This is France’s top research centre, after Paris, with one of the country’s largest number of scientists and high training capacity, reflected in its 62,800-strong student population. With 500 companies and more than 38,500 jobs, information and communications technology has enjoyed spectacular growth in Grenoble-Isere in the past 15 years. So what makes the region tick? High-quality university training, top-grade basic and applied research, the invaluable proximity of international research facilities – the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF), the Institut Laue Langevin (ILL) specializing in neutron science and technology, and the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) – and last but not least a solid industrial base.

Synergy and exchange between disciplines key to success

Grenoble-Isere has based its success and notoriety on a single model: interdisciplinary working and synergy between training, research and industry. The strength of this model resides in its ability to innovate, hatch new projects, encourage exchanges and the sharing of innovation. By offering a complete added-value chain from training to industrial output of new technologies, Grenoble-Isere bridges the gap between researchers and leading companies such as Schneider Electric, STMicroelectronics or Hewlett Packard, while drawing on smaller innovative firms and start-ups. In recent years the region has demonstrated its ability to rise to the technology challenges of tomorrow thanks to a range of projects that pool energies. Testimony to this achievement is the launch of the Minatec campus in 2006, mobilizing the full gamut of players in the Grenoble area (universities, research organizations, companies and local authorities). Now with a €2.3bn R&D budget and a further $1.25bn in capital investment spread over the next five years, the Nano 2012 programme, officially launched last April and involving STMicroelectronics with several partners (including IBM and CEA-Leti), makes Grenoble-Isere a global centre for tomorrow’s nanoelectronics developments.

Pivotal role for technology in key social issues

European Synchrotron Radiation Facility

Grenoble-Isere stands out for the high level of expertise it has developed in and around silicon technology and integrated circuits. But the area is also consolidating its position in emerging markets such as biotechnology and new energy technologies. This should come as no surprise. The semiconductor industry, well represented in the Grenoble area, serves as a foundation for much technological innovation, deploying solutions to major challenges for tomorrow’s world in fields as diverse as renewable energy, transport, telecommunications and medicine. Thanks to advanced circuits the necessary processing power can be embedded in advanced products. Even in conventional industry it has become vital to offer smart, miniaturized systems, enabling firms to retain their competitive edge in an ever-changing global market. Thanks to the diversity of its skills and a long tradition of working together Grenoble-Isere is one of the leading centres in the race to surmount future challenges, with as an additional asset an enviable situation in the midst of the French Alps, superb natural resources, a buoyant economy and a lively arts scene.