Innovation, our core strategy

As an international high-tech company, Naval Group uses the outstanding know-how of its 17,000 employees, its unique industrial resources and capacity to set up innovative strategic partnerships in order to meet its customers’ requirements.

Innovation

At Naval Group, innovation serves two major challenges: guaranteeing the technological superiority of our customers across all oceans, and improving our competitiveness, a condition for our leadership on all continents.

Innovation is also about ambition: offering excellence in naval defence and energy. Naval Group has introduced innovation into its technological strategic plan, in 6 major areas: Smart naval force, Invulnerable ship, Smart ship, Blue ship, Smart availability, Smart industry.
To accelerate its innovation approach, Naval Group relies on 3 fundamental pillars: “collaborative innovation”, “open innovation” and “breakthrough innovation”. An agile approach – like our various laboratories and technology incubators – which, combined with the recognised scientific expertise of the Naval Research teams, does not pass up any promising conceptual designs.

Governance

R&D governance is overseen by the Naval Group Technical and Innovation department (DTI). This department carries out this mission by drawing on all the Group's entities and expertise, including Naval Research which has three R&D centres of expertise.

Centres of excellence: the world of Naval Group

Innovation knows no borders. Thanks to Operational Excellence Centres in France and around the world, Naval Group is investing massively to extend its sphere of influence, surround itself with the best partners internationally and stay one step ahead.

Find out about the Centres of excellence

more than 100

collaborative R&D projects in progress

more than 40

international partners

1 500

employees involved in R&D work

85

areas of technical expertise

30

doctorates are overseen per year

30

million euros in R&D tax credit

15

nationalities represented

50

publications and annual congress participations

400

families of patents

35

patents filed per year

4,500

sq. metre area dedicated to collaborative innovation within the Innov’Factory in Angoulême- Ruelle

11

joint laboratories and partnership chairs

9

cross-functional scientific fields

Scientific Council

Fourteen figures of international scientific renown in their field of expertise and five nationalities comprise Naval Group’s multi-discipline Scientific Council.

It makes a genuine contribution to the future of Naval Group. The Scientific Council provides advisory opinions whose goal is to push the innovative capacity of the group towards breakthrough innovation that set will it apart. Naval Group organises working groups whose mission - steered by the Scientific Council - is to choose the subjects of scientific and technical interest on themes with high stakes for the group or for a break, such as materials, energy, digital simulation, human factors, distributed architecture, or simplexity.

The Scientific Council’s feedback is added to strategic thinking on the prospective plan in which the group looks ahead to 2040.   It supports the company in identifying what is effectively transformative and replying to fundamental questions for the future of Naval Group: what will be our customers’ needs?  Which product and service offers and which technologies for which future markets? What will the impact of geo-strategic changes on our activities?

Members of the Scientific Council

  • Armel de la Bourdonnaye

    Director of INSA Hauts-de-France, Dr. Hab. In scientific computing

  • Sophie Brétésché

    Vice-President of the scientific council
    Professor of Sociology
    IMT Atlantic

  • Joël Bertrand

    President of the scientific council
    Emeritus Senior Research Director, CNRS

    Joël Bertrand

  • Jean-Luc Fihey

    PhD, Ing., FCAE, Adjunct Professor and Manager Valorisation Research and Innovation, ÉTS

    Jean-Luc Fihey

  • Hubert Giraud

    Professor of Electrochemistry, Energy and Mobility EPFL Lausanne

    Hubert Giraud

  • Saadi

    Professor of Social Psychology

  • Thierry Massard

    Engineer in mechanics and PhD from Ecole Centrale Paris in physics
    Former Scientific Director of CEA

    Thierry Massard

  • Maria Nadia Postorino

    Full professor of Transport Engineering - PhD

  • Dominique Vernay

    Vice President
    Academy of Technologies

  • Cécile Godé

    Full professor in management science, Aix-Marseille University

  • Elisabeth Crepon

    President ENSTA Paris

    Elisabeth Crepon

  • Olivier Rey

    CNRS Research fellow

    Olivier Rey

  • Brigitte PLATEAU

    Director General of the Grenoble INP group
    Associate Professor of Mathematics

La Pérouse scientific prize

Each year, on the occasion of the Naval Innovation Days, the La Pérouse Prize is awarded by the Naval Group Scientific Council to one of its researchers, for the pertinence and boldness of their research project.

Find out about our unifying focuses

Videos

All videos

L'innovation, un enjeu pour les navires, mais aussi pour les chantiers.

Innovate today to conquer tomorrow

Transcription

Naval Group reveals the SMX® 31 E, its 2020 concept ship

Unifying focuses

Smart naval force, Invulnerable ship, Smart ship, Blue ship, Smart availability, Smart industry.

Find out more

Open Innovation

Opening up, identifying talented partnerships, inventing new ways of working together, in France and around the world, to accelerate the implementation of new on-board technologies.

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