UTC is launch­ing the CREM joint lab­o­ra­to­ry with the CETIM to accel­er­ate inno­va­tion in the field of elec­tro­mo­bil­i­ty and address the mul­ti­phys­i­cal chal­lenges that are pro­found­ly trans­form­ing the mechan­i­cal engi­neer­ing indus­tries. This com­ple­men­tary part­ner­ship tar­gets the off-road sec­tor, the rail indus­try, mechan­i­cal equip­ment, indus­tri­al machin­ery and, more broad­ly, all sec­tors com­mit­ted to decar­boniz­ing their systems.

CREM, an acronym for CETIM-Rober­val for Elec­tro­mo­bil­i­ty, brings togeth­er the sci­en­tif­ic strengths and exper­tise of UTC’s Rober­val Lab­o­ra­to­ry and those of the CETIM research cen­tre at the inter­face with indus­try. It pro­vides indus­try part­ners with a high-lev­el sci­en­tif­ic tool to sup­port them as they nav­i­gate the pro­found trans­for­ma­tions of low-car­bon mobil­i­ty. “The Rober­val Laboratory’s tra­jec­to­ry is based on build­ing an ecosys­tem of long-term indus­tri­al part­ner­ships, close­ly aligned with its sci­en­tif­ic ambi­tions. CREM marks a new stage in this strat­e­gy and is the fourth joint lab­o­ra­to­ry cre­at­ed with a trust­ed indus­tri­al part­ner,” explains Mar­i­on Ris­bet, direc­tor of UTC-Rober­val. CREM will enable progress on the mul­ti­phys­i­cal chal­lenges relat­ed to elec­tric mobil­i­ty, pro­vide deep­er insight into the vibro-acoustic and psy­choa­coustic issues of elec­tric vehicles—which are essen­tial for com­fort, per­cep­tion, and the over­all per­for­mance of mecha­tron­ic systems—and accel­er­ate the devel­op­ment of mod­els, test­ing meth­ods, dig­i­tal tools, and demon­stra­tors that meet the needs of indus­try , par­tic­u­lar­ly in the off-road, auto­mo­tive, rail and mechan­i­cal equip­ment sec­tors. The lab­o­ra­to­ry oper­ates through inte­grat­ed coop­er­a­tion, draw­ing on the plat­forms, exper­tise, human resources, and equip­ment of both part­ners. CREM also con­tributes to the imple­men­ta­tion of research results as part of the e‑Mobility R&D pro­gramme led by CETIM to devel­op inno­va­tion and tech­nol­o­gy trans­fer capa­bil­i­ties for the ben­e­fit of man­u­fac­tur­ers. CETIM plays a key role here as an inter­face with these sec­tors, while UTC pro­vides research, analy­sis and train­ing capabilities.

Bringing together scientific, experimental, and technological expertise

UTC expects this lab­o­ra­to­ry to pro­duce mod­els, test­ing meth­ods, dig­i­tal tools, and demon­stra­tors capa­ble of reduc­ing the tech­no­log­i­cal uncer­tain­ties asso­ci­at­ed with the elec­tri­fi­ca­tion of sys­tems. For Prof. Claire Rossi, Direc­tor and Vice-Chan­cel­lor of UTC, this joint lab­o­ra­to­ry is tru­ly the result of the strate­gic and long-stand­ing col­lab­o­ra­tion between UTC and CETIM. “It illus­trates the strength of the syn­er­gy between UTC’s aca­d­e­m­ic research and the CETIM’s oper­a­tional exper­tise. By com­bin­ing our plat­forms, teams, and exper­tise, we are strength­en­ing our abil­i­ty to address the tech­no­log­i­cal chal­lenges of elec­tro­mo­bil­i­ty and to sup­port man­u­fac­tur­ers in their trans­for­ma­tions. This inte­grat­ed approach, which aligns research, inno­va­tion, and train­ing close­ly with socio-eco­nom­ic needs, is deeply embed­ded in UTC’s DNA. CREM is a con­crete man­i­fes­ta­tion of this: accel­er­at­ing tech­nol­o­gy trans­fer to indus­try while train­ing the engi­neers and researchers who will dri­ve future tran­si­tions. The joint lab­o­ra­to­ry is co-led by Vin­cent Lan­franchi on behalf of UTC, who has more than 25 years of sci­en­tif­ic expe­ri­ence in elec­tro­mo­bil­i­ty, hav­ing led numer­ous projects and indus­tri­al part­ner­ships in this field, and Éti­enne Camus, the project man­ag­er in charge of imple­ment­ing CETIM’s e‑Mobility R&D roadmap. This 11^th joint lab­o­ra­to­ry fur­ther strength­ens CETIM’s col­lab­o­ra­tive research mod­el, rec­og­nized as an essen­tial dri­ver of com­pet­i­tive­ness and auton­o­my for French indus­tri­al companies.

Serving the mechanical engineering industries

CETIM, cer­ti­fied as a Carnot Insti­tute since 2006, has been estab­lish­ing joint lab­o­ra­to­ries for over 25 years, ded­i­cat­ed to sci­en­tif­ic and tech­no­log­i­cal inno­va­tion in sup­port of mechan­i­cal engi­neer­ing com­pa­nies. “CREM is ful­ly aligned with our 2024–2027 roadmap under the Objec­tives and Per­for­mance Agree­ment and will help over­come sci­en­tif­ic bar­ri­ers to fos­ter inno­va­tion in the mechan­i­cal engi­neer­ing indus­tries. Research is a strate­gic invest­ment that must be sus­tained over the long term. This new part­ner­ship with UTC strength­ens a long-stand­ing col­lab­o­ra­tion and enables us to antic­i­pate changes, secure the nec­es­sary exper­tise, and trans­form sci­en­tif­ic advances into val­ue for the entire mechan­i­cal engi­neer­ing sec­tor ‚” says Daniel Richet, CEO of CETIM. While UTC and CETIM are now tak­ing their strate­gic part­ner­ship to a new lev­el, the col­lab­o­ra­tion between the two orga­ni­za­tions already has a long and fruit­ful his­to­ry, start­ing with the found­ing of UTC. It start­ed as a series of one-off projects but grad­u­al­ly evolved into an increas­ing num­ber of joint ini­tia­tives over the years, cul­mi­nat­ing in 2008 with the first frame­work agree­ment, which was renewed in 2025. These projects have helped build a shared cul­ture among the teams—a way of work­ing based on exper­i­men­ta­tion, mod­el­ling, tech­nol­o­gy inte­gra­tion, and tech­nol­o­gy trans­fer to indus­try. CREM builds on this momen­tum by now focus­ing it on the major chal­lenges of electromobility.

Concrete Prospects for Useful Solutions

The prospects are sig­nif­i­cant. CREM aims to accel­er­ate the devel­op­ment of solu­tions for elec­tro­mo­bil­i­ty, par­tic­u­lar­ly regard­ing key com­po­nents and sys­tems: bat­ter­ies, invert­ers, motors, pow­er­train inte­gra­tion and the ther­mal, mechan­i­cal and vibro-acoustic behav­iour of elec­tri­fied sys­tems. One of the key chal­lenges will be to bet­ter under­stand and con­trol the inter­ac­tions between these phe­nom­e­na. In an elec­tric vehi­cle or an elec­tri­fied machine, per­for­mance does not depend on a sin­gle com­po­nent but on the entire sys­tem. A mod­i­fi­ca­tion to the motor can have ther­mal, mechan­i­cal, or acoustic effects; an inte­gra­tion con­straint can alter over­all per­for­mance. CREM aims to address these inter­ac­tions holis­ti­cal­ly. For UTC, the per­spec­tive is both region­al and indus­tri­al. The goal is to strength­en an inno­va­tion ecosys­tem in Com­piègne and through­out the Hauts-de-France, in line with nation­al and Euro­pean ener­gy tran­si­tion needs. By com­bin­ing research, train­ing, plat­forms, and tech­nol­o­gy trans­fer, CREM aims to sup­port com­pa­nies in their design, redesign and decar­boniza­tion efforts. Ulti­mate­ly, the goal is for CREM to become a rec­og­nized hub for man­u­fac­tur­ers fac­ing the chal­lenges of electrification—a place where one can under­stand phys­i­cal phe­nom­e­na, test solu­tions, devel­op tools and pre­pare the tech­nolo­gies of tomor­row. This approach is ful­ly in line with UTC’s DNA: high-lev­el research activ­i­ties, open to prac­ti­cal appli­ca­tions, tech­nolo­gies and indus­tri­al transformations.

The CETIM-UTC relationship, a success story

The first joint lab­o­ra­to­ry, Latim, was estab­lished in year 2000, Since then, numer­ous projects have fol­lowed: col­lab­o­ra­tions on mate­r­i­al fatigue, Euro­pean projects such as H2REF (hydro­gen) and research con­duct­ed under the hydraulics chair estab­lished by the 2008 agree­ment, in part­ner­ship with Artema. This col­lab­o­ra­tion has also yield­ed very con­crete results, such as demon­stra­tors devel­oped with stu­dents, for exam­ple: hydrauli­cal­ly pow­ered drones, which clear­ly illus­trate the link between research, edu­ca­tion and inno­va­tion. To sum up, this part­ner­ship is built on a strong sci­en­tif­ic foun­da­tion, with more than twen­ty doc­tor­al the­ses and sev­er­al post­doc­tor­al fel­low­ships under­tak­en since 2008, cov­er­ing top­ics rang­ing from fatigue to acoustics, includ­ing man­u­fac­tur­ing process­es and eco-design. CREM serves to struc­ture and expand upon this exist­ing framework.

KD