With over 64,000 employees in 56 countries, Thales is one of the giants of the international companies. Whether it is aerospace, logistics, military or IT security, Thales is one of the world market leaders in numerous industries and subject areas. The French company invested 731 million euros in research and development (R&D) last year alone. Innovations are the core of the company, formerly known as Thomson-CSF. Thales is therefore always looking for new, interesting thinking, product and company approaches, even apart from its own R&D efforts. Thales’ Open Innovation Day on October 19th in cooperation with Silicon Europe has been promoted for months. Over 100 start-ups, small and medium-sized enterprises applied. Including ten Silicon Saxony members whereof four were now invited and present their products and ideas in Lyon.

Format of "Open Innovation Days" is gaining in importanceAs early as 2015, Silicon Saxony organized the Samsung Innovation Days together with Samsung. It was a concept that opened up new possibilities for the members of the Saxon high-tech cluster as well as the global conglomerate. Last year, the GLOBALFOUNDRIES Tabletop Exhibition followed the next event with a similar concept. This time too, small and medium-sized companies as well as start-ups from the Silicon Saxony network benefited. Now the leap to the whole European level follows. Together with the twelve member clusters of the Silicon Europe alliance, the Innovation Days are taking another step, but underline the growing importance of this format. With its 25,000 employees in R&D alone, Thales seemed almost predestined for an Innovation Day.3D IT is allowed to pitch, three more Silicon Saxony members are networkingThe application phase for the Thales Innovation Day also began this year with a clear requirement profile. Innovations in the areas of digital transformation, microelectronics and materials, IT security, sensors and IoT were in demand. From the well received more than 100 applications, 19 companies were selected for a pitch-leading Thales employee as well as a further 34 companies for the connected B2B discussions. Four members of the Silicon Saxony were also welcome to receive a positive feedback from France. Thus the company 3D Interaction Technologies from Dresden was given the honor to participate in both Pitch and the following B2B meetings. Anvo Systems Dresden, LANGER EMV technology and JSC GYROOPTICS are allowed to network in Lyon in B2B talks. A great success and an exciting opportunity for each of the four lucky companies.

3D-IT during the pitch in front of Thales employees and managers at the Innovation Day.