Innovation is the key to Thales’s future and underpins the three pillars of our strategic vision: growth, performance and people. Research is a great source of innovation for Thales, it drives our ability to anticipate the requirements of our customers and work with them as partners to build the innovative solutions they need and expect. We have five Thales Research Centres located in France, UK, Singapore, Canada and the Netherlands and multiple Innovation Hubs globally. In 2015 we invested €707 million in self-funded R&D and with over 22,000 researchers and engineers employed by Thales, they make up one-third of our workforce.
 

Innovation is also a fundamental principle of (web site closed), where students’ projects are judged on their innovation and inventiveness as part of the competition. This year the global prize for the winners of Project Arduino 2016/17 will be a trip to one of our Research Centres or Innovation Hubs located in one of the countries and regions participating in Arduino, that is France, UK, USA, Singapore, the Netherlands, China Mainland and Hong Kong.

Find out more about some of our Research Centres and Innovation Hubs in these countries:

Palaiseau, France

© Fabienne Issot Sergent

 

 

 

© Ecliptique Laurent Thion

 The Palaiseau establishment pioneered the company’s open innovation approach. Located on the campus of the École polytechnique — one of the country’s most prestigious engineering schools — the Palaiseau corporate laboratory forms part of a complex of world-class research establishments just south of Paris. As well as 350 permanent staff members, 40 doctoral students and more than 100 scientists from partner research institutes work at the Palaiseau establishment. The III-V Lab (Nokia-Thales- CEA LETI) dedicated to III-V semiconductor technologies is also part of this unique ecosystem.

Reading, UK

Our Research and Technology facility in Reading, Berkshire exemplifies Thales’s innovative approach. Working in close collaboration with various government agencies, universities and private research organisations, Thales Research and Technology (UK) Ltd has an enviable track record of innovation that has led directly to four Queen's Awards for Technology being gained by Thales companies, as well as our recent  ‘Investors in Innovation’ accreditation, for commitment to catalysing growth through innovation. Research, Technology and Innovation is at the heart of what Thales UK does. It’s in our DNA. We win awards. We hold patents.We innovate. We are actively embedded with academia across the UK by funding, contributing and leading cutting edge research to develop the technology of the future and ensure Thales innovates in all that it does. In many cases, we develop not just new technology but a whole new way of doing things.
 
 

Delft, Netherlands

The Delft lab develops new concepts and technologies for the strategic needs of the product portfolio’s Thales. They are active in the areas of fusion and reasoning, scheduling, autonomous and agent-based systems, security and human factors. Typically we cooperate with customer organizations, Thales units, universities and knowledge institutions and SME’s from NL and abroad. The work at our Research centre supports innovation in the Netherlands across all our sites, including our newly built site in Hengelo.
 

Singapore

Thales has a strong commitment to further Singapore’s goal as a regional centre for innovation. In Singapore, Thales runs a Research & Technology (R&T) Centre with the aim of complementing and leveraging Singapore’s strong eco-system as a research and development hub. The centre develops leading-edge technical solutions to meet local requirements and enhances Thales’s product portfolios. As the Singapore-based platform for localising Thales technologies, it facilitates a transfer of technical knowledge from Europe to Singapore and serves as an effective interface between Thales experts, Singapore researchers and end-users.

 

In 2014, in line with its continuous focus on research and technology, Thales inaugurated an Innovation Hub located at its country headquarters in Changi. The Hub engages customers and partners in user-centred innovation, enabling cross-functional collaboration in co-designing, prototyping and testing new ideas and concepts across areas ranging from defence, maritime security to aerospace, air traffic management and smart cities.

 

Boston, USA

At the MIT Media Lab in Cambridge, Mass., Thales launched Thales xPlor as a strategic function for engaging with the United States start-up and academic ecosystems todevelop new, innovative and smart solutions for our world. The mission of Thales xPlor is to create new streams of value by identifying and partnering with emerging and disruptive technologies and companies within the United States’ innovation ecosystem. This practice is creating new business ventures, technology insights and licensing opportunities for Thales.

 

Hong Kong, China

In June 2014, Thales inaugurated an Innovation Hub in Hong Kong. A true incubator of ideas for academic, government and industry representatives, the Hong Kong Innovation Hub will focus on the concept of Smart Cities, working specifically in the transport and security domains.