EDHEC and EURECOM sign an original strategic alliance in order to tackle the issues of a society undergoing profound transformation

EDHEC Business School and EURECOM are pleased to announce a long-term strategic partnership embracing the triple dimensions of Research, Entrepreneurship and Teaching. The two international institutions, which already have close geographic and cultural ties, are teaming up to build a shared future through an innovative partnership model geared to tackling the challenges of a world undergoing profound transformation.  

Founded in 1991 in the form of a consortium, EURECOM is an engineering school and cutting-edge research centre in the field of digital science, and a founding member of the SophiaTech Campus in Sophia-Antipolis. A not-for-profit institution, EURECOM brings together international academic and industrial partners in an agile research- and student-driven structure. 

EURECOM and EDHEC have been progressively increasing their ties for over 15 years and already share common values and research objectives, as well as a strong international culture. The two schools were keen to extend their collaboration through EDHEC’s entry to the EURECOM consortium. Through this initiative, EDHEC becomes an integral part of the consortium and its only business school member, alongside prestigious European universities like TU Munich, Politecnico di Torino, NTNU, Aalto University and the schools of Institut Mines-Telecom, a founding member of the consortium. 

Complementary expertise serving ambitious Tech, AI and Business research projects. 

EURECOM and EDHEC pursue the same strategy of research excellence, underpinned by applied scientific research of real practical use to society and capable of generating economic benefits for the school. 

Conducted in relation with industrial partners, EURECOM’s research activities are organised around three themes of growing impact: digital security, communication systems and data science. For its part, EDHEC notably set up an asset management research centre, EDHEC-Risk Institute, 20 years ago, which is now recognised as one of the leaders worldwide. EDHEC’s 180 professors and researchers also work in various management science fields, including criminal risks management and law.  

The two schools now wish to capitalise on their highly complementary expertise within an original ecosystem of cutting-edge knowledge and to respond to the needs of society by combining their tech and management skills. They aim to roll out a research project on the heme of Tech, AI and Business on an international scale and in partnership with the consortium members. Understanding how developments in telecoms and technology impact work, organisations and business models represents a key issue for the future.  

Among the challenges facing society, climate change is a cause of major importance for tomorrow’s generations. Reflecting its strong engagement with this subject, EDHEC intends to set up a multi-disciplinary sustainable finance research centre in the coming months. Consistent with this research focus, the schools wish to direct their efforts towards climate change and particularly to the task of measuring the carbon footprint of the internet (networks, ISPs, apps, etc.). 

Innovation: access to an even richer ecosystem

The alliance comprises a strong entrepreneurial aspect, in a context where the combination of engineering and business is a key factor in determining the success of start-ups. The two schools both consider the provision of support for start-ups to be central to their mission and will pool their resources to accelerate their students’ initiatives and offer them additional services. EURECOM has access to an incubator in Sophia-Antipolis, while EDHEC’s incubator operates from the Lille and Nice campuses and at Station F in Paris. Each year, the EDHEC Entrepreneurs incubator supports over 600 EDHEC students and graduates in their business start-up projects.    

The cross-participation of entrepreneurs from the two institutions in these ecosystems, as well as the involvement of professors with their complementary expertise, creates a unique opportunity to develop promising new entrepreneurial projects. 

Greater hybridisation of teaching 

With technology and the development of artificial intelligence exerting a growing impact on society, dual business-engineering skills are particularly valued by companies and increasingly sought-after by young generations.  

The partnership has already led to the signature of an agreement for an innovative double degree in management and the internet of things (IoT). As from September 2021, EDHEC Master in Management students will be able to take classes on EURECOM’s IoT Master, while EURECOM engineering students will have the chance to round out their training by joining one of the following four EDHEC MScs: Finance, Corporate Finance & Banking, Financial Markets and International Accounting & Finance. 
This double degree paves the way for greater collaboration in teaching between EDHEC and the consortium members. The hybridisation of skills appears more vital than ever to train outward-looking graduates, capable of making an impact on the world. 

“EDHEC and EURECOM share a real community of values, as evidenced in our high degree of internationality, our not-for-profit model and our belief that research should serve industry. These shared values, together with our highly complementary expertise, provide an ideal platform to jointly develop an original ecosystem geared to tackling the major challenges facing our society in areas that combine Tech, Data, Economics and Finance. We firmly believe that by uniting our expertise, we can develop research and training that is even more relevant for our students and future generations”

underlines Emmanuel Métais, Dean of EDHEC Business School. 

“The partnership with EDHEC is being built on solid foundations that were laid over 15 years ago. It positions us well to train engineers not only capable of designing communication technologies, but also of understanding the associated economic, societal and environmental impacts.  The most interesting aspect of the EDHEC-EURECOM relationship is the complementarity that exists at all levels. Firstly in research, where our expertise in technical fields like digital sciences including cyber-security, IoT and 5G, combined with EDHEC’s expertise in fields like economics, law and acceptability, will enable us to jointly respond to more in-depth projects that are more understandable and acceptable for society. And I’m convinced that this is what digital society expects from us”

adds Ulrich Finger, Director of EURECOM. 

Members of the EURECOM consortium

• Industrial members: Orange, BMW, Norton LifeLock, SAP, IABG.  
• Institutional member:  Principality of Monaco 
• Academic members: Institut Mines-Télécom, Aalto University (Helsinki), Politecnico di Torino, Technische Universität München (TUM), Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Chalmers University of Technology, Czech Technical University in Prague, TU Wien, ITMO University (St Petersburg), EDHEC.