Foundation stone ceremony for the new Centrale Nantes - ENSM building with Annick Girardin, Minister for the Sea

The École Nationale Supérieure Maritime - ENSM - and Centrale Nantes have been involved in joint projects for several years now. With the construction of the new C building the Nantes branch of the ENSM can be accommodated on the Centrale Nantes campus from September 2022.

Annick Girardin, Minister for the Sea, laid the foundation stone alongside Didier Martin, Prefect of the Pays de La Loire Region, Claire Hugues, Vice-President of the Pays de La Loire Region in charge of maritime affairs, Francky Trichet, Vice-President of Nantes Métropole and of the University of Nantes, François De Rugy, Yannick Haury and Valérie Oppelt, Members of Parliament for the Loire Atlantique region, Frédéric Moncany de Saint-Aignan, Chair of the ENSM Board of Governors, Jean-Baptiste Avrillier, Director of Centrale Nantes and Caroline Grégoire, Director of the ENSM.

Annick Girardin, Minister for the Sea:

The establishment of this branch on the Centrale Nantes campus is a truly joint initiative. It is a coming together of two fields of excellence, engineering excellence and maritime excellence. 

Pierre Ferrant and David Le Touzé, of the Research Laboratory in Hydrodynamics, Energetics & Atmospheric Environment (LHEEA) presented the laboratory's work to the Minister as well as its SEM-REV offshore test site on the challenges of marine renewable energies and offshore wind power.

A centre for maritime excellence on the Centrale Nantes site

The resulting synergy between the two institutions will lead to the provision of high quality training programmes in the maritime field and the development of new study programmes, joint degrees and extended research activities; and encourage the pooling of teaching, research and technical teams and equipment.

The new 4,000m² building will house new teaching and research rooms as well as research equipment for the ENSM, such as a navigation simulator and a machine simulator for training in propulsion control.

Construction of the building, undertaken by GPAA, has been funded by the school and within the framework of the CPER, with national, regional local participation, and via the ERDF.