reegle

60, Boulevard Saint Michel
Paris Cedex 06 (75272)
France
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Phone: 33 1 40 51 90 50
Fax: 33 1 40 51 00 94
Email: cavalieri@armines.ensmp.fr
http://www-cenerg.cma.fr/

A public-interest mission based on an economic exchange

The concept of "industry-oriented" research spurred the creation of ARMINES in 1967, at a time when the insularity of the world of education, research and business was considered a major shortcoming of the French system. Industry-oriented research is based on the shariing of knowledge and experience by researchers and manufacturers. It is neither basic nor competitive. Rather, it is built on "partnership" that gives rise to an original culture in which the scientific approach is constantly tested against the needs and realities of industry. It encourages the general development through inovation. It has to be managed within appropriate framework, and its system of co-financing helps develop laboratories in which ARMINES and the Ecoles des Mines network in particular pool their resources.
Another basic function of ARMINES is, by the very nature of organization, its participation to the training through research. Every year the association steers many young researchers towards industry, a vital component in the transfer of knowledge and technology.

An organization tailored to put on the field researchers

The fact that ARMINES is a private body gives it the essential reactivity needed to allow laboratories to deal with the economic sphere: the ability to make decisions and be accountable while remaining responsive and free of administrative inertia, all of which makes it possible to carry out the sort of activity for which researchers need elbow room. ARMINES has a management structure, a statutory auditor and a Board of Directors, which meets under the supervision of a government commissioner and has four seats set aside for representatives of government agencies: the Conseil Général des Mines, the French Ministry of Research and the Ministry of Industry. Agreements are in place to govern the relationships binding ARMINES to engineering schools, first and foremost the network of Ecoles des Mines (Paris, Saint-Etienne, Douai, Alès, Nantes and Albi-Carmaux) under the supervision of the French Ministry of Industry. ARMINES also brings together laboratories belonging to the Ecole Polytechnique, the Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Techniques Avancées (ENSTA) and the Ecole Navale.

An operational unit : The research centre common to ARMINES and to the engineering schools

The basic operational unit is a research centre shared by ARMINES and its partner engineering school; here, ARMINES makes its own personnel, investment and operational assets available on a scale to match the volume of contractual activity. Every centre has its own area of expertise, as well as an autonomous scientific management structure that aims to balance its operating accounts every year. When these human and material resources are combined with the means provided by the Ã0coles, the research centre becomes capable of growing and adapting to its environment. ARMINES is thus a horizontal organization that functions on the basis of initiative and responsibility in a very demanding context. For example, taking all expenditure (including payroll) together, the centres shared by ARMINES and the Paris Ecole des Mines depend on budgetary and contractual resources on a 50-50 basis. Scientific teams themselves are thus placed in an "entrepreneurial" situation that is something of an oddity in the French research landscape, given that the balance between training, academic activity and contractual research lies at the core of the laboratories dynamics.

1. Actor:

   Research / University

2. Sector:

   Energy

3. Activity:

   France