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Partnerships
&
Projects

Exail's DNA carries a strong pioneering spirit. Innovation fuels our team's daily lives, making them strive for excellence. The Group is actively involved in major R&D programs aiming at exploring new frontiers of innovation.

Exail is committed to providing its customers with the most advanced and secure technologies. Through strong partnerships with diverse ecosystems, including industrial, educational, and institutional sectors at various scales, our aim is to create game-changing technologies that expand the boundaries of science.

Standing with key players in the industrial ecosystem

For several decades, Exail has been working with major French and international institutions and key players which are reference in their areas of expertise. Either as partners for a specific project or representing the interests of our industries, Exail has a long history of partnerships and collaborations.

Exail is proud to collaborate with a wide range of partners to drive our industries forward.

Preparing the future: Cooperation and transfer of skills

Exail collaborates with universities and laboratories to share knowledge and train new generations of engineers. Actively focused on expanding the capabilities of its technological solutions. Exail relies on scientific research programs and encourages out-of-the-box thinking to shape the technologies of tomorrow.

Training the future experts

Exail actively works with universities to educate the next generation of engineers. Promoting career paths and sharing enthusiasm for high technologies to attract the experts of tomorrow. To achieve this, Exail works at various levels of education, including involving its employees in university classes to share knowledge, supporting theses and scholarships, and promoting on-the-job training.

Exemple of Scholarship sponsorship –Marine and Maritime Intelligent Robotics Master’s degree

One of exail's most notable initiatives is the Marine and Maritime Intelligent Robotics (MIR) master's program. This academic curriculum innovatively combines robotics and artificial intelligence in the context of advancing marine and maritime sciences and their technological applications.

The MIR Master is an Erasmus Mundus Joint Master, composed of four European academic institutions: University of Toulon (France), NTNU (Norway), UJI (Sapin) and IST - UL (Portugal).

Exail has been an associated partner of MIR since its creation. It contributes on several levels: by offering some teaching and work placements. In particular, Exail offers a scholarship, paid and completed by working at Exail.

Tackling Visionary R&D Challenges with Academic Partners

At Exail, we are convinced that a strong link between industry and research institutes is the key to the solution of ambitious research and long-term industrial challenges. To this end, Exail works closely with academic laboratories around shared scientific themes, through Joint Laboratories.

They provide a structured, flexible and durable framework that leverages the complementary strengths of both partners and enables possible technology breakthroughs.

Learn more about the fruitful collaborations established by Exail R&D teams with some leading research labs in the fields of hardened fibers for harsh environments (LabH6) and quantum inertial sensing (iXAtom):


Exail actively participates to major Research & Development programs

Major programs in Robotics

I-SEAMORE, Surveillance ecosystem for maritime operations

The I-SEAMORE project aims to create an integrated system for European maritime authorities, utilizing reliable and advanced aerial support. This will consist of an advanced platform to manage and operate various innovative assets, services, and systems for efficient maritime operations. This project, funded by Europe and operating under the Horizon Europe program, is directed by a consortium of 17 entities from 11 countries.

Exail's technological proficiency in complex drone systems is immensely valuable to the I-SEAMORE initiative. As a critical partner and sizeable enterprise, Exail leads an essential work package concentrating on unmanned vehicle and payload development. Exail will enhance its drones' abilities to carry out night missions and identify illegal trafficking through the use of infrared sensors and related algorithms. Additionally, Exail plans to collaborate with project partners to integrate its drones' mission management system with the I-SEAMORE maritime surveillance platform, enabling the drones to receive task orders and transmit collected data.

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MIRICLE, Mine risk clearance for Europe

European defence industrial development program (EDIDP) – 2021/2023

The Mine Risk Clearance for Europe (MIRICLE) project focuses on the key components of a stand-off mine warfare solution, including a mission system, communications network, mine countermeasures (MCM) vessel and robotics, with the integration of artificial intelligence to aid decision making. MIRICLE will significantly enhance all mine countermeasures operations, particularly enabling European navies to benefit from top-notch and highly interoperable capabilities as per NATO's recommendations.

Naval Group leads MIRICLE, which collaborates with 18 partners across ten nations. Coordinated by Belgium, this project will enable the development of new operational capabilities that will ultimately complement those delivered by Exail and partner Naval Group to the Belgian and Royal Netherlands navies within the framework of the contract to replace their naval mine warfare capabilities. Ultimately, the goal is to incorporate these latest capabilities into the mine warfare system, which is based on the "stand-off" approach. This entails deploying a team of autonomous robots across different terrains from a naval platform stationed outside the minefield. The objective is to reduce human and asset losses whilst improving operational efficiency by enabling parallel task execution.

STORM, Remote robotic services for marine operations

France 2030 / France Relance – 2022/2025

STORM or 'Services Téléopérés d’Opérations Robotiques Maritimes' is an R&D project that multiple partners are collaborating on. Its aim is to create a remote-operated subsea inspection and operation service available 24/7 anywhere in the world, while keeping costs low, flexibility high and reducing carbon footprint. The main goal is to develop a solution for marine operations and surveys that includes a remote-controlled vessel, a ROV, mission planning and secure long-distance communication tools. STORM will deliver a service that is simple to implement and economical, while satisfying the stated needs.

Exail is currently developing a remote-operated vehicle designed to execute tasks with high level of autonomy and reliability, making it a state-of-the-art solution

CARMA, cartography of mineral resources by fleet of autonomous underwater vehicles

France 2030 / France Relance – 2023/2026

CARMA, or 'CArtographie des Ressources minérales par Meute d'Auvs', aims to develop tools and processes necessary to carry out complex tasks in deep water using a coordinated fleet of AUVs. CARMA focuses on deep-sea exploration and provides capability to map the seafloor with high precision and resolution.
Exail is using its A18D underwater vehicle to implement new navigation, positioning, acoustic communication and mission planning capabilities.

Major programs in Photonics

NEWTON-g, New Tools for Terrain Gravimetry

Horizon 2020 - 2018/2022

The NEWTON-g project aims to revolutionize terrain gravimetry by overcoming current instrumentation limitations. The development of a "gravity imager" utilizing MEMS and quantum technologies is underway to create a field-compatible device. The imager will consist of low-cost MEMS-based relative gravimeters anchored on an absolute quantum gravimeter.

As part of the NEWTON-g project, funded by the European Union's H2020 program, Exail has enhanced the Absolute Quantum Gravimeter (AQG) for operation in harsh environments. In August 2020, the instrument was deployed in the highly active region at the summit of Mount Etna to evaluate its potential as a tool for volcanic monitoring. Since then, the AQG has conducted almost uninterrupted gravity measurements, resulting in a four-month time series of gravity data. This represents the initial detection of changes in gravity caused by volcanic processes, making it the first in the world.

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FIQUgS, Field Quantum Gravity Sensors

Horizon Europe – 2022/2025

FIQUgS aims at overcoming the barriers that limit the operational utilization of field gravimetry and develop new innovative solutions either at technological level, or in terms of operational methodology. The expected outcome of this project is to reduce the environmental impact in gravimetry’s main field of applications (mining, construction, drilling etc..) while improving the utilization of geothermal energies by developing non-invasive advanced monitoring capabilities.

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QKISS, Quantum Key Industrial SystemS

Quantum Communication Infrastructure initiative of the European Commission (EuroQCI) – 2023/2025

The QKISS (Quantum Key Industrial SystemS) project aims at producing high-performance, secure and certifiable European Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) systems within 2 to 3 years. Funded by the European Commission, within the Digital Europe program, the project started in January 2023. It brings together two high-tech industrial groups, Exail and Thales, and two leading academic teams from Université Paris-Saclay and Sorbonne Université.
As an answer to the current lack of established QKD hardware suppliers to protect the EU strategic digital autonomy, QKISS’s objective is to implement a complete and qualified telecom link that allows encrypted communications protected by the fundamental laws of physics, developed by French industrial and academic experts.

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CARIOQA-PMP, Cold Atom Rubidium Interferometer in Orbit for Quantum Accelerometry – Pathfinder Mission Preparation

Horizon Europe – 2022/2026

Exail plays a central role in CARIOQA-PMP, a project launched in December 2022 under the European Commission's Horizon Europe program. The project, which will run until March 2026 with a budget of €17 million, aims to develop a quantum sensor for space applications based on the spatialisation of Exail's atom-cooled laser system

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QIA, Quantum Internet Alliance

Horizon Europe – 2022/2026

Quantum Internet is a strategic area of investment in Europe. The aim is to make it available to everyone and to bring benefits such as security to the telecommunications and financial sectors. Bringing together industry and academia (from computer science to experimental physics), the Quantum Internet Alliance (QIA) is working towards a moonshot goal: to pave the way for a true quantum internet, connecting many more metropolitan networks via a long-haul backbone network.
As an industrial partner within the Quantum Internet Alliance, Exail is providing its expertise to develop Intelligent Laser Systems emitting at 780 nm to achieve the demonstration of industry-grade Quantum Memories. Exail is pleased to support the development of long-distance entanglement distribution on optical fibers, a key ingredient for long-distance Quantum Communication and Distributed Quantum Computing.

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Major programs in Aerospace

EURISA, European IMU for space navigation

Horizon 2020 - 2021/2024

The EURISA project, funded by the EU, is collaboratively developing a cost-effective and high-performance IMU (Inertial Measurement Unit) for future space missions. The IMU will be based on fiber optic gyroscopes and quartz accelerometers, and will primarily rely on the existing advancements made by its four partners: Airbus Defence & Space, ETH Zurich, DLR Bremen and Exail. These components will be further developed and assembled to create the future European IMU. EURISA aims to conduct space environment tests, measure and validate the inertial performances of its model while delivering hybridization algorithms that are expertly crafted to offer optimum navigation results. The validation of the EURISA IMU engineering model is expected to occur in 2024.

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