Research news 2022

The Pays de la Loire Connect Talent call for projects attracts renowned scientists to the region. Among them Diana Mateus, who joined the Laboratory of Digital Sciences of Nantes (LS2N) to conduct her MILCOM research project with a multidisciplinary team of about ten people.

ILIAD (Imaging and Longitudinal Investigations to Ameliorate Decision-making in multiple myeloma and breast cancer) is a regional consortium led by Irecan - a health cooperation grouping - which brings together Nantes University Hospital, Institut de Cancérologie and Angers University Hospital. Its partners are INSERM, the Arronax cyclotron, Centrale Nantes, the universities of Nantes and Angers and Atlanpole.

At the end of 2018, the High Performance Computing Institute joined the Equip@meso project (Equipex 2010), coordinated by GENCI (Grand Equipement National de Calcul Intensitif).

For several years now, the High Performance Computing Institute has been developing dimension reduction methods for real-time simulation. The objective is to give engineers the means to manage production lines in the best possible way, so that they can make more informed decisions.

Ideol, Centrale Nantes and Bouygues Travaux Publics present the construction site for the first offshore wind turbine in France.

The positioning of the Floatgen mooring system off Le Croisic marks an important step in the progress of this project and paves the way for the installation of the first offshore wind turbine in France.

Ideol, Centrale Nantes and Bouygues Travaux Publics will inaugurate Floatgen, the first offshore wind turbine in France. This historical occasion marks the starting point for a new national industry.

SEM-REV, the Centrale Nantes offshore test site has participated in the international meeting of the European offshore test sites for several years. The actions of SEM-REV are in line with the various recent initiatives aimed at promoting exchanges between test sites such as UE MARINERG-i, FORESEA, MARINET1 and 2, THEOREM, etc.

On Thursday 12 April, Centrale Nantes installed a demonstrator, which aims to characterize underwater ambient noise, on its offshore test site, SEM-REV. This is part of the Acoustics of the SEA (SEAc) project developed by Nereis Environnement.

MEA aims to progress the combined technical and commercial maturity level of 40 SMEs by delivering a suite of bespoke integrated technical and commercial services. Centrale Nantes, through its LHEEA laboratory, is involved in this alliance.

ICOE and SEANERGY team up in 2018 to hold the world's biggest event in Marine Energies in Cherbourg, Normandy – France, from 12 to 14 June.

The third annual Floating Wind Power (FWP) Atlantic Forum, sponsored by its institutional partners - Brittany and the Pays de la Loire region– will be held from 19 to 21 September 2018.Centrale Nantes is co-organising the forum's technical visits, since the morning of the 21st September is set aside for a visit onboard ship of the Centrale Nantes SEM-REV offshore test site.

Be part of the growth of floating wind power!Backed by Brittany and the Pays de la Loire region, the second edition of the annual FWP (Floating Wind Power) Atlantic Forum will take place from September 19 to 21, 2018.FWP 2018 is organized with the support of Centrale Nantes.

The second large prototype to be installed on the Centrale Nantes offshore test site, SEM-REV, is currently being assembled in the Port of Saint Nazaire.

The first THeoREM technical and scientific workshop was held on 22 and 23 November at the Ifremer site in Brest. It brought together the Ifremer and Centrale Nantes teams, which operate the hydrodynamic test facilities located in Boulogne, Brest, Nantes and Le Croisic.

Yann Briheche, a PhD graduate from Centrale Nantes and LS2N, received the Thales PhD Prize 2018 on 29th November for his thesis on "Optimization of search patterns for fixed-panel tridimensional scanning radars".

The Floatgen project, the first offshore wind turbine in France installed on the Centrale Nantes SEM-REV test site, received the "Etoiles de l’Europe" trophy on 5th December from Frédérique Vidal, Minister of Higher Education, Research and Innovation. The aim of this trophy is to highlight the French teams that have chosen Europe to develop their research and open up to innovation.

The startup I-MC (Innovative Manufacturing & Controls), a CEA and Centrale Nantes spin-off, received an award in two categories at the International Start-up Seminar organized by SCS Cluster in Sophia-Antipolis on 19th December.

Naval Group and Centrale Nantes have printed the first demonstrator of hollow propeller blades by metal additive manufacturing as part of the European H2020 project, RAMSSES. Funded by the European Commission, this collaborative programme aims to reduce the environmental impact of ships.

Are you an early-stage marine energy technology company? And are you also looking for guidance and assistance in advancing your technology’s future? Then send your application in for the Marine Energy Alliance.

The international forum dedicated to Offshore Wind and Marine Renewable Energy is taking place from 5th to 7th June 2019 in Dunkirk (France)

Prof. Alain Bernard, of Centrale Nantes, and head of research at the Laboratory of Digital Science of Nantes (LS2N), has been appointed a Fellow of the National Academy of Technologies of France.

Following the launch of the NExT Deep Tech Founders training programme, three teams of researchers have been selected to take part and to benefit from NExT I-Site funding: Batiprint 3D, MIURA and Optimized 3D.

Pierre Moscovici, European Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs, Taxation and Customs, is visiting Centrale Nantes to meet with three of the incubator’s start-ups: XSun, Bee Healthcare and AKRYVIA.

The SARAH research project, led by several academic and industrial players in the aeronautics field, focuses on emergency ditching for helicopters and airplanes.

The €2.5 million Blue-GIFT (Blue Growth and Innovation Fast Tracked) project is pleased to announce the 1st call for applications. Funded by Interreg Atlantic Area, the Blue-GIFT project is a coordinated ocean energy technology demonstration programme encouraging longer-term demonstration and technology de-risking across the Atlantic Area regions.

SEM-REV has been involved in environmental monitoring of its site for more than 10 years. This requires measurement and monitoring tools to be installed.

The first Ocean DEMO call for applications is now open. Successful applicants will receive free access to test their ocean energy products and services in real sea environments at the project’s network of test centres. Technology developers can apply for support packages to test multi-device farms or single devices able to scale up to multi-device in the future.

EU Sustainable Energy Week (EUSEW) is Europe's largest event dedicated to renewables and efficient energy use.

Maxime Robira received the 'René Houpert' young researchers award at the 'Rencontres Annuelles Universitaires de Génie Civil', (Association Universitaire du Génie Civil), which was held in Sophia Antipolis from 18 to 21 June 2019.

The sea harbours many secrets and treasures, which man has sought to exploit as a resource for transportation or food. It poses many questions for the scientific community and represents a vast field of study.As part of the "La Mer XXL" exhibition which will take place from 29 June to 10 July 2019 in Nantes, seven key players in higher education and research will come together to present their research on this vast subject to the general public.

Centrale Nantes is taking part in the "Mer XXL" exhibition in July 2019 - as an exhibitor in the "Carré des Sciences" - but also as the organiser of 3 conferences.

On Wednesday 21 August 2019, the WAVEGEM wave energy recovery platform was installed on Centrale Nantes' SEM-REV site, kicking off 18 months of offshore testing.

The "Blue Growth Farm" project involves the development of a multi-purpose offshore platform which will accommodate an aquaculture system, a wind turbine and wave-power systems.

The LHEEA has recently acquired a scanning LiDAR, an innovative measuring device to characterize wind and atmosphere. It will be used for marine renewable energy (MRE), urban atmosphere and air quality applications.

Currently visiting the AAU Laboratory at Centrale Nantes, Pietro FLORIO, Lecturer in Building Physics at EPFL (Switzerland), will give a lecture entitled "The social dimension of ecological transition" on 17 October 2019 in lecture theatre S from 10.15 am to 12.15 pm.

Dr Maria Miteva (CiTCoM Cnrs/Inserm, Paris) will give a conference at Centrale Nantes for bioinformatics students and biologists on structural bioinformatics and drug metabolism. Objective: Harnessing structural bioinformatics to predict drug /metabolizing enzyme interactions.

Centrale Nantes is organizing the 15th PhD Seminar on Wind Energy from 29 to 31 October 2019 under the aegis of the European Academy of Wind Energy.

Centrale Nantes is a member of EIT Manufacturing, which will hold its inauguration event in Paris Saclay on 7 November.

A presentation by Camille Jeunet, CNRS research fellow at the CLLE laboratory, University of Toulouse Jean Jaurès.

In line with GDRI GEOMECH's research activities, the GeM is organising a workshop at Centrale Nantes from 18 to 20 November 2019 on: "Advanced methods for the characterization of the durability of porous media".

Dr. Frédéric Alauzet, Senior Researcher and head of the Gamma team at INRIA Saclay, will speak on the topic "Impact of mesh adaptation for turbulent flows in aeronautics. On the way towards the certification of digital solutions?"

Building on twenty years of research collaboration, EDYCEM and CENTRALE NANTES have renewed their research chair for another five-year term to focus on environmentally responsible concrete.

FLOAting Wind Energy netwoRk (FLOAWER) is an Innovative Training Network (ITN), a European project that brings together leading academics and industry leaders in the offshore wind industry, and floating wind turbines in particular. Its goal is to strengthen the leadership and competitiveness of this industry in Europe.

Christophe Binetruy, Professor at École Centrale de Nantes and member of the GeM Laboratory (PMM team), was appointed Affiliate Faculty in the Department of Mechanical Engineering of the University of Delaware, in September 2019 for a period of 3 years.

The main objective of Ocean DEMO (Demonstration Programme for Ocean Energy Pilot Farms and Supporting Technologies) is to help North West Europe enterprises working in low carbon technology to accelerate their transition from single prototype to multi-device farms by providing free access to world-leading test centres.

Following very encouraging initial results communicated last July, the 2 MW Floatgen floating wind turbine, equipped with Ideol’s patented floating foundation and installed on the Centrale Nantes Offshore test site Sem-Rev (Atlantic Coast of France), exceeded production and availability expectations in the second half of 2019.

The Sea-GRID Call for Expression of Interest aims to develop concrete and innovative solutions, based on energy produced by marine renewable energy technologies (MRE) at the SEM-REV test site, run by Centrale Nantes. Sea-GRID is extended for a month, applications are expected until the 04th of May.

The LS2N (Laboratory of Digital Sciences of Nantes) is organising the 27th STP (Production Sciences and Techniques) Days for the GdR MACS (CNRS Research Group in modelling, analysis and management of dynamic systems) which will be held at Centrale Nantes on 12-13 February 2020.

"Risk Evaluation And Climate Change Adaptation of Civil Engineering Infrastructures and Buildings" edited by Panagiotis KOTRONIS, Professor in the Research Institute of Civil and Mechnical Engineering (GeM) at Centrale Nantes, has just been published.

Nicolas MOËS, Professor at Centrale Nantes and the Research Institute in Civil and Mechanical Engineering (CNRS/Centrale Nantes/University of Nantes) is elected member of the Académie des sciences.

Doctor Luciano Vidal to work alongside Professor Jean-Yves Hascoët at Centrale Nantes on 3D printing and bio printing.

The EU-funded Ocean DEMO project has awarded recommendations for support to ten offshore renewable energy developers under its 2nd call. The awards will support developers on their path to commercialisation and ease the transition of ocean energy towards multi-device farms by providing free access to open sea test sites.

FLOAWER opens a 2nd call for Applicants and is looking for 1 PhD student. The ESR position (ESR2) is located at University of Stuttgart.

Centrale Nantes, via Professor Jean-Yves Hascoët and his research group, is contributing to the MakAir project. Initiated and backed by "Makers for Life", the project aims to create a mass-producible open-source Covid-19 artificial ventilator that is 10 times cheaper than a traditional ventilator.

The CRITT M2A Electrical Test Centre started work on the PEGAS²E (Energy Performance, Management and Autonomy of Electrical Storage Systems) four-year research programme on October 1st 2019.

Centrale Nantes cited in the 2020 Wohlers Report - widely considered the "bible" of 3D printing.

A photo of FLOATGEN, on SEM-REV, Centrale Nantes's offshore test site, is on display until 14 July at the gates of the Jardin du Luxembourg in Paris.

Given Centrale Nantes' dual vocation of training and research, the school strives to disseminate knowledge as widely as possible. Aurélien Babarit, research engineer at LHEEA* and specialist in Marine Renewable Energy, talks online about one of Centrale Nantes' 3 strategic themes: energy transition.

The EU-funded Ocean DEMO project opened its 3rd call today. Successful applicants will receive free access to test their ocean energy products and services in real sea environments at the project’s network of test centres.

An update on wind tunnel testing in the LHEEA.

Like the other test facilities at Centrale Nantes, the engine test benches had to put their testing on hold in March 2020.

Marine Energy Alliance has reached a new milestone in june by awarding services to 23 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) through its Second Call for Applications.

The LHEEA is pleased to announce that the "NATO Applied Vehicle Technology (AVT) Panel Awards Committee" has awarded Ms. Ginevra Rubino with the "Fall 2020 NATO AVT Young Contributor Award" for her overall research work on NATO AVT collaborative research projects.

This webinar will take place on June 30, 2020 from 15:00 to 16:30.

The work of the Research Chair II renewed by EDYCEM and Centrale Nantes focuses on materials capable of meeting the challenges of the city of tomorrow, in particular by reducing the impact of new buildings on the environment and by taking into account all of the emissions over their life cycle, from the time of their construction.

The GDR EMR is organising an online workshop on 2 July on "Renewable Marine Energies & Power-to-X: Challenges and Opportunities"

The FOWT (Floating Offshore Wind Turbines) 2020 Conference is held Marseille (7 & 8 September, and broadcast live) and by video-conference (9 September).

Numerous offshore operations are undertaken at SEM-REV during the spring and summer months. It is during this period that the weather conditions are more favourable, allowing work to be carried out efficiently and safely.

On 4 September, Naval Group, Sirehna and Centrale Nantes signed an agreement to continue their co-operation within their joint research laboratory, the Joint Laboratory of Marine Technology.

Rogue waves are very powerful ocean waves, which can form on both calm and rough seas. This sudden and unpredictable phenomenon may be rare, but it needs to be studied. It has recently been the subject of joint collaboration between researchers from Centrale Nantes - via the LHEEA - the CNRS and the universities of Paris and Lille. Tests in wave tanks have shown that a set of random waves can also provoke the formation of rogue waves, thus providing better understanding.

The partners of the Sea-GRID Call for Expression of Interest unveiled today the five winning projects! Enthusiastic responses were received across the board to this call, which aims to develop concrete and innovative solutions for the smart management of electricity produced offshore on the Centrale Nantes test site, SEM-REV. The selected projects focus on new energy storage solutions, multi-use offshore platforms, onshore uses and the development of an underwater hub...

The University of Nantes, Nantes University Hospital, Inserm and Centrale Nantes have adopted an action plan reaffirming their shared determination to build a new university model alongside Nantes Saint-Nazaire School of Fine Arts, the National School of Architecture of Nantes and the Jules Verne Institute of Technological Research.

This decision signals the re-launch of the project. Next steps: approval of the statutes for the future establishment in March-April 2021, evaluation of the I-SITE by an international panel in Autumn 2021 and the creation of Nantes Université in January 2022.

The EU-funded Ocean DEMO project has awarded recommendations for support to 12 offshore renewable energy developers under its 3rd call. The awards will support developers on their path to commercialisation and ease the transition of ocean energy towards multi-device farms by providing free access to open sea test sites.

SWEL, Sea Wave Energy Ltd, is a UK based company with its testing facilities located in Larnaca, Cyprus. The company came to Centrale Nantes in October under the MEA programme, an Interreg North West Europe project which aims to increase the technical and commercial maturity of upcoming technologies by providing access to industry leading testing facilities and experts from over the EU.

One year on from the restoration work on the dome of the Cardinaux lighthouse, the wind measurement instruments at the Cardinaux lighthouse are back in service.

The SOFTWIND project, run by Centrale Nantes, and more specifically its LHEEA and LS2N laboratories, and the company D-ICE, allows for small-scale wave-tank testing of wind turbines by overcoming the incompatibility between hydrodynamic and aerodynamic scaling.We take a look back at this project with some footage of the testing in the Centrale Nantes hydrodynamic and ocean engineering tank and interviews:

iTWIST 2020 (International Traveling Workshop on Interactions between low-complexity data models and Sensing Techniques) was held online from Centrale Nantes. Replays of all the lectures and conferences are now available online.

On 3 December, the company EOLINK and Centrale Nantes formally agreed to install a 5MW floating wind turbine on the SEM-REV test site, off the coast from Le Croisic. Since hosting FLOATGEN, the first floating wind turbine in France on site from 2018, Centrale Nantes is pushing ahead and is set to welcome EOLINK shortly with its innovative and promising wind turbine prototype.

Congratulations to Elaheh MALEKI who was awarded the thesis prize at the AFIS (French Systems Engineering Association) Forum for her outstanding thesis on work on Systems Engineering.

In 2020, Edycem and Centrale Nantes renewed their research chair on the development of sustainable concrete, headed up by Professor Ahmed Loukili at Centrale Nantes. Today, this collaboration has resulted in the first application on the market to assess the quality of concrete wall cladding.

Almost 3 years of R&D work within the Joint Laboratory of Marine Technology went into the development of the metal 3D printing process by which this propeller was produced.

Floatgen, the 2 MW floating wind turbine, installed on the Centrale Nantes offshore test site, SEM-REV (off Le Croisic), produced 14% more power in 2020 than in 2019, reaching an annual total of 6.8 GWh.

Centrale Nantes, Ifremer and University Gustave Eiffel are bringing together their hydrodynamics and mechanical test facilities, to carry out research activities and collaborative projects with French and international companies.

Within the scope of its national Additive Manufacturing project, the SCNF (Rolling Stock Engineering division) called upon Centrale Nantes’s expertise to study the feasibility of producing certain components. The production of a pivot, an interconnecting part, by additive manufacturing is an achievement that opens up new avenues for the design of metallic components.

Applications were open from 15 October to 15 November 2020 in the first Institut Carnot MERS call for projects. The selection committee met on 25 January 2021 and selected 8 projects.

Congratulations to our researchers!

Students, teachers, high school students, and other interested parties ... discover Centrale Nantes' research platforms live.

Students, teachers, high school students, and other interested parties ... discover Centrale Nantes' research platforms live.

Simone BANCORA, PhD student at Centrale Nantes, is one of the finalists at the JEC COMPOSITE CHALLENGE.

The world's first offshore hydrogen production facility, developed by Lhyfe and powered by electricity from a floating wind turbine, will be operational in 2022, off the coast of Le Croisic, at SEM-REV, Centrale Nantes' offshore test site.

Meet the people behind the research at Centrale Nantes in our new series of video interviews. In our first edition we meet Sandrine Aubrun, Professor in the LHEEA Laboratory.

A digital solution to design the anchoring and electrical connections of floating wind farms, optimising the performance and output of subsea connections, has been developed by a group of expert companies within offshore renewables.

Meet the people behind the research at Centrale Nantes in our new series of video interviews. In our second edition we meet Ioannis Stefanou, Professor in the GeM Research Institute.

To mark the 500th anniversary of Leonardo da Vinci's death in 2019, a team of Franco-Italian researchers specialising in fluid mechanics set out to retrace one of Leonardo's most famous drawings in the field of hydraulics. Read on to learn more about this original research project!

Students, teachers, high school students, and other interested parties ... discover Centrale Nantes' research platforms live.

Meet the people behind the research at Centrale Nantes in our new series of video interviews. In our third edition we meet Diana Mateus, professor in the Laboratory of Digital Sciences of Nantes (LS2N).

On Friday 2 July, France 24 broadcast a feature on offshore wind energy in France. Meet Bertrand Alessandrini, a marine engineering researcher at Centrale Nantes, in the LHEEA Laboratory.

Last July, Centrale Nantes acquired a selective laser melting (SLM) additive manufacturing machine. This new equipment can be used to manufacture parts for various sectors: aeronautics, aerospace, naval industry, automobile, railway, etc., but also for the medical field.

Meet the people behind the research at Centrale Nantes in our series of video interviews. In our fourth edition we meet Professor David Le Touzé of the Research Laboratory in Hydrodynamics, Energetics and Atmospheric Environment (LHEEA).

Nicolas MOËS, Professor at Centrale Nantes and the Research Institute in Civil and Mechanical Engineering (CNRS/Centrale Nantes/University of Nantes) is a newly elected member of the Académie des sciences. Reception ceremony for elected members on Tuesday 12 October.

The French Ministry for Higher Education, Research and Innovation (MESRI) announced on 21 October 2021 the inclusion of THeoREM on the 2021 National Roadmap for Research Infrastructures.

Meet the people behind the research at Centrale Nantes in our series of video interviews. In our fifth edition we meet Professor Christophe Binetruy of the Research Institute in Civil and Mechanical Engineering (GeM)

A nacelle-mounted LiDAR, which allows upstream wind measurements, was installed in October 2020 on the floating offshore wind turbine, Floatgen, being tested on the Centrale Nantes offshore test site, SEM-REV.

This first, publicly available, environmental impact statement presents the work carried out, the observations and the results obtained on the SEM-REV offshore site, which is run by Centrale Nantes and the CNRS, on the Floatgen floating wind turbine. This 2 MW demonstrator, whose floating platform was developed by BW IDEOL, is deployed offshore and has been producing electricity since 2018.

Meet the people behind the research at Centrale Nantes in our series of video interviews. Two for the price of one in our sixth edition where we meet Mira Rizkallah and Vincent Lostanlen - new recruits in 2020 to the SIMS research group in the LS2N Laboratory.

Professor K. P. Karunakaran, of the Hybrid Manufacturing Laboratory (HM Lab) at IIT Bombay, is invited to Centrale Nantes from 22 November to 23 December at the invitation of Alain Bernard, Emeritus Professor in the LS2N Laboratory.

Applications were open from 21 May 2021 to 31 July 2021. The selection committee met on 15 November 2021 and selected 8 projects.

On 25 & 26 November, two events related to wind, ocean and hydropower will be held in Paris (venue to be announced) under the aegis of ANCRE and the GdR* EOL-EMR: A GdR EOL-EMR scientific day and the ANCRE Doctoral Conference co-organised with the GdR EOL-EMR.

Filip Biljecki, Assistant Professor at the National University of Singapore will be visiting the AAU Research Laboratory.

The European Commission granted the HR Excellence in Research Award to Centrale Nantes on 18 November 2021

Luc Rolland, professor at the University of the West of Scotland (UWS) will be visiting Centrale Nantes at the invitation of Damien Chablat of the LS2N Laboratory.

Luciano Vidal and Jean-Yves Hascoët have embarked upon a new project at Centrale Nantes: 3D biofabrication of an intestine from human pluripotent stem cells for transplantation.

Breast cancer is the most common cancer. Lifestyle and environment are now considered as risk factors for cancer.

Claudia Califano, Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer, Control, and Management Engineering, University of Rome La Sapienza, is visiting the Laboratory of Digital Sciences of Nantes from 9 to 16 January 2022.

Centrale Nantes has just obtained €2.8 million in CPER funding (French state/regional infrastructure planning and investment programme) to set up the GENIUS project, a test platform for the production, storage and use of green hydrogen.

Meet the people behind the research at Centrale Nantes in our series of video interviews. In our first edition of 2022, we meet Professor Luisa Silva of the Research Institute in Civil and Mechanical Engineering (GeM).

Researchers from the Laboratory of Digital Sciences of Nantes (LS2N) successfully established the basic technology for a wireless, battery-free acoustic biosensor. The result of their work was awarded the Best Paper Award at the Second International Workshop on the Internet of Sounds (IWIS 2021), organised in September 2021 by the Department of Information Engineering and Computer Science of the University of Trento (Italy).

The French Ministry for Higher Education, Research and Innovation (MESRI) announced on 21 October 2021 the inclusion of THeoREM on the 2021 National Roadmap for Research Infrastructures. This roadmap was published on 08 March 2022.

Meet the people behind the research at Centrale Nantes in our series of video interviews. In our second edition of 2022, we meet Alain Bernard, Emeritus Professor of the Laboratory of Digital Sciences of Nantes (LS2N).

Centrale Nantes Professor Nicolas Moës, of the Research Institute for Civil and Mechanical Engineering (GeM) and elected member of the Académie des sciences, was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Liège on 19 March.

Offshore wind environmental monitoring and impact studies are an important component of the research conducted at the SEM-REV offshore test site. The PIAFF&CO project will improve knowledge of flying fauna - birds and bats - in the vicinity of offshore wind farms. The project is run by Centrale Nantes in conjunction with the Centre d'Écologie et des Sciences de la Conservation du Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle, the St Nazaire offshore wind farm and BW Ideol.

The SEM-REV offshore test site is tasked with meeting the R&D challenges of Marine Renewable Energy technologies. To this end, measurements have been made on the offshore site since 2009. SEM-REV has just published a report summarising the meteorological and oceanic data from the site, located off the coast of Le Croisic.

Work began offshore ten years ago on installing the export cable, thereby making SEM-REV - Centrale Nantes' offshore test site - a reality. Since then the site has certainly lived up to its initial promise.

SNCF, Centrale Nantes, VLM Robotics and 4DPioneers are today launching the Additive4Rail consortium with state support. The aim is to speed up the industrialisation of additive manufacturing technologies in order to streamline train maintenance and reduce costs by producing components piecemeal or in small batch runs. The four partners have set up a production line in Saintes to manufacture and repair metal parts, with a view to transforming railway maintenance.

Colin Bonatti, post-doctoral fellow with the Chair of Artificial Intelligence in Mechanics and Manufacturing, MAVT Department at ETH Zurich, will give a conference on Thursday 7 April 2022 at 2 pm at Centrale Nantes.

Meet the people behind the research at Centrale Nantes in our series of video interviews. In our third edition of 2022, we meet Jean-Yves Hascoët, of the Research Institute in Civil and Mechanical Engineering (GeM).

Meet the people behind the research at Centrale Nantes in our series of video interviews. In our fourth edition of 2022, we meet Myriam Servières, Deputy Director of the Ambiances, Architectures, Urbanités Laboratory

Come along to the next TEDxRennes to meet Rebecca Fribourg, Associate Professor at Centrale Nantes, Luciano Vidal, researcher in the GeM Institute and Emma Biard, a recent Centrale Nantes graduate. All three will be speaking at the next edition on 25 June.

Meet the people behind the research at Centrale Nantes in our series of video interviews. In this edition we meet assistant professor Vincent Leroy in the LHEEA Laboratory - a young researcher working on offshore wind.

Stanford University has recently published an updated list of the top 2% most widely cited scientists in different disciplines - the World's Top 2% Scientists. 16 researchers from Centrale Nantes are included in the updated list - up from 9 last year.

Rogue waves are very high ocean waves, compared to their immediate neighbours, which can form on both calm and rough seas. This sudden and unpredictable phenomenon may be rare, but it needs to be studied because of its danger to sea users. These rogue waves are the subject of joint collaboration between researchers from Centrale Nantes - via the LHEEA - the CNRS and the universities of Paris and Lille as part of the ANR DYSTURB project.

Jeroen Wackers, a research engineer in the METHRIC team, works on the simulation of maritime flows using the automatic mesh refinement method. These simulations provide an understanding into the interactions between a ship and its environment in real conditions in order to optimise the energy performance of ships.

The journal 'Engineering Analysis with Boundary Elements' established its Best Paper Award in 2018 as an annual award for articles with the most scientific impact in the three preceding years. The journal itself has an impact factor of 3.3, having climbed steadily in recent years. The article's lead author, PengNan Sun, spent 2 years as a Post-Doc at the LHEEA between 2018 and 2020.

CFM (French Mechanics Congress) brings together the French and French-speaking community in the field of mechanics under the aegis of the Association Française de Mécanique (AFM). The 2022 edition will be hosted in Nantes, from 29 August to 2 September. It is organised by Centrale Nantes, the CNRS, alongside Nantes University, the University of La Rochelle and the École Navale.

The 'Printemps de la Recherche' 2022 on "Offshore wind energy: challenges and prospects in energy transition" will take place on Thursday 15 September 2022 at La Carrière - Saint-Herblain (Nantes). This national event will bring together more than 200 representatives from business, research and education, government and local authority officials, associations, etc., and explore all aspects of offshore wind energy from the perspective of innovation.

Congratulations to Marinelle El Khoury, who recently completed her PhD at Centrale Nantes, on her best paper award in the category ''Sustainability and Materials / Sustainable Development and Life Cycle Assessment'' at the 14th fib PhD Symposium.

CFM (French Mechanics Congress) brings together the French and French-speaking community in the field of mechanics under the aegis of the Association Française de Mécanique (AFM).

On 22 September 2022, LHYFE and the Sealhyfe project partners inaugurated the hydrogen production platform that is to be installed in the coming months on the Centrale Nantes offshore test site, SEM-REV. This test of hydrogen production from offshore renewable energy is a world first.

As part of the CPER NEMO, the upgrade works of the Hydrodynamic and Ocean Engineering Tank took place last spring.

Sylvie Retailleau, the French Minister for Higher Education and Research, visited Centrale Nantes on 14 October as part of a trip to the Loire Atlantique area.

The HyMot project will focus on an innovative technology: the hydrogen engine. By exploring the possibilities to convert an internal combustion engine to hydrogen, this project will demonstrate the feasibility of an alternative to electrification for light vehicles. Supported by eight major players from the public and private sectors, including Centrale Nantes, HyMot was one of the projects selected in the CORAM 2021 call for projects.

Alexandre Simos, Associate Professor at the University of Sao Paolo, is invited by the Research Laboratory in Hydrodynamics, Energetics and Atmospheric Environment (LHEEA).

The ERC Synergy Grant 2022 call results are out today. The selected proposals include X-MESH submitted by Professor Nicolas Moës of Centrale Nantes and the Research Institute in Civil and Mechanical Engineering (GeM).

Following several years of development in the LHEEA laboratory (Centrale Nantes / CNRS) a first offshore measurement campaign with a stabilised scanning LiDAR has been completed. This measuring device, the result of technological development in the laboratory, was deployed to characterise the wake of a floating wind turbine, FLOATGEN, installed on the SEM-REV test site.

Eolink, Valorem and Centrale Nantes have received €14.9m in funding from the “France 2030" funding programme. The financed project includes the manufacturing and commissioning of an innovative floating wind turbine developed by EOLINK.

Meet the people behind the research at Centrale Nantes in our series of video interviews. In this edition we meet Senior CNRS Researcher Carlo Cossu in the LHEEA Laboratory.

The HEMI cluster aims to bring together researchers, professionals and students from different fields of engineering sciences and humanities and social sciences to improve how human factors and user experience are taken into account in industrial design, manufacturing and production processes.

Tests for the HP_Flow project took place in June 2022 in the Hydrodynamic and Ocean Engineering Tank at Centrale Nantes. Watch the footage of this test campaign on the hydrodynamics of heave plates which are designed to damp the heave motion of floating wind turbines.

You need to evaluate the techno-economic performance potential of early-stage wave energy converter concepts ? The Technology Performance Level Assessment tool can help you: Join us for this presentation and tutorial for the online Technology Performance Levels (TPL) assessment tool.

Meet the people behind the research at Centrale Nantes in our series of video interviews. In this edition we meet Associate Professor Tugdual le Néel in the Research Institute of Civil and Mechanical Engineering (GeM).

Rebecca Fribourg, teacher and researcher at Centrale Nantes, and Luciano Vidal, researcher in the GeM, both gave a talk at TEDxRennes on 25 June 2022.

This symposium is the worldwide meeting of specialists in research and development in fluid mechanics as they relate to naval hydrodynamics.

Hubert Chanson, professor at the University of Queensland (Australia), is at Centrale Nantes on the invitation of the LHEEA - Research Laboratory in Hydrodynamics, Energetics and Atmospheric Environment (Centrale Nantes/CNRS). His lecture "Fluid Mechanics applied to Natural Disasters" will take place in lecture theatre E from 4:00 pm to 5:30 pm. It will be held in English.

Meet the people behind the research at Centrale Nantes in our series of video interviews. In this edition we meet Elwan Héry, a young researcher in the Laboratory of Digital Sciences of Nantes.

Preventing human-induced seismicity to fight against climate change is the main thrust of the INJECT project selected in the ERC Consolidator Grant call and led by Professor Ioannis Stefanou at Centrale Nantes and the Research Institute in Civil and Mechanical Engineering (GeM).

SIRIC certification of the ILIAD project, in which Centrale Nantes is a partner, has been extended for a further five years! This confirms the excellence of the ILIAD SIRIC as a research site integrating medical, scientific and social research in cancer.

Join us on Thursday 2 February 2023 at Stereolux, Hall 6 West. For this new edition of the "Nuit Blanche des Chercheurs" in Nantes on the theme "Vibrations". Come along and discover the buzzing world of research in Nantes! Centrale Nantes' research teams will give presentations on themes ranging from Marine Renewable Energies to earthquakes and the properties of explosions!

In 2022, the offshore test site SEM-REV began a phase of investment and works to enhance its capacity to host new demonstration and research projects. Following the award of the underwater equipment supply contract launched in 2022, a consortium, led by INYANGA, recently delivered the new submarine cables and connectors.

The Mervent 2025 project led by Zéphyr & Borée and its partners CWS, GTT and Centrale Nantes was selected as part of the CORIMER Call for Expression of Interest 2022. Mervent aims to build the first container ship powered by hybrid sail/synthetic fuel.

The European research project FLOATECH is back at the LHEEA's wave and ocean engineering tank for a second test campaign. The teams involved continue to study the hydrodynamic forces that impact a floating wind turbine in order to improve its performance.

Investment on the SEM-REV site continues! After receiving the site's new cables and connectors, the teams, led by INYANGA, have completed the installation of the connectors on the cables and prepared them for the installation offshore.

On 13 April 2023, the French Ministry of Higher Education and Research celebrated the 1500 ERC grant holders with ground-breaking research projects funded by the European Research Council (ERC). Ioannis Stefanou, professor at Centrale Nantes, is one of the three ERC grant-holders invited to share their passion for research at this event.

The FOWT 2023 conference (Floating Offshore Wind Turbines) will be held in Nantes on 10 and 11 May. These two days will be followed by technical visits, one of which will take participants offshore to visit the SEM-REV site.

Velella aims to develop several technological components and methods needed to prepare the deployment of commercial floating wind projects under the best economic, social and environmental conditions.

Emmanuel Rozière, Professor and Director of Sustainable Development at Centrale Nantes, won the AFGC 2022 prize. It was presented to him on 3 May 2023 by Emmanuel Ferrier, chairman of the association's Scientific and Technical Committee.

The conference (in French) is organised as part of the Nantes University Scientific Days which will take place on 5 June 2023 at the Cité des Congrès in Nantes.

The congrès Français du Génie Civil (French Civil Engineering Congress), organized by AFGC, AUGC and École normale supérieure Paris-Saclay, was held in Gif sur Yvette from 23 to 25 May 2023.

Thomas Heuzé will defend his Accreditation to Supervise Research (HDR) on 13 June 2023.

Imane Elkhaldi, who holds a PhD in Civil Engineering from Centrale Nantes, received the award at the Congrès Français du Génie Civil, held at the École Normale Supérieure Paris-Saclay in May 2023.

The Sixth International Conference on Cable-Driven Parallel Robots will be held at the Laboratory of Digital Sciences of Nantes (LS2N) from 25 to 28 June 2023.

Lhyfe's offshore hydrogen production test platform has been towed some 20 km off the Atlantic coast and successfully connected to the SEM-REV electrical hub.

Four days of discussion and training in Nantes with international experts in nuclear medicine research for 20 students, young researchers or clinicians.

Building on five years of successful research cooperation, Centrale Nantes and MAN Energy Solutions France are extending their industrial research chair for a further eighteen months. 

The CARGO cluster, newly created in 2023, brings together all the Nantes-based research players involved in meeting the challenge of decarbonizing maritime transport.

10 years after the installation of the export cable, the SEM-REV marine renewable energy test site has enjoyed further investment. The aim was to upgrade the site and pave the way for hosting future prototypes. Thanks to funding from the French State, the Pays de la Loire Region and Europe, which Centrale Nantes applied for as part of the "France 2030" programme, the site has been able to connect new prototypes since April.

It's official: as of 1 September 2023, the SEM-REV offshore test site is now solely in the hands of the OPEN-C Foundation. Centrale Nantes, which in 2007 initiated what will rapidly become the first multi-technology offshore test site, is continuing its research activities and supporting the site in its development. Through this transfer of activity, and as a founder of the OPEN-C Foundation, Centrale Nantes is playing its part in driving forward France's energy transition through Marine Renewable Energies. We take a look back at SEM-REV's progress to date, and its future within the newly-created OPEN-C Foundation, which will coordinate offshore testing focused entirely on floating wind turbines and marine renewable energies!

Nicolas Chevaugeon will defend his Accreditation to Supervise Research (HDR) on 18 September 2023.

This event organized by Centrale Nantes and INRAE will take place on campus and will focus on biomasses (polymers, fibers, assemblies and colloids), processes and characterization methods, as well as the materials and composites used on a daily basis.

Centrale Nantes will not be opening its doors to the public as previously planned on Saturday 7 October, due to building work in progress on the campus and the technical maintenance of several research platforms (including the ocean tanks).

Stanford University has updated its list of the world's most cited researchers by their peers for their scientific work. The list, which represents the world's most influential researchers, is based on an international transdisciplinary database.

Marinelle El Khoury completed her PhD in the Research Institute in Civil and Mechanical Engineering (GeM) at Centrale Nantes. She was awarded the Centrale Innovation 2023 PhD Prize on 21 November during the organisation's 30th anniversary celebrations in Ecully.

Meet the people behind the research at Centrale Nantes in our series of video interviews. In this edition we meet Sophie Limou, professor at Centrale Nantes and specialist in human genetics in the CR2TI lab.

Nantes Université organised its very first International Staff Training Week on the theme of Open Education from 4 to 8 December 2023.

As part of the WAAM Grade2XL Additive Manufacturing project, Antoine Queguineur was awarded the 2023 Jury Prize for an innovative fireplace concept: the KOTA fireplace, which combines an original design with improved energy efficiency.

Join us on Thursday 8 February 2024 at Stereolux, Hall 6 Ouest for the 8th edition of the "Nuit Blanche des Chercheurs" organised by Nantes Université on the theme 'Sens dessus-dessous' (from above and below). The event (in French) includes several presentations by Centrale Nantes research teams.

Following on from the international research chair focusing on clean engines established in January 2014, the international group MANN+HUMMEL and Centrale Nantes are extending their partnership to continue exploring new solutions to improve air quality with sustainable systems that are notably more energy-efficient.

Bertrand Huneau, senior lecturer at Centrale Nantes and researcher in the Research Institute in Civil and Mechanical Engineering (GeM), will be giving a talk on Tuesday 27 February entitled: "Will there be enough materials for energy transition?"

Centrale Nantes and EDYCEM present their new research orientations for ready-mix concrete, precast concrete and aggregates to reduce the environmental footprint in concrete design.

This two-day workshop organised by Centrale Nantes and IRN GeoMech, aims to mobilise collective forces to find new directions towards a viable and resilient future.

Centrale Nantes hosted the SCI-TY programme's prematurity committee on Tuesday 26 March.

As part of the ExplOr project funded by the Institut CARNOT MERS, an intensive measurement campaign combining wind, wave and aerosol measurements by LiDAR scanning was carried out at Belle-île-en-Mer over the period March-July 2023. The aim of the combined measurements is to document wind-wave interactions over the sea.

Centrale Nantes and Nantes Université are organising the 21st European Conference on Composite Materials (ECCM21), which will be held at the Cité des Congrès in Nantes from 2 to 5 July 2024.

The Centrale Nantes campus will play host to the 19th edition of the Hydrodynamics Days (Journées de l'Hydrodynamique), organised by the Research Laboratory in Hydrodynamics, Energetics & Atmospheric Environment (LHEEA) from Tuesday 26 to Thursday 28 November 2024.