Innovation Strategy

 
The Institut Telecom: boosting open innovation in information and communication technologies

Our vision of innovation

Innovation is constantly accelerating and the complexity of the systems that are being developed makes it difficult for one company to master the whole of a value chain. We therefore find ourselves in an economy of alliances, in which the key issue is to be able to create an ecosystem around ourselves that can propose a comprehensive and ever-changing offering. 
On the strength of the academic and scientific excellence of our laboratories, we identify the technologies to be supported and transferred to the business world. In parallel, our role is to bring together researchers, SMEs and large corporations in an open innovation framework.

The Institut Telecom, partner of major corporations

The Institut Telecom has been a partner of large corporations (operators, equipment manufacturers, IT companies, banks…) since its creation, through its Fondation Telecom,bilateral contracts, joint laboratories, national research projects, European consortiums etc.Some examples of our partners: Alcatel-Lucent, Orange, SFR, BNP Paribas, Bouygues Telecom, Accenture, Altran, EADS, Cisco, EDF, Thalès, Technicolor…
Internationally, the Institut Telecom is a major player in European programs (notably in the ICT strand of the FP) and a partner of major industrial groups in a number of consortiums.

The Institut Telecom, partner of SMEs

The Institut Telecom is ever active at the side of SMEs to help them enhance their technological know-how and construct three-way alliances with major groups offering access to worldwide markets and international business.

To boost these various actions, the Institut Telecom has set up an SME Club, today with no fewer than fifty innovative companies united by a determination to grow and by close relations with the Institut’s researchers.
By its neutrality, its research power and its countless partnerships with different players, the Institut Telecom is in an ideal position to boost the connections that can generate joint innovation.
We build on these rich relations and an entrepreneurial approach to propose three-way R&D projects (Corporations / SMEs / Institut Telecom) with target markets. This approach is a development tool at the service notably of the SMEs in our environment.

The Institut Telecom in Silicon Valley

 

As part of the internationalization of its innovation policy, in May 2010 the Institut Telecom announced the opening of a branch in the heart of Silicon Valley. This site, created in collaboration with Carnegie Mellon University – Silicon Valley Campus, is a springboard for extending the work of the Institut Telecom and its schools into the United States. Its objective is to provide on-the-spot support for the development of SMEs and start-ups that are close to the Institut, and to establish new academic and industrial partnerships.

 

 

Entrepreneurship at the Institut Telecom: over 400 start-ups incubated since 2000

Entrepreneurship is one of the keys to the training on offer in our schools. Since 2000, we have created incubators on each of our campuses and we have now reached a figure of over 50 new start-ups created each year. These incubators are a genuine business breeding ground for our schools, students and researchers.

 

 

The companies from our incubators regularly win awards in the National Business Creation Competition in the categories for emerging companies and those in development.

Examples:

• In 2010 Secure IC, ThinkStraight and NetSAS won awards in the "Creation-Development" and "Emerging" categories.
• The great success of Stribe in the Tech100 in the US and its first prize at the Web 09 competition
• The contracts signed by E3S with Walt Disney and Texas Instruments after incubation.
• These successes are an illustration of our international focus from the outset. These awards are recognition of the support work provided by the incubators and a sign of the growth potential of these SMEs, such as the widely-known Linagora, a product of our incubators in free software which has now reached a headcount of some 250 people in 2010, and has kept its ties with the Institut Telecom.