Agence Régionale de Développement Paris Île-de-France

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Testimony of Gérard LARUELLE

Managing Director, ASTech Paris Region

The ASTech Paris Region competitiveness cluster was founded in 2007. By 2011, our team includes 9 people, and 33 of our research projects have been labelled, 28 of which are funded, which amounts to an 83% success rate.

We have a budget of €150m devoted to Research, half of which comes from subsidies. As the head of the aeronautics and space sector in the Paris Region, the cluster has a crucial role to play in gathering the main Paris Region players to work on innovative, collaborative projects. We put SMEs in touch with major groups.Once an SME has been involved in a research project, it rarely fails to renew the partnership. One of the largest projects we have set up to date is the FALAFEL project in the field of Materials and Processes, which aims at manufacturing parts via added, layered processes from metal powders, thus cutting costs and delivery times. Those processes will help produce 80% less shavings. The project has assembled 14 partners around project leader EADS IW for a € 8.7m budget.