Some partnerships really make an impact. And when it comes to industry “made in” Northern Franche-Comté, this one has stood out in the field of rail transportation for more than 40 years. UTBM is proud to strengthen its ties with Alstom with today’s announcement of the UTBM x ALSTOM Industrial Chair for Decarbonization.

This combination of academic and industrial expertise is designed to address the challenges of tomorrow's rail transportation:

• Build a competitive and environmentally sustainable industry by managing a product’s carbon footprint throughout its entire life cycle and identifying the most appropriate technical solutions (including production, transportation, distribution, energy consumption, storage, decarbonization, and the use of dihydrogen as an energy carrier)

• Develop Industry 4.0 using competitive local production facilities that meet the highest global standards (particularly through the digitization of operations).
• Integrating locomotives into the railway system of the future through advanced machine autonomy and automation, thereby aiming for greater intelligence, safety, and efficiency.

This Industrial Chair will further strengthen collaboration between ALSTOM and UTBM, particularly through proposals to carry out industrial projects for students and apprentices, joint responses to calls for proposals or expressions of interest, and the development of innovative solutions in the field of applied research—for example, through the creation of physical or digital demonstrators. A joint effort to address the multidisciplinary scientific and technological challenges that have been raised.

The agreement establishing the chair was signed today by Ghislain MONTAVON, Director of UTBM, and David JOURNET, Director of Alstom’s Belfort site, in the presence of the management and faculty teams from UTBM and Alstom. Congratulations to the UTBM teams involved in this important project for our region and for the industry!