New Resource for Provence’s Optics-Photonics Sector: The Technoptic Business Services Center

Opening scheduled for November 2011 at Marseille-Provence’s Château-Gombert Technology Park

The fruit of a close partnership between Marseille Provence Métropole municipality, the Optitec competitive cluster and Marseille Innovation, the Technoptic Business Services Center has a three-fold purpose as enterprise incubator, business services center and technology platform.

Fostering innovative enterprise creation

Following the opening of its first technology center in 2001, Château-Gombert Technology Park will be the site of the new Technoptic Business Services Center from November 2011.

A valuable asset in the bid to foster innovative enterprise creation, the new center will have a three-fold purpose, acting as enterprise incubator, business services center and technology platform, and will complement existing measures to support start-ups and SME’s in the optics and photonics sectors.
The enterprise incubator, managed by Marseille Innovation, will be able to house 50 start-ups. The occupancy rate is expected to reach 50% by 2012.

The business services center will house more mature companies with greater office space requirements but wishing to remain in an exclusive environment. The business services center will be run by Marseille Provence Métropole.

Lastly, the pooled resources of the technology platform run by Optitec will allow all the on-site companies to access leading-edge equipment that they would not normally be able to finance themselves. This technological resources center will be equipped with general-interest equipment such as laser, optical bench, spectrogram, and include a specialized adaptive optics unit aimed at evaluating and distributing potential industrial applications of these innovative technologies.

Providing a regional hub for light sciences…

Occupying a unique position at the crossroads of university research and the world of business, the Technoptic Business Services Center aims to become a regional hub for both industry and research.

Château-Gombert, the site of the new building, already is a center of expertise in the optics and photonics fields. The headquartering of the Optitec competitive cluster and the presence of major industry players, such as the Marseilles Astrophysics Laboratory, the Fresnel Institute (one of the country’s top optics research laboratories) and the IM2NP Institute, specialized in nanoscience, bear witness to its excellent reputation.

Helping to increase the region’s standing

The Technoptic Business Services Center is set to become a “catalyst for innovation” in a leading-edge industry with enormous potential and with applications in many sectors already established in the PACA region such as health, defense, micro-electronics, IT and multimedia and testing and measuring equipment.

This new resource, therefore, will provide more than just office space for the industry’s start-ups or easy access to technology; as a crucible of innovation, the Technoptic Business Services Center will also have a role to play in increasing the region’s standing both within France and internationally.

Provence Promotion, which has made the optics and photonics sectors one of its priorities, will make sure this new space, with its huge potential to attract the industry’s players, is given the spotlight it deserves.

Technoptic in figures …

• Contracting authority: Marseille Provence Métropole
• Total project cost: € 7.5M, shared between MPM (58%), the European Union (25%), the French State (12%) and the PACA region (5%)
• Cost of the pooled-resources technology platform: € 1.5M
• Building floor space: 3500 sq. m. total net floor area (offices and workshops)
• Individual office floor space: from 12 to 35 sq. m.
• Individual private workshop floor space: from 50 to 200 sq. m.
• Building handover scheduled for November 2011