Building on a unique strategic partnership formed in 2018, the Technology Transfer Acceleration Companies (SATT)[1] Sayens, Conectus, and SATT Nord are strengthening their collaboration through the national call for projects (AAP) "Acceleration of SATTs."[2] to increase their impact in
the strategic regional sectors of the greater northeast of France.
Their objectives: in line with regional and national strategic areas of excellence, and in keeping with the Grand-Est Business Act regional recovery plan and the France 2030 plan, to boost innovation and the impact of disruptive technologies resulting from public research in their region on businesses in the greater northeast of France; to amplify and accelerate the creation of deep tech startups in their regions.
Building on the partnership established in the Grand Est region, the three SATTs were able to convince the government to renew its confidence in them by proposing a specific action plan to improve their performance and results.
Beyond their tripartite mobilization, the three SATTs will also take part in joint actions at the national level within the SATT Network, which brings together all 13 French SATTs.
Four years of an unprecedented operational partnership between the three SATTs have demonstrated a capacity for collective intelligence that is now yielding concrete results, such as:
- the launch of joint calls for expressions of interest with stakeholders in the innovation ecosystem, which led to the identification of nearly 50 innovative projects among regional academic research teams,
- Thanks to the Team-to-Market program, launched in September 2019 with the support of the Grand Est region, the detection of business talent to lead and launch more than 10 deep tech startups based on innovative technologies from public research laboratories and propelled by the three SATTs.
- events dedicated to innovation at regional trade shows (e.g., 360 Grand Est, Salon Industrie 4.0, etc.) and webinars aimed at businesses and researchers,
- shared sourcing of start-ups eligible for national funding (e.g., French Tech Seed),
A strengthened strike force, focused on innovation in strategic regional, national, and cross-border sectors.
The new joint action program led by the three SATTs will enable:
- to continue and expand the existing tripartite partnership;
- to increase individual and collective performance through the implementation of new joint initiatives that will boost the competitiveness of businesses in the greater northeast of France and public researchers in this region,
In concrete terms, this shared action plan will be rolled out over the period 2022-2024, based on one main objective and three main operational levers.
- Objective: The priority will be to focus on three to four strategic sectors located in the northeastern quarter of France (within the scope of the three SATTs) in order to gain a more detailed understanding of companies' innovation needs and, thanks to the potential of academic research, help them anticipate and support their transformation.
To achieve this objective, the three SATTs will develop multiple operational synergies (pooling of resources, creation of joint project teams, joint management of action plans):
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- Lever 1: Business – territorial development; in order to optimize prospecting, negotiation, co-maturation, and transfer efforts (creation of technology clusters, shared and distributed teams of experts, etc.).
- Lever 2: Marketing and operational communication enabling a stronger presence on
in the field, closer ties with businesses to articulate (market pull) the innovation potential of laboratories with their needs (research-business events, specialized calls for proposals, platforms for promoting technologies, innovations, start-ups, etc.); - Lever 3: Intensified partnership actions with players in the innovation ecosystem, extended to the cross-border level, helping to identify opportunities for collaboration and transfer; ideally supported by ad hoc funding programs (particularly European, cross-border, etc.).
Transregional action supported by action programs operated locally by each SATT
The actions carried out at the level of each SATT are also perfectly in line with these collective actions aimed at improving the entire sourcing value chain, right up to the valorization strategy and the continuum of support for companies and start-ups.