Europe 1 with AFP 3:18 p.m., January 23, 2023
Despite the green light from Polytechnique, the luxury group LVMH has given up setting up its research center on the Saclay plateau (Essonne) near the school and is moving towards land outside this area.
However, the group is continuing its research partnership with the engineering school.
The luxury group LVMH is giving up setting up its research center on the Saclay plateau (Essonne) near the Polytechnic school, which had nevertheless given the green light to this installation last November despite the opposition of several students, a- we learned from Polytechnique on Monday.
Contacted by AFP, LVMH specifies that the group "continues the research partnership" valued at 2 million euros per year for five years with the engineering school, "but is moving towards land outside the plateau of Saclay for the installation of its research centre".
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"Work on sustainable materials, a theme that is part of the project to create the new interdisciplinary center on materials, will be implemented. Exchanges on the two other research themes identified, namely Data and AI , and Life Sciences will also continue,” adds Polytechnique.
In November, the board of directors of Polytechnique had validated the sale of land near the engineering school on the Saclay plateau to the luxury group to set up a research center there, a project which had been opposed by students and former students of X.
The deliberation was validated by 19 votes for, 4 against and one abstention.
The project of the world's number one in luxury, called LVMH Gaia, should eventually bring together 300 researchers on an area of 22,500 m², according to LVMH, which intends to invest more than 100 million euros in the future building.
Officially announced in July, the LVMH project on the Saclay plateau had met with opposition from students and former students of the X grouped in the collective "Polytechnique is not for sale!".
In its press release on Monday, the École polytechnique and the Institut Polytechnique de Paris indicated that they would continue to "develop the innovation park intended to host research and innovation activities, starting with the ongoing examination of a project of a shared research building".
A year ago, the TotalEnergies group had given up setting up its new research and development center on another site also near the Ecole Polytechnique after the mobilization of teachers and students opposed to the project.