The Qua­tri­um plat­form is man­aged by the CETIM. Its mis­sion is to sup­port invest­ment projects in tech­nolo­gies for the so-called “indus­try of the future” and the eco­log­i­cal and ener­gy tran­si­tion of man­u­fac­tur­ing com­pa­nies in the Hauts-de-France region Hauts-de-France Region. An in-depth look with Gabriel Péru, indus­tri­al devel­op­ment advi­sor and lead for the Qua­tri­um plat­form in Hauts-de-France.

Qua­tri­um is a pro­gramme launched by Gov­ern­ment Incen­tive and to which CETIM respond­ed. The French Gov­ern­ment want­ed to estab­lish “accel­er­a­tor” plat­forms so that com­pa­nies could have points of con­tact with spe­cial­ists and find tech­no­log­i­cal solu­tions to mod­ern­ize their factories.

“The idea is to mobi­lize as many part­ners as pos­si­ble to pro­vide a wide range of tech­no­log­i­cal solu­tions. And since UTC mem­bers are among CETIM’s long-stand­ing part­ners, it was nat­ur­al to invite them to join us in this project, and that is exact­ly what they did. Espe­cial­ly since every orga­ni­za­tion has goals for tech­nol­o­gy trans­fer (TT) to busi­ness­es, and Qua­tri­um is tru­ly the ide­al mech­a­nism for that,” explains Gabriel Péru, lead of the Qua­tri­um Hauts-de ‑France plat­form at CETIM in Senlis.

To secure projects and accel­er­ate the trans­for­ma­tion of indus­tri­al com­pa­nies, Qua­tri­um offers per­son­al­ized path­ways for each com­pa­ny. Qua­tri­um will sup­port the trans­for­ma­tion of these com­pa­nies by facil­i­tat­ing exchanges. A first step involves wel­com­ing com­pa­nies to their local plat­forms (CETIM, ENSAM in Lille, UTC, Transal­ley, Valen­ci­ennes). This fund­ed meet­ing allows com­pa­nies to inter­act with spe­cial­ists, ben­e­fit from their feed­back, and explore a range of tech­no­log­i­cal solu­tions. At the end, a doc­u­ment out­lin­ing the key areas to address is for­mal­ized. In a sec­ond phase, the com­pa­ny can call upon one of Quatrium’s part­ners to assist with the imple­men­ta­tion of its projects. “It’s clear that right now, there is a wave of eco­nom­ic and tech­no­log­i­cal upheaval, and that com­pa­nies must trans­form them­selves and mod­ern­ize. Mod­ern­iz­ing an indus­tri­al com­pa­ny involves tech­nol­o­gy, orga­ni­za­tion, process­es, prod­ucts, and mate­ri­als. CETIM and its part­ners have orga­nized them­selves through Qua­tri­um to pro­vide solu­tions to com­pa­nies and ensure the suc­cess of their projects.”

A Target Audience: SMEs

SMEs do not nec­es­sar­i­ly have the resources need­ed to mon­i­tor or fore­see tech­no­log­i­cal devel­op­ments. Thus, orga­ni­za­tions like the CETIM or UTC-Com­pieg­ne — which con­duct research and are in con­tact with solu­tion providers — can pro­vide answers to com­pa­nies’ ques­tions. CETIM receives an aver­age of two to three com­pa­nies per week.

“Many ask us to sup­port them in secur­ing their mod­ern­iza­tion efforts. This may involve assis­tance in choos­ing tech­nolo­gies, draft­ing solu­tion spec­i­fi­ca­tions, or help­ing to opti­mize their process­es to improve qual­i­ty and per­for­mance. Through its mul­ti-orga­ni­za­tion part­ner­ship struc­ture, Qua­tri­um will be able to reach the entire man­u­fac­tur­ing sec­tor in Hauts-de-France. This includes indus­tri­al machinery—of course, with man­u­fac­tur­ers of com­po­nents, sub­assem­blies, and equip­ment for var­i­ous industries—as well as com­pa­nies in the chem­i­cal and agro-food sec­tors,” explains Gabriel Péru, before explain­ing the mean­ing of the word Qua­tri­um. Four A’s: for accel­er­a­tor, accom­pa­ny­ing busi­ness coach and architect—to define the solu­tions to be imple­ment­ed. And final­ly, the a for a group of stake­hold­ers that includes UTC-Com­pieg­ne, HDFID, UIMM, Transal­ley, and the ‘Grande Ecole’ des Arts et Métiers. A col­lab­o­ra­tive effort involv­ing reg­u­lar com­mu­ni­ca­tion with part­ners, par­tic­u­lar­ly through the “win­dow on” ini­tia­tive for con­duct­ing remote work­shop demonstrations.

KD