2013-vinci-annual-report
2013-vinci-annual-report
2013-vinci-annual-report
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INNOVATING TO CREATE VALUE<br />
The Group’s responsibility is<br />
also measured by its capacity<br />
to innovate and anticipate in<br />
all areas: processes, methods<br />
and technology, together with<br />
safety, management and<br />
sustainable development.<br />
VINCI’s policy in this area<br />
combines internal research<br />
and development programmes,<br />
strong incentives for<br />
participative innovation within<br />
its teams, and partnerships<br />
based on collaborative<br />
methods involving the<br />
academic and scientific<br />
communities, experts,<br />
decision-makers and so on.<br />
Research and<br />
development<br />
Our research and development<br />
policy focuses on the major<br />
issues at the heart of the Group’s<br />
business activities: urban<br />
expansion, energy performance,<br />
infrastructure sustainability,<br />
eco-design and new mobility<br />
services. It is headed by an<br />
international committee that<br />
brings together the science and<br />
technical heads of the various<br />
business lines. It is invested<br />
with three main tasks: develop<br />
technically, economically and<br />
environmentally efficient<br />
products, processes and<br />
constructive solutions; facilitate<br />
exchange between business<br />
lines and develop collaborative<br />
work; and consolidate the<br />
participative innovation culture<br />
among all employees.<br />
With a €51 million budget in<br />
<strong>2013</strong> (up 57% in five years) and<br />
research teams totalling 245<br />
people (full-time equivalent),<br />
VINCI is a sector leader in<br />
research and development (*) .<br />
In <strong>2013</strong>, the Group was involved<br />
in about 50 research programmes<br />
and 13 competitiveness<br />
clusters, notably the<br />
Advancity cluster specialising<br />
in the sustainable city and<br />
mobility. It patented 38 new<br />
inventions, bringing its<br />
worldwide active patent<br />
portfolio to 1,777.<br />
Cooperative<br />
research in<br />
eco- design and<br />
the sustainable city<br />
• The partnership between<br />
VINCI and three ParisTech<br />
schools that led in 2008 to the<br />
creation of the Eco-design of<br />
Buildings and Infrastructure<br />
Chair was renewed in <strong>2013</strong> for<br />
a further five years. Consistent<br />
with its commitment to<br />
developing eco-design in its<br />
projects, VINCI has endowed<br />
the Chair with a budget of<br />
€4 million for this period,<br />
which is 33% more than the<br />
initial partnership. Established<br />
for the long term, this collaboration<br />
aims to generate<br />
measurement and simulation<br />
tools and systems integrating<br />
all aspects of eco-design in<br />
order for them to become<br />
effective decision-making<br />
instruments for all stakeholders<br />
in the city. In <strong>2013</strong>, the Chair’s<br />
second seminar attracted<br />
around 200 people in Paris<br />
(www. chaire-eco-conception.org).<br />
• The Fabrique de la Cité (the<br />
City Factory), a think tank set up<br />
at VINCI’s initiative, continued<br />
its work on addressing urban<br />
issues in the form of themed<br />
meetings and publications<br />
(www.lafabriquedelacite.com).<br />
The main topics addressed in<br />
<strong>2013</strong> concerned value creation<br />
for cities (Stockholm seminar),<br />
the role of culture in the city’s<br />
transformation (Marseille<br />
Number of active patents<br />
worldwide<br />
1,777<br />
patents<br />
seminar), and infrastructure<br />
funding mechanisms (Paris<br />
seminar).<br />
• The partnership established<br />
in 2012 with the<br />
Institute for Sustainable<br />
Development and International<br />
Relations (Iddri) through<br />
its “Cities Club” continued to<br />
address the issues of innovative<br />
funding and urban<br />
planning.<br />
• VINCI Concessions also<br />
continued to support the<br />
Public-Private Partnerships<br />
Chair at the University of Paris<br />
1-Panthéon Sorbonne, and<br />
VINCI Construction France<br />
contributed to establishing<br />
Efficacity, an institute focused<br />
on the energy transition in<br />
cities.<br />
Participatory<br />
innovation: VINCI<br />
Innovation Awards<br />
In keeping with its decentralised<br />
management model, VINCI<br />
develops its innovation potential<br />
by encouraging hands-on<br />
initiatives by its teams and their<br />
external partners. The biennial<br />
VINCI Innovation Awards<br />
Competition, which is open to<br />
all employees, is part of this<br />
approach. The <strong>2013</strong> competition<br />
saw a further increase in the<br />
number of participants: working<br />
in teams, 5,300 employees<br />
(as opposed to 5,100 in 2011)<br />
submitted 2,075 projects (1,717<br />
in 2011). The quality of the 146<br />
winning projects in the initial<br />
round of regional competitions,<br />
then of the 13 final winners,<br />
confirmed the potential for<br />
innovation at VINCI that is<br />
embedded at the grassroots level.<br />
The winning projects can be<br />
viewed on the www.<strong>vinci</strong>.com<br />
website.<br />
(*) Are only included here, under the<br />
same calculation method that has been<br />
used for several years, the amounts<br />
devoted exclusively to fundamental R&D,<br />
to the exclusion of actual construction<br />
research.<br />
GROUP / SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT 33
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