PÉPITE Centre Cluster

On Wednesday 9 July 2015 the Chairman of the Centre-Val de Loire University Community of Universities and Institutions (ComUE CVLU) presented the PÉPITE Centre – a Student Cluster for Innovation, Transfer and Entrepreneurship in the Centre-Val de Loire Region.

The project

Led by the ComUE CVLU, this project was accredited by the French Ministry of Higher Education and Research on 18 March 2014.

The higher education institutions forming the ComUE CVLU and PÉPITE Centre are:

• INSA Centre Val de Loire,
• Orléans University,
• Tours François-Rabelais University,
• School of Business and Management (ESCEM) - Tours Campus.

The PÉPITE Centre will be available to all students in the Centre-Val de Loire region - currently numbering more than 40,000 (on University Diplomas, Bachelors, Masters, PhDs and Engineering courses).

The Centre-Val de Loire Regional Council and Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations are financing this scheme.

In line with the public authorities’ strategy, the partner institutions of ComUE CVLU have decided to bolster the entrepreneurial and innovation dimensions of their training programmes and to develop support for project leaders so as to encourage the emergence of business with a potential for growth and job creation.

The objectives

The objectives of the educational project and main schemes will be as follows:

• raising awareness of entrepreneurship and innovation through the regional educational competition for company startups: CréaCAMPUS;
• training in entrepreneurship and innovation for higher education students with the Student Entrepreneur Institution Diploma (D2E), core modules, etc.;
• specialisation in the themes of innovation by services, social economy, women entrepreneurship and exports of innovative products by SMEs - SMIs;
• help for entrepreneurs to get their plans for starting a business off the ground via a partnership-based approach between higher education institutions, local authorities and local economic stakeholders (technopoles, consular chambers, technology parks, incubators, etc.);
• strengthening the link between higher and secondary education;
• le renforcement de l’accès à l’entrepreneuriat des jeunes peu ou pas qualifiés en favorisant les partenariats entre les pôles PÉPITE et les Missions locales par la création d’un DUCA (Diplôme Universitaire de Créateur d’Activité) ;
• increasing access to entrepreneurship for youngsters with no or few qualifications by encouraging partnerships between the PÉPITE clusters and “missions locales” (support centres for young people) via the setup of a DUCA (Activity Founder University Diploma);
• Transfer of Technology from the research laboratories of Universities and Grandes Ecoles to industry, in liaison with the SATT Grand Centre, set up in 2013.