAs Laboratory, located at the MINATEC campus in Grenoble, is a multi-partner, shared innovation center. The Laboratory is a joint initiative of the French Atomic and Alternative Energy Commission (CEA), France Telecom, STMicroelectronics, and Hewlett-Packard, and was established to develop useful applications for new technologies. Its uniquely diverse team of engineers, manufacturin
g companies, and researchers in both the social sciences and humanities makes it a particularly effective innovation platform. The Laboratory aims to bring together the advanced technology skills available at the CEA and MINATEC—Europe’s leading micro- and nanotechnology research center—and combine them with a more people-oriented approach that takes into account both new applications and the concerns of society at large. At the MINATEC IDEAs Laboratory, technology experts, engineers, and users work together in a three-pronged, design-oriented approach that builds upon the R&D work carried out at the CEA and MINATEC. In addition to a highly-qualified in-house team, the Laboratory also draws from Grenoble’s standing as an international academic, scientific, technological, and manufacturing hub. The region has world-class skills in not only design, but also the social sciences and humanities. The MINATEC IDEAs Laboratory is located right next to CEA Grenoble’s labs and has close ties with the surrounding business community, offering outside organizations the opportunity to use an expansive pool of cutting-edge technologies. The Laboratory is housed in an 800 m2 facility on the joint CEA-MINATEC campus. It has 80 part-time employees with backgrounds in science, technology, and industry. Around a dozen research projects are carried out each year at the Laboratory with its principal corporate partners: Renault, EDF, and Bouygues Telecom. The Laboratory also has a fully-equipped showroom to unveil new models and concepts, as well as a Smart Room for creative brainstorming and user testing.
