FRENCH WIRELESS AND CONTACTLESS TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATION
IN THE SPOTLIGHT AT THE BARCELONA MOBILE WORLD CONGRESS

Chicago, February 9, 2009 (word count: 1,094)
On February 16, 2009, at 2:30 p.m., the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona will host six French competitiveness clusters in Hall 5, level 3, room 8, on the occasion of a conference devoted to the latest in wireless and contactless technology. As an unmatched forum, this first edition will help highlight the clusters’ leading research projects in order to meet the expectations of professionals (international clusters, major buyers, and innovative companies) seeking new solutions.

Organized by Ubifrance, the conference will hear the views of experts and will be setting up a range of events around forecasts, innovation, and partnerships in the wireless and contactless sectors. PIMEC, a professional Spanish agency in charge of promoting international technology exchanges, will be introducing Franco-Spanish relations in these matters.

Who are the competitiveness clusters involved?

CAP DIGITAL PARIS REGION   www.capdigital.com
Cap Digital is the French Business Cluster For Digital Content. Cap Digital provides members key information, networks, and resources: ongoing competitive intelligence, training, partnerships, funding solutions, project reviews, and vital group energy. This cluster, which currently has 400 members (80% of them innovative SMEs), has defined four priorities:

- Research & Development: Cap Digital has certified 174 innovative projects which are already funded by more than €380 million.
- Company development: Cap Digital provides services to its members, as training or funding solutions.
- Management and networking: By providing businesses in the cluster with a structure, support and a real sense of community, Cap Digital encourages the sharing of know-how and cross-fertilization between the cluster’s nine activity sectors.
- International deployment: Cap Digital acts as an interface between companies based in the Paris Region and the major European and global economic centers, with a goal of setting up international projects or the organization of international missions to support SME in their export activities.

SCS – Secured Communicating Solutions www.pole-scs.org
A competitiveness Cluster in Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur, whose goal is to stimulate innovation, through collaborative projects mainly based on mobile technology. Its principal objectives are to foster and encourage new, innovative, competitive projects, to help SMEs to grow and develop and to participate in the creation of suitable ecosystem inside the regional TIC.

The SCS cluster is endorsed by world leaders: 3M, Amadeus, Atmel, Atos Origin, Gemalto, HP, IBM, Orange, SAP, STMicroelectronics, ST – NXP Wireless, Texas Instruments, Thales Alenia Space, and more. It is also endorsed by a wide range of fast moving and innovating start-up companies: Cityvox, Dmailer, Daclem, Digdash, Inside Contactless, Mobile Distillery, Prim’Vision, SPS, Stid, Tagsys, 3 roam, Insight SIP, and more. MPUB is an example of project developed in the wireless field by Prim’Vision. MPUB is an innovative “mobile phone advertising” service where customers agree to receive publicity which matches their profile.

ELOPSIS www.elopsys.com
Elopsys is the competitiveness cluster for microwave, photonic, secure network technologies and digital design in the French Limousin region. Elopsys competitiveness cluster has 70 members, €70 million financed, 100 projects approved, more than 150 partners, 20 start-ups created and 3 setting-up. Project being presented: WOBnet: project for optimization of wireless communication systems in buildings.

Several kinds of communication systems will have to cohabitate in a building: zigbee, Bluetooth, wifi, wimax and DECT, and more. The aim of the project is to create dedicated software for installer to plan the installation of communication systems and diagnostics tools. Project stakeholders: LEGRAND, CRYPTIRIS, XLIM, CISTEME, IUT of LIMOUSIN, FAVARD High school. Technology: RF transmission solutions for access and communication inside buildings.

SYSTEM@TIC PARIS REGION www.systematic-paris-region.org
At the heart of the digital revolution, the French SYSTEM@TIC PARIS-REGION competitiveness cluster brings together 300 key players in the Ile-de-France region working in the field of software-dominant systems and focusing on markets with a strong social dimension. Based on five key areas — automotive  and transport, free and open-source software, security and defense, systems design and development tools, and telecoms — the goal of the cluster is to develop the regional economy, boost the competitiveness of companies based there and support employment growth by leveraging innovation, training, and partnership opportunities. SYSTEM@TIC, a world-class cluster, is now developing partnerships with other European and international clusters in similar buoyant markets.

Project being presented: URC
The purpose of the URC project is to promote innovative dynamic spectrum assignment, dynamic spectrum access, and cognitive radio systems in dense urban environments. The objective is to define adapted spectrum management tools to ensure both optimization and security in the usage of the spectrum.

IMAGES ET RESEAUX (MEDIA & NETWORKS) www.images-et-reseaux.com
The Media & Networks cluster focuses on the technologies and services that are driving the future of the Internet and the new audiovisual contents. Its brings together over 160 members in Bretagne and Pays de la Loire regions in France: key industrial firms (Alcatel-Lucent, Canon, France Telecom-Orange, Mitsubishi, Thales, Thomson), content providers (Télévision de France, France 3), academics (CNRS, Telecom Bretagne, INRIA, Supelec..), and more than 120 SMEs.

Project being presented: The IM@G’in Lab project aims at setting up a reference platform in Europe, designed for validation, integration, and interoperability tests, as well as experimentation on services and innovating technologies on fixed and mobile networks. It will supply a broad range of services to industrial groups, SMEs (e.g. Enensys) and research labs, and will also be open to connection with other French and European platforms.

MINALOGIC www.minalogic.com
Global competitiveness cluster Minalogic fosters research-led innovation in intelligent miniaturized products and solutions for industry. Located in Grenoble, France, the cluster channels in a single physical location a range of highly-specialized skills and resources from knowledge creation to the development and production of intelligent miniaturized services for industry. Minalogic has staked out a position as global leader in intelligent miniaturized solutions – a unique hybrid of micro- and nanotechnologies and embedded software – from fundamental research to technology transfer. The technologies developed at the cluster are applicable to all business sectors, including more traditional industries. The role of Minalogic is to respond to the business community’s need to identify new value-added services that can be integrated into existing products in fields that include health care, environment, mobility, media, and the textile industry.

Project being presented: FAST
Project for Switchable Radio Frequency Filters Using BAW Technology for Mobile Telecommunications Systems. This project uses BAW technology to develop and produce future generations of RF filters that respond to the specifications required for multi-mode mobile telephony applications. It also uses innovative materials to develop more compact, energy-efficient RF components capable of performing both filtering and switching functions.

For more information, please contact:

UBIFRANCE
Virginie Leytes
Phone: + 33 (0)4 96 17 25 52
E-mail: virginie.leytes@ubifrance.fr

or:

FRENCH TECHNOLOGY PRESS OFFICE
205 North Michigan Avenue, Suite 3740
Chicago, IL 60601
Fax: (312) 327-5261
E-mail: contact.ftpo@ubifrance.fr

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