April 28 Valérie Pécresse, Minister for Higher Education and Research, released a list of 34 institutions and laboratories accredited Carnot Institute 2. These new institutes will have 60 million euro per year for 5 years to support research conducted by public laboratories in partnership with business.

Among the newly accredited institutions, Telecom & the Digital Society brings together several partners to the Telecom Institute in the field of information technology and communication.

An Institute which brings together 700 researchers expanded

The previous Telecom-Carnot Institute Eurecom, certified in 2006, is expanding its historic core (composed of the Institut Eurecom and Telecom) to Telecom Saint-Etienne and Ecole Nationale Superieure de Physique de Strasbourg (two school associated to Institut Telecom), two laboratories in information and communication technology  rom the École Polytechnique (LIX and CMAP), and Strate College, School of Industrial Design. Institut Carnot Telecom & Digital Society is a research strength of nearly 700 full-time researchers, 1515 non-permanent researchers (including 1000 doctoral students), for a turnover of research partnerships in 2010 of 44,6 M € and a consolidated research budget of 71,6 M € in 2010. It strengthens the position already held the first Carnot Institute in the field of communication and information science and technology in France.

A nationwide network that facilitates collaborative research with business

The growth of research partnerships with the socio-economic world is central to the promotion of innovation and economic development of all new Carnot institutes. Carnot funding distributed by the ANR (French national agency for research) should indeed allow development in both the quantity and the quality of research contracts. Given the specific characteristics of each component within that Carnot Institute, the Carnot Telecom & Digital Society hopes to enhance its structured technological research in science and information technology by widely opening upto large sectors of information technology users: health, transport, construction, sustainable development, media-press-publishing. This offer also applies to uses of ICT skills and industrial design, crucial to the development of services.

And the establishment of territorial partners in Ile-de-France, PACA, Rhône-Alpes and Alsace, makes it much easier to seek business partnerships in those regions

A major player in the development of the digital society

For Christian Picory, responsible for the the promotion of the Institut Télécom and Delegate Director of the Institut Carnot Telecom & digital society, “this new Carnot Institute builds on the successful experience of the Institut Carnot Telecom- Eurecom which received a very favorable assessment for its accreditation period 2006-2010. Our Carnot has great potential value in terms of skills and new dynamics. Its main objective is to contribute very actively, alongside businesses, to the construction of the digital society, working for the development of digital services that have become the backbone of any economic and societal activity: communication services, access to knowledge, use of ICTS for the digital economy, improving the quality of life and health care, transportation solutions, a safer environment, reducing social divisions, easier access to public services and to cultural content … “