When the CEA puts innovation and technology within reach of Béziers businesses

Cyril Dumet, director of CEA Occitanie, presented his innovation support tools to entrepreneurs from Béziers. Diane Petitmangin – Midi Libre

The French research organization offered entrepreneurs from Béziers, this Tuesday, May 28, at the IUT of Béziers, a meeting to discover its approach. The goal ? Boost their innovation projects.

This is undoubtedly one of the most little-known facets of the CEA, the Atomic Energy and Alternative Energies Commission: "Supporting manufacturers in their innovation projects", from start-ups to large groups, including SMEs. This Tuesday, May 28, he offered businesses in Béziers – around sixty people had registered – a meeting, at the IUT of Béziers, to present its approach.

"The CEA is a big house". Long known for its work on nuclear energy and its military applications, the scope of intervention of this public institute is however much broader with its department dedicated to technological research. Initially concentrated on the Grenoble and Paris-Saclay sites, it has spread, since 2013, to seven regions, including Occitanie.

In the global Top 100 for innovation

"The CEA 's mission is to develop sovereign technologies around energies, whether civil or military, but it also has the vocation to put itself at the service of industrial sectors", summarizes Cyril Dumet, director of CEA Occitanie, highlighting the fact that &amp ;quot;we are the only French research organization in the world Top 100 innovation players".

The areas on which the CEA focuses are"all the technologies around the major transitions" : energy and ecological, digital (electronic components, data processing…), medical (screening of & rsquo;Ebola or mad cow disease, launch of the Yseult MRI). But there is no question for the 22,000 in-house researchers to confine themselves to fundamental research; the objective is to transform their discoveries into concrete solutions adapted to the needs of a sector or a company.

Grow in competitiveness

"Our goal is to offer local sectors CEA technologies and patents to help them grow in competitiveness but also, if it’s a disruptive technology, offer them research resources by working together, using CEA technology to bring it to a product, use or service specific to the company".

The Béziers start-up APS came to share its experience with the research center. Around fifteen demonstration modules, "testifying to its impact on the innovation strategies of the many companies that have placed their trust in it" were presented to the participants this morning. Like this switch designed with the Legrand brand which allows you to turn a light bulb on or off, without a wire or battery.

Link between training and industrialization

What is interesting about Béziers is that "The ecosystem is very dynamic and cultivates a real esprit de corps and mutual aid. Certainly, the CEA is known here for having co-founded Genvia (high-performance solid oxide electrolyzer technology for the production of decarbonized hydrogen). ;was developed by the CEA, Editor's note) but our goal is to contribute to this ecosystem and the reindustrialization of the region".

Another significant advantage, "there is a real link here between training and industrialization". The IUT, for example, recently opened a "Robotics and artificial intelligence" which is a hit. "Thanks to the revival of Camerone with Schlumberger, to the arrival of Genvia, concludes Cyril Dumet, all stakeholders, public and private, have responded, are aligned and are finding solutions together. This is very interesting for the future.

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