• 5 industrial partners
• CEA-Grenoble and Minatec such as main research partnerse
• 14 patents were registered since 2004
• A R&D budget of €23.5M

Experimental platform for the dissemination of micro and nanotechnology to "conventional" industry and small and medium enterprises.
Metis aims to make technological innovation a driving force in economic development and the competitivity of local firms. With the support of CEA, a key player in micro and nanotechnology and materials, the Metis platform is mobilising a selection of pilot firms located in Northern Isère and working in textile and paper. They were chosen on the basis of good practice in innovation and because they were not in direct competition.

Micro and nanotechnology, thanks to extreme miniaturization and the properties of nanomaterials, can be a source of innovation in conventional sectors such as textile and paper, in particular for identification and traceability, new more environmentally friendly, sustainable surface treatment processes, or indeed smart garments and documents.
Conversely, future developments in large-area microelectronics may benefit from input from the industrial techniques specific to textile and paper manufacturing, adapting them to its particular needs, for example techniques for printing on flexible substrates.
Grenoble-Isère has based its development on technological innovation. Alongside Minatec and other key framework projects currently taking shape, Metis is emblematic of this approach. As such it is attracting increasing interest elsewhere in France. Networking the entire area is a decisive competitive factor for Grenoble-Isère, and for its players in science and industry.
For our firms and research centres, the aim is to stimulate creativity and boost their capacity for innovation. This in turn will strengthen their competitive position, enable them to seize new opportunities together and develop niche strategies.

The Metis approach is based on networking, proximity and cultural crossover.
It is based on the added value to be derived from a pluridisciplinary, territory-oriented approach, with creativity and innovation very closely related to informal, practical links between research and industry.
One of the main objectives is to overcome the technological and cultural obstacles between SMEs and big public research laboratories, which have very different styles of management and decision-making. Metis is a sort of marriage-broker, building bridges between organizations with different backgrounds.

Several lines of research and centres of interest have been identified for the future:

• Materials and nanomaterials, surface functionalization;

• Traceability and identification, and ways of combating counterfeiting

• Electronics on flexible substrates (other than silicon)

• Instrumentation of substrates: health monitoring, security, embedded energy, smart functions, functionalized medical tissues.