ARMINES is a private non-profit research and technological organisation founded in 1967, having common research centres with Mines Paris and 5 other partner engineering schools, gathering public and private personnel and means, to collaborate on an arms lengths basis and manage and perform research contractual activities and academic research training, as well as the related intellectual property rights. With a total turnover of more than €30 millions (2022), ARMINES is amongst the top of private contract research institutions affiliated to higher education entities. Through Armines, the centre of research OIE has built an extensive track record regarding EU projects (ENDORSE, ConnectingGEO, NextGEOSS, e-shape), having recently concluded the coordination of the e-shape H2020 project (over N partners, more than 15M€ in budget). This is the result of a long-term coordinated strategy centered around the topic of Earth Observation for solar resource and solar energy applications and with the intent to establish demonstrators and use cases that further valorize scientific research and promote and facilitate the knowledge transfer to the industry. One important milestone in this path was the FP7 project SoDa, aiming at developing a one-stop shop dedicated to solar radiation, which evolved into an actual data service entrusted to a SME, Transvalor, in 2009.
Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Mines de Paris (ENSMP) founded in 1783, is one of the oldest French higher education institutions in engineering. The School is a leader in many areas, among which five major fields: 1/ Earth sciences and the environment, 2/ Energy and process engineering, 3/ Mechanical engineering and materials, 4/ Mathematics and systems and, 5/ Economics, management and society. With 18 common research centres shared with ARMINES and extending over five different fields, MINES Paris PSL is the leading school in France for its volume of contractual research. ENSMP, MINES Paris PSL is also a member of Paris Sciences et Lettres Research University (PSL – www.univ-psl.fr).