A research, innovation and engineering cooperation agreement between Arquus and ENSTA Bretagne

A framework cooperation agreement encompassing the creation of a joint research laboratory and various contributions to the education of engineers was signed on Friday, December 17th by the CEO of Arquus, Emmanuel Levacher, and the Director of ENSTA Bretagne, Bruno Gruselle. 

ENSTA Bretagne’s engineering disciplines resonate with the themes of innovation and development of the French land army vehicle manufacturer.

The CEO of Arquus and his team have been able to appreciate the full depth and breadth of the excellence of ENSTA Bretagne’s experimental facilities and research center. 
The teams have begun drawing up the scientific road map of the joint laboratory being created. 

The visit to the Brest-based campus ended with a conference for the engineering students given by Arquus on innovation in the sphere of land vehicles and the skills developed for the coming years across the company’s various sites.

Cooperation grounded in wide-ranging shared expertise

Long-standing partners of the armed forces, Arquus and ENSTA Bretagne have decided to join forces through a cooperation agreement in the fields of research & development, innovation and engineering education.

Innovation and the development of new skills are vital to ensure the design, development and support of land equipment. Evolving threats on fields of operation, the integration of increasingly complex systems and adoption of ever higher operational tempos call for a special focus on developing reliable, resilient, well protected and ecologically and economically sustainable land mobility solutions.

These different challenges require an ever more advanced grasp of many scientific and technological areas, in which Arquus is constantly investing and which represent areas of excellence at ENSTA Bretagne.

Through this cooperation agreement, the two partners are beginning an ambitious cooperation program as regards engineering education and research, encompassing a wide range of scientific strands, in mechanics and information technology: vehicle architecture, advanced modeling of materials and structures, impact protection as well as robotics, embedded systems and software engineering. 

For ENSTA Bretagne, this partnership is an invaluable asset in that it enables the school’s students to benefit from close ties with a defense company.

Partnership themes

• Arquus would like to contribute to ENSTA Bretagne’s engineering courses, which combine general education with gradual specialization so that young engineering graduates can hit the ground running in the workplace, demonstrating agility and swiftly joining innovation and development programs.
• Arquus is getting involved in the education of engineers by proposing application projects for the wide array of practical assignments and roleplay situations available at the school. The company is also poised to offer end-of-study projects and internships for the school’s different profiles.
• The first end-of-study projects which will be offered to students in the 2022 cohort concern the hybrid engines of medium and heavy armored vehicles, such as fighting vehicles or tanks. 

Arquus is a pioneer of not only propulsion but also energy storage and generation solutions for the army. The company recently developed the world’s first hybrid military vehicle, the Scarabee, designed to anticipate the future of land mobility. Arquus is also investing in the development of a hybrid version of the Griffon, the French Army’s new fighting vehicle. The hybridization of land equipment helps to lower consumption and emissions, minimize maintenance and strengthen capabilities on the ground. 

• Research programs represent the partnership’s other main theme. ENSTA Bretagne boasts a vast research center and tremendous experimental facilities. A joint laboratory is currently being created, setting the stage for research work on subjects of common interest to Arquus, ENSTA Bretagne’s scientific teams and young graduates alike.
• The scope of this partnership agreement is wide-ranging and expected to evolve to allow co-operative engineers to be hosted at Arquus and Arquus’ experts to teach classes on cutting-edge technologies.