- Our strategic partnerships
- Our presence in Europe and the rest of the world
International Associated Laboratories
Three International Associative Laboratories (LIA) consolidate our long-term academic research links with Canada and Germany.
A LIA is a "virtual laboratory" that brings together one or more IFSTTAR research teams and one or more research teams from another country around a joint research project.
These laboratories share human and material resources in order to carry out their scientific work. The partners have formalized their relationship with an agreement signed by the heads of the concerned organizations.
- ECOMAT
IFSTTAR maintains very close ties with Canada, in particular the region of Quebec, in the area of transportation research.
In 2016, the International Associated Laboratory ECOMAT (France-Canada) was launched. It deals with innovative sustainable materials for civil engineering. After 10 years of informal collaborations, the LIA was created to address a societal demand. It covers academic and applied fields related to sustainable development in its broadest sense.
The main objective of ECOMAT is to foster the stepping-up of training, applied research and innovation in the field of Eco-materials for construction with a view to reducing their environmental and health impacts. Through this partnership, the University of Sherbrooke and IFSTTAR will have the opportunity to compare and promote their research and training activities, and to create an international network of excellence around eco-materials.
This partnership provides considerable research capabilities, as well as laboratories and appropriate facilities in the Marne-La Vallée, Nantes and Sherbrooke. Ultimately, it will lead to the harmonization of European and North American standards on these materials. It will also provide a means of training highly qualified staff in the field of eco-materials.
The ECOMAT also aims at passing on its research findings to the economic world and set up partnerships in both Canada and France with industrials in civil engineering and in the construction materials sector.
- Ilab-Spine
The International associated laboratory Ilab-Spine (France - Canada), is the outcome of an unprecedented synergy between researchers in biomechanics and physicians who are all involved in studying the cervical spine. It has received support from the AMIDEX excellence initiative.
Ilab-Spine is the result of 10 years of collaboration between IFSTTAR, AMU, CNRS, AP-HM, EPM, HSJ, ETS and HSCM.
The activities are carried out at the Aix-Marseille University and Montreal sites.
Launched in 2015, the Ilab-Spine LIA conducts research into the biomechanics of the human body and finite element modelling of the spine.
The activities of Ilab-SPINE regarding biomechanics of spinal traumas and pathologies aim to provide high-quality scientific results and develop important economic partnerships. On both sides, partners are willing to pursue their collaboration and strengthen it over the coming years, in particular through a joint research promotion and development strategy, conducting projects with shared funding, a strategy for pooling their research infrastructures and by exchanging researchers and students.
- INNOMOB
Ifsttar and DLR (Germany) have combined their expertise to create a joint research institute “INNOMOB”, in order to bring innovative solution to European mobility. INNOMOB is marked out by its common and multiannual programme that focusses on innovations in the areas of mobility and transport in Europe. This agreement was born out of previous collaborations between IFSTTAR and DLR, with the international associated laboratory "Distrans", with the purpose is to conduct work on logistics and freight transport.
The envisioned work is organized around the four following themes:
• analysis of changes in the mobility of persons and goods,
• new data or new data collection methods for mobility analysis,
• new planning methods to foster more sustainable mobility,
• technological innovations and new forms of mobility: exploring issues relating to use, acceptability and the optimization of vehicle energy efficiency.
