Acrotec Group and HE-Arc Ingénierie become partners
The Acrotec Group and the Haute Ecole Arc Ingénierie have signed a three-year partnership agreement to work together on innovation projects involving students from the relevant courses. A promising collaboration to stimulate R&D in the region and prepare our future engineers for the major challenges of high-precision technologies.
To the left : Nabil Ouerhani, Deputy Director and Head of Ra&D HE-Acr Ingénierie
To the right : Philippe Jacot, CTO of Acrotec Group
The Acrotec Group, a leading manufacturer of high-precision components for the watchmaking, jewelry, electronics, automotive, aerospace and medical industries, has just signed a major partnership agreement with HE-Arc Ingénierie. This 3-year framework agreement will fund applied research projects in microtechnology, automation, electronics and software.
“All these fields are of interest to the Acrotec Group, particularly the Microtechniques sector, which is steeped in the DNA of the Jura Arc and trains specialists in watchmaking and biomedical engineering, whose skills are focused on precision, as they are totally in line with the technological expertise of our various companies,” explains Philippe Jacot, CTO of the Acrotec Group. “This partnership will therefore have a double positive impact. It will enable future engineers to confront the technological demands of the high-precision market, and it will accelerate our capacity to innovate by pooling the resources of our group with the laboratories and brains of the HE-Arc. It’s a win-win situation for everyone, including our region, which is thus able to maintain and modernize a know-how that is the envy of the world!”
Specifically, the Acrotec Group will allocate an annual budget of CHF 80,000 over 3 years to the HE-Arc. This budget will be used to finance applied research projects, integrated into the Bachelors curriculum, selected by a bipartite Steering Committee comprising three representatives from Acrotec and three teachers from the Haute Ecole. This type of public-private partnership dedicated to innovation will also be able to access additional federal funding thanks to the support of Innosuisse.
A relationship of trust
HE-Arc Ingénierie is also delighted with the signing of this framework contract. “The projects we have carried out to date with Groupe Acrotec have involved scientifically and technologically relevant issues, and have gone very well, building a relationship of trust between us,” explains Nabil Ouerhani, HE-Arc Ingénierie’s Deputy Director and Head of Ra&D. “This partnership will enable us to fulfill our Ra&D mission within a defined framework. This partnership will enable us to accomplish our Ra&D mission within a defined framework. By planning joint projects at the beginning of each year, we will be able to optimize the management of our human and financial resources.”
Students at HE-Arc Ingénierie will be involved in various projects with the Acrotec Group, particularly as part of their Bachelor’s degree work. “For our professors, research assistants and students alike, it’s essential to be in close contact with industry,” explains Nabil Ouerhani. “This enables us to be in direct touch with market needs and to adapt our training programs and refine our applied research and development strategies accordingly.”
Networking is another advantage of this type of partnership. Partners enjoy privileged access to their respective industrial and academic networks.
How HE-Arc Ingénierie works with companies : signing a framework contract with HE-Arc Ingénierie gives the industrial partner access to all the ways in which HE-Arc Ingénierie works with companies:
- student projects: lasting between 2 and 6 months, Bachelor’s and Master’s projects enable the industrial company to explore new ideas and study their feasibility.
- direct mandates: meeting a targeted, short-term need of the industrial company, this type of project is carried out by engineers from the various HE-Arc Ingénierie skills groups.
- publicly co-financed projects: adapted to large-scale projects with high innovation potential, this type of collaboration enables us to benefit from public co-financing, which may be allocated by the Swiss Confederation (Innosuisse projects), the cantons (NPR projects), the European Union (Horizon Europe projects) or the University of Applied Sciences Western Switzerland (HES-SO) through special calls for projects. The duration of this type of project, carried out by HE-Arc Ingénierie engineers, generally ranges from 12 to 24 months.