Can you tell our readers how is the Foundation involved in the Quatrium platform?

The Qua­tri­um project has a clear goal: to enable microbusi­ness­es and SMEs in the Hauts-de-France Region to quick­ly embrace the chal­lenges of “Indus­try 4.0” and relat­ed tech­nolo­gies, from dig­i­tal trans­for­ma­tion to col­lab­o­ra­tive robot­ics, all the way to the prac­ti­cal imple­men­ta­tion of solu­tions in their fac­to­ries. It is not just about rais­ing aware­ness, but about sup­port­ing a shift toward tak­ing actions, from dis­cov­er­ing the tech­nolo­gies to an oper­a­tional deploy­ment. The project is man­aged by the CETIM [based in Sen­lis ND], a major local play­er and one of our spon­sors. We have agreed to sup­port the oper­a­tion of the UTC’s Qua­tri­um plat­form for 3 years. This involves, for exam­ple, sup­port­ing expens­es that improve and enhance the platform’s vis­i­bil­i­ty, which will ben­e­fit small­er com­pa­nies. In fact, the key for the Foun­da­tion is to posi­tion itself along­side insti­tu­tion­al fund sources act­ing as a cat­a­lyst to sub­se­quent­ly gen­er­ate real momen­tum in seek­ing phil­an­thropic fund­ing to sup­port any initiative.

Is this part of the Foundation’s already extensive missions?

Yes, it also exists to pro­vide more momen­tum and dynamism, par­tic­u­lar­ly for local busi­ness­es. To remain com­pet­i­tive, these busi­ness­es must also con­sid­er their dig­i­tal trans­for­ma­tion. And not all of them nec­es­sar­i­ly have the means to do so. So, in fact, this Qua­tri­um plat­form will notably enable the cre­ation of MOOCs, videos… One of our objec­tives is there­fore to secure sup­port from larg­er-scale part­ners, because the Foun­da­tion is an insti­tu­tion­al alliance between UTC-Com­pieg­ne and a num­ber of indus­tri­al play­ers, notably the Saint-Gob­ain Group and Sopra Ste­ria. For UTC, through the Foun­da­tion, the idea is to sup­port local busi­ness­es, to co-cre­ate, and to build influ­ence among region­al stakeholders.

What lessons can be drawn from this initial phase of the Quatrium platform initiative?

In a Region with a high con­cen­tra­tion of indus­try like the Hauts-de-France — where the chal­lenges of com­pet­i­tive­ness and dig­i­tal trans­for­ma­tion are sig­nif­i­cant — Qua­tri­um can become a true region­al hub for dig­i­tal trans­for­ma­tion. The idea, through all of this, is to lever­age the UTC, the plat­form, and its stake­hold­ers as a key play­er in com­pet­i­tive­ness and indus­tri­al research on the so-called “indus­try of the future, as well as on the dig­i­tal­iza­tion of all pro­duc­tion units. It also involves high­light­ing the exper­tise of UTC’s Rober­val Lab­o­ra­to­ry to achieve this. The Foun­da­tion thus plays a cat­alyt­ic and lever­ag­ing role with oth­er pub­lic and pri­vate part­ners. Above all, it enables the trans­fer of indus­try. This direct link between research and the field con­sti­tutes a unique com­pet­i­tive advan­tage for the region. By struc­tur­ing this ecosys­tem, the Foun­da­tion sus­tain­ably strength­ens the eco­nom­ic and tech­no­log­i­cal impact of UTC. It is there­fore a strate­gic invest­ment in ser­vice of region­al indus­tri­al trans­for­ma­tion, and not mere­ly sym­bol­ic support!

KD