START-UP GENERATION
Orano has built a resolutely open innovation strategy that takes shape through various forms of cooperation with start-ups, VSEs and SMEs to develop disruptive solutions. A strategy aimed at accelerating innovation cycles and driving the growth of these stakeholders.
Sourcing
Through competitions, Orano identifies and showcases start-ups developing innovative solutions related to areas of interest for the Group. For example, the annual “HT Global Summit” organized by Hello Tomorrow in Paris.
“This 8th edition aims to unveil emerging trends in the deep-tech ecosystem and put these start-ups in touch with industrial companies and investors. By launching a challenge concerning the circular economy in relation to CO2, Orano aims to explore solutions for storing, regenerating and recovering CO2. 100 start-ups signed up! We appreciate Orano’s desire to develop new business models and integrate itself into new value chains.”
Arnaud de La Tour, CEO, Hello Tomorrow
Acceleration
Orano partners with start-up accelerators such as Impulse Partners, Wilco and Clean Tech Vallée to promote the creation of innovative ecosystems in areas of interest for the Group across Industry 4.0, resource saving, energy efficiency and carbon footprint reduction.
“We have been supporting Orano since 2017 through an open innovation system bringing together several energy players (Plant 4.0). Our role is to build bridges between industrials and start-ups in order to meet the challenges of environmental and digital transition for some and development for others. The search for innovative solutions and the cross-fertilization of cultures have induced our large group customers to work differently to improve their industrial processes.”
Thomas Le Diouron, CEO, Impulse Partners
Collaboration
Combining of Orano’s expertise with that of partners makes it possible to co-develop new solutions at the cutting edge of technological innovation.
« We work with Orano in the field of data science for predictive maintenance, process engineering, etc. As part of the udd@orano collaborative project, we are jointly testing bold approaches in the industrial context of Orano, integrating its complexity and pragmatism. For example, we are developing an autonomous navigation algorithm for drones. Orano appreciates our agility across the entire project value chain. »
Pierre Guenoun, R&D engineer, project manager at Probayes
Skill sharing
As part of the partnership development policy, Orano employees are involved in start-ups. This is the case of Julien, seconded by the Group R&D department for two years to TerraPower in Seattle.
« I’m working with the TerraPower teams on a molten chloride fast reactor project: the MCFR. TerraPower is one of the most advanced start-ups in this type of new generation reactor. The idea is to develop skills in handling molten salts, provide support to TerraPower and identify areas of collaboration with Orano. I’m very well integrated and I love the speed of the Test & Learn process! »
Julien Vukasin, R&D Project Manager at Orano