Our major projects, your future

The Ministry of Ecology, Sustainable Development, Transport and Housing (MEDDTL) and the Ministry of Higher Education and Research have jointly decided to create a world-class Sciences and Techniques Cluster in Marne-la-Vallée, within Cité Descartes.

The Paris-Est Sciences and Techniques Cluster (PST) is a cluster of excellence and innovation meant to meet the challenges of sustainable cities. Teaching, training, research and engineering are joining forces to work together on the issues relating to the city of tomorrow and to contribute in implementing the commitments of the Grenelle Roundtable on the Environment.

The PST represents a tremendous opportunity to strengthen synergies between research, higher education, business players and local authorities, turning this site into one of the nine clusters of excellence located within the Paris region.

The “Le Bienvenüe” Building at the PST will host 1,500 researchers, engineers and PhD students from the LCPC (Ponts et Chaussées Central Laboratory), the INRETS (National Transport and Safety Research Institute), the CSTB (Building Scientific and Technical Centre), the National École des Ponts Paris Tech, and the University of Paris-Est Marne-la-Vallée. It is also being considered that the FCBA headquarters (Technological Institute for Forests, Cellulose, and Building and Furniture Wood), which groups the entire wood business channel in France, will take over 10,000 m² in the facility.

This architectural project takes full part in the High Environmental Quality (HQE) approach, and aims at securing the BBC certification (Low-Energy-Use Building). Construction was launched in 2010.

There is a large amount of land available nearby for innovative companies to settle on. Such companies will have total freedom to work in symbiosis with neighbouring scientific and technical agencies, thus creating a cluster, the only one of its kind worldwide, devoted to the issue of sustainable cities.