EIT ICT Labs opens a new Satellite in Sophia Antipolis, France

Boosting ICT innovation in Europe - EIT ICT Labs opens a new Satellite in SophiaTech Campus, Sophia Antipolis on Wednesday 28 May.

The new satellite of EIT ICT Labs in Sophia Antipolis offers ideal spaces for meetings between students, university professors, researchers, business and industrial designers in the digital domain to improve the transition from idea to product, from lab to market and to transform students into entrepreneurs. It also provides temporary hosting services for researchers and students willing to mature business projects and for European SMEs wishing to establish themselves in the territory.

Located in the heart of the Sophia Antipolis technopolis, the satellite is hosted within the new SophiaTech campus, which opened in October 2013, and profits from a facility of 300 m2 made available by the University of Nice Sophia Antipolis. It offers offices, "open-space", meeting rooms and teaching space to promote innovation. EIT ICT Labs is already established in Paris, Berlin, Eindhoven, Helsinki, London, Munich, Rennes, Trento and Stockholm. It welcomes now, with Sophia Antipolis, the third French location. At the national level, the French node of the EIT ICT Labs is operationally controlled by INRIA.

The EIT ICT Labs partners present in Sophia Antipolis to date are: the University of Nice Sophia Antipolis, INRIA, EURECOM, Orange, the SCS competitiveness cluster, Thales and SAP. On the occasion of the inauguration, ETSI, the European Telecommunications Standards Institute, and EIT ICT Labs will sign a letter of intent for the two organisations to work on common technology projects and educate future entrepreneurs to standardisation as a tool for innovation.

"The new satellite in Sophia Antipolis allows EIT ICT Labs to closely connect to ICT players in the South of France. This will further strengthen our ability to boost innovation in Europe", explains Willem Jonker, CEO EIT ICT Labs.

"Sophia Antipolis Technology Park, since its creation in 1969, is playing a major role for the development of innovation in ICT in Europe, with a critical mass of international industrial actors (start-ups, SMEs and large companies) crystalised around the World Class Cluster and European Gold Label awarded SCS Competitiveness Cluster. Most of the main EIT ICT Labs' French partners have operations in Sophia Antipolis clearly aligned with some of our innovation areas (e.g., Future Cloud, Future Networking Solutions, Future Urban Life & Mobility, Privacy Security & Trust), it is then natural to materialise this with a real presence through a satellite that will accelerate both the international development of the Park and the innovation in ICT in Europe", says Stéphane Amarger, Director of EIT ICT Labs France.

From October 2014, the satellite will provide students and researchers with a programme of events (developed by the EIT ICT Labs and its partners) around innovation and entrepreneurship thematics in ICT (meetings with entrepreneurs, visits of incubators, lectures, conferences, and more). A master 2 "Internet Technology and Architecture" opens in September 2014. This master in computer science includes a quarter of its courses devoted to the study of innovation processes funded by KIC EIT ICT Labs.