Maritime campus in Nantes: Centrale Nantes, the Ecole Nationale Supérieure Maritime and Ifremer join forces to provide a collective response to the major challenges facing the oceans

Centrale Nantes, the École Nationale Supérieure Maritime (ENSM) and Ifremer, all major players in the maritime and ocean sectors, share a common base in Nantes, an area whose dynamic blue water economy is supported by an ambitious regional maritime strategy.

On Wednesday 16 October, in the presence of Fabrice Loher, Minister for the Sea and Fisheries, and elected representatives including Christelle Morançais, President of the Pays de la Loire region, and Aziliz Gouez, Vice-President of Nantes Métropole, they jointly inaugurated three new buildings constructed with financial support from the local authorities, the French state and the European Union. The event marks their desire to pool their expertise and work together to raise the profile of maritime engineering in Nantes.

Together, they expressed their shared desire to provide society with answers to the fundamental challenges posed by the ocean in a number of different fields: maritime and ocean engineering, marine renewable energies, decarbonisation of maritime activities, marine environmental sciences and ocean ecology.

Three new buildings have been completed thanks to financial support from local authorities, the French state and the European Union:

• Nemo, which houses the workshops that support the ocean engineering tanks at Centrale Nantes, a leading, internationally recognised research facility;
• a building for ENSM and Centrale Nantes, which houses training rooms and simulators for ENSM;
• an Ifremer research building focusing on toxic and harmful marine microalgae, coastal water quality monitoring, fisheries observation and chemical contamination of marine ecosystems.

A maritime campus providing a framework for research and innovation

Centrale Nantes, ENSM and Ifremer play a key role in structuring local research, thanks to their geographical proximity, at the heart of the first campus in the Nantes metropolitan area.

As a meeting point between academic research and companies in the marine sector, the three organisations also play a facilitating role in networking innovative industries with public scientific research laboratories to meet the challenge of sustainable oceans and related economic activities.
 

Through our strong links with industrial partners in support of innovation, our shared research infrastructures, such as the SEM-REV offshore test site, our ocean tanks and other testing facilities, our three institutions can draw on solid capital to meet these major challenges.

Jean-Baptiste Avrillier, Director of Centrale Nantes.

Download the press release (in French)