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Open Innovation Day with Thales: More than 50 European SMEs invited
More than 50 SMEs gatheres in Lyon to present their products an ideas to Thales.
With over 64,000 employees in 56 countries, Thales is one of the giants of the international companies. Whether it is aerospace, logistics, military or IT security, Thales is one of the world market leaders in numerous industries and subject areas. The French company invested 731 million euros in research and development (R & D) last year alone. Innovations are the core of the company, formerly known as Thomson-CSF. Thales is therefore always looking for new, interesting thinking, product and company approaches, even apart from its own R&D efforts. Thales’ Open Innovation Day in cooperation with Minalogic and Silicon Europe has been promoted for months. Over 100 start-ups, small and medium-sized enterprises applied.
In the past weeks, the Thales company center in La Défense, France, has received more than 100 applications from Fondazione Distretto Green & High Tech MB, DSP Valley, HighTech NL, MESAP, Minalogic, NMI, SCS, Silicon Alps and Silicon Saxony. The cluster alliance Silicon Europe had called. Its members and many of the affiliates used the unique opportunity to network with one of the largest and most important companies in the high-tech industry. Especially in France and the cluster Minalogic caused the call for huge resonance. 26 of the 53 invited companies are members of the French high-tech cluster. MESAP (7 participants), Distretto (5), DSP Valley (5) and Silicon Saxony followed with some distance.
The application phase for the Thales Innovation Day began this year with a clear requirement profile. Innovations in the areas of digital transformation, microelectronics and materials, IT security, sensors and IoT were in demand. From the more than 100 applications, 19 companies were selected for a pitch in front of leading Thales employees as well as a further 34 companies for the connected B2B discussions. A great success and an exciting opportunity for each of the lucky companies mainly from the Silicon Europe network.
A continuation of the Innovation Day series is already planned. Interest in the format is growing steadily. Initial discussions with other major global companies have already been held. But for now, it's time to wait. Silicon Europe is looking closely at today's 19th October in the direction of France. Will the Innovation Day 2017 be a success for all the members involved? Silicon Europe keeps the fingers crossed.