Siemens and the École nationale supérieure d'arts et métiers (ENSAM, or Arts et Métiers for short), one of France’s oldest and most prestigious elite engineering schools, have agreed on a comprehensive strategic partnership. A key element of the partnership is the establishment of a smart manufacturing hub on the Paris campus of Arts et Métiers. Siemens will support the “Evolutive Learning Factories (ELF)” project at Arts et Métiers, which trains students, startups and specialists in a realistic and highly digitalized production environment. The partnership was signed as part of the Siemens for Startups Program. It underscores the shared commitment to build an industrial ecosystem that promotes competitiveness in France and throughout Europe.
The goal is to drive forward the adoption of digital technologies for industry, strengthen the competitiveness of companies and train engineers who will design and further develop the industrial systems of tomorrow. Through this partnership, Siemens and the engineering school are combining their efforts to create an innovation ecosystem that will network academic research, industry, small and medium-sized enterprises, startups and public sector stakeholders even more effectively with each other.
“Thanks to its partnership with Siemens, Arts et Métiers is expanding its capacity to train engineers capable of quickly integrating innovative technical solutions into industrial processes,” said Laurent Champaney, CEO of Arts et Métiers. “As a result, Arts et Métiers students will benefit from the expertise of the Siemens teams at the Smart Factoring Hub for their projects aimed at enhancing the technical capabilities of the Evolutive Learning Factories on the institution’s campuses.”
Siemens and Arts et Métiers also aim to work on joint research projects in key areas, including the digitalization of industrial systems, the energy transition and decarbonization, industrial artificial intelligence, as well as advanced robotics and automation.
Establishment of a smart manufacturing hub on the Paris campus
The smart manufacturing hub will serve as a comprehensive platform for demonstrating, testing and implementing industrial digital technologies. The latest innovations in the areas of industrial artificial intelligence, automation, building solutions and electrification will be put to use in a real-world production environment. The hub is open to all companies.
Faster development of industrial startups
The Arts et Métiers incubator plays an important role in the French ecosystem. Siemens and the engineering school want to work together in this area to support high-potential industrial startups by providing them with access to domain knowhow, infrastructure and market opportunities. The collaboration will include:
- The joint development and provision of support services for startups (for example, to develop prototypes of their solutions at the hub)
- easier access to Siemens’ technological expertise, knowhow and experts
- the selection of specific pilot projects
- further development of the Arts et Métiers incubator through higher visibility of the supported startups.
Siemens’ global program for collaborating with startups, “Siemens for Startups,” which comprises the three central pillars: Connect, Collaborate and Empower, forms the basis for the partnership with the engineering school. The program offers startups access to industrial-grade technology, Siemens experts, pilot projects and the Siemens Xcelerator Marketplace. As already announced at this year’s VivaTech, the program has been expanded to include three software packages specifically tailored to startups, which make it easier for young European companies to access Siemens industrial software. The packages are tailored to the budgets and pace of startups and grow with the companies.
