Research Partnerships

Conducting a research project Industrial Chaire Research partnerships Cifre thesis

Research partnerships concern research projects involving IMT Atlantique and private companies. It can take different forms, but always aims to combine our scientific excellence with your company's economic performance!

Research partnerships: a strategic collaboration between the school and your company

A research partnership between IMT Atlantique and your company is a strategic collaboration in which our two entities work together to carry out research, development and innovation projects. It can take several forms, but always combines our expertise with yours, to meet your specific needs. For you, it's a lever for competitiveness and economic performance, and for us, it's an opportunity for new research and the valorization of our teams' work through technology transfer. In short, it's a win-win project!

What are the advantages of a research partnership?

Whatever form it takes, a research partnership offers a number of advantages.

Stand out from the competition: conducting a research partnership project is an excellent way to gain a competitive edge over your rivals, whether by designing or improving a product, service or process, or by expanding your offering through the transfer of know-how from our laboratories.
Rely on our scientific and technical expertise: our teams include renowned professors and researchers. Your projects will benefit from their expertise in solving complex problems and developing new technologies.
Pool resources: A research partnership allows you to share the costs and resources needed to carry out ambitious research projects. Your company gains access to IMT Atlantique's laboratories, state-of-the-art equipment and infrastructure.
Activate financial levers: because of the importance it attaches to scientific excellence, but also to economic performance and competitiveness for companies, the French government has set up a number of programs to support research partnerships, backed up by financial assistance.
Focus on collaborative innovation: IMT Atlantique's collaboration with a private company fosters creativity and innovation. Ideas and knowledge circulate between the two partners, which can lead to significant breakthroughs.
Enhancing the value of research results: the results of collaborative research projects can be valorized in the form of patents, licenses or marketable products, according to pre-established agreements in a mutually beneficial approach.
Identify future talent: when a company's teams embark on a research partnership program, they often have the opportunity to identify and recruit young talent from among the students or PhD students involved in the project.

What form does a research partnership take?

A research partnership can take a variety of forms. These are chosen according to different criteria, such as scientific and technical ambition, technological challenge, level of technological maturity, duration (short-, medium- or long-term collaboration), your objectives,etc.. Here are just a few examples!

The joint research project

The joint research project: we work together on a specific research project. It can be financed by both parties, under various conditions, and supported in some cases by public funding.

Industrial research chaire

Industrial research chaire: a company can fund a research chaire at IMT Atlantique. This chaire is generally dedicated to an area of common interest, with a specific professor or researcher assigned to it.

The joint laboratory

The joint laboratory: an ambitious collaboration lasting at least four years. It takes the form of a co-constructed roadmap. It provides a framework for joint ambitions on a scientific topic of shared importance. It also defines the resources needed to achieve this ambition. It's a form of collaboration that's both structuring and long-lasting, but also flexible: within the framework of shared governance, the various projects relating to the chosen scientific theme can evolve over time. Discover the existing IMT Atlantique LabCom.

The CIFRE thesis

The CIFRE thesis: recruiting a doctoral student via an Industrial Agreement for Training through Research, commonly known as a CIFRE thesis, is a good way of strengthening your innovation process. Increasingly popular with companies, it's an essential part of partnership research, and the ideal way to initiate a collaboration! Find out more on our CIFRE thesis page.

How is a research partnership formalized?

As we have seen, a research partnership can be carried out in a variety of ways. In all cases, it is formalized by a contract between IMT Atlantique and your company. This can be a service contract, a collaboration contract, a contract for the provision of services, or a contract for the ex-nihilo creation of a structure such as a joint research laboratory.
The aim of the contract is to facilitate cooperation and protect the interests of all parties involved. It includes, among others, content designed to :

Combine your company's interests and strategic challenges with those of IMT Atlantique, with a view to shared benefits.
Define roles and resource implications.
Describe the scientific program
Supervise the publication, use and exploitation of results.
Guarantee the terms of use and sharing of intellectual property.
Specify confidentiality rules

In short, partnership research between IMT Atlantique and your company offers many advantages, including access to expertise, sharing of resources and promotion of innovation. The forms of this collaboration can vary according to your needs and objectives. This approach fosters synergy between our researchers and your teams, to the benefit of innovation and the development opportunities it can generate for your business.

And don't forget! Although the stakes and expectations are admittedly more modest, it's still true that taking on one of our engineering students for a final year internship, or entrusting a group of students with one of your tasks as part of a tutored project, is also a way for IMT Atlantique and your company to collaborate. To find out more, visit our internship page.

Don't hesitate to contact us if you have any questions, or if you'd like us to support you in a partnered research project, or to put you in touch with IMT Atlantique's research teams. Contact relations-entreprises@imt-atlantique.fr