IRT B-com recognised by the State: 250 M€ over ten years

IRT B-com recognised by the State: 250 M€ over ten years

On 30th January, Laurent Wauquiez, France’s Minister for Higher Education and Research, announced the founding of the Breton institute of technological research, IRT B-com.

“This is very good news for us”, said Vincent Marcatté, President of the Breton business cluster, Imaging & Networks, and one of the main supporters of the B-com project. IRT B-com is responsible for inventing the images and networks of the future and designing digital health services (or e-health). Brittany is setting up its own “Silicon Valley” with the institute’s main centre housed in a 12 000 sq. metre building in Rennes Atalante Beaulieu and two branch centres, in Brest and Lanion.
IRT will have a budget of 250 million euros over ten years, of which 130 M€ is to be provided by the State. It is intended to generate 2,000 direct jobs and between 10,000 and 20,000 indirect jobs, making Brittany a world leader in the image technology sector. The B-com project began in May 2010 as part of the national programme of investments for the future. The government decided at that time to set aside two billion euros to fund six new IRTs. Their purpose would be to stimulate research, create and market new technologies and generate employment and added value. Some fifteen towns and regions, including Brittany, locked horns in an attempt to win one of the institutes.
“In the end, last May, we were asked to take another look at our project and refine our objectives,” said Vincent Marcatté. The whole team got back to work and, on 7th December, it presented its B-com project, version 2.0, with greater emphasis on imaging, networks and e-health.
The final original feature of B-com was the pooling of skills by more than fifty partners, including large groups such as Orange, Thales and TDF as well as local SMEs, start-ups and university laboratories.
The Science & Technology Park in Rennes and its colleagues in Brest and Lannion were involved in the preparation of the IRT project. At present, they are looking at the conditions under which SMEs can be involved in B-com.