Thales Alenia Space has set up an Innovation Cluster tasked with accelerating the development of innovative projects. Open to all employees, at all levels across the company, the initiative is designed to bolster the company’s innovation culture and reduce time-to-market for new solutions.

The aim, says the company is “to nurture disruptive concepts within Thales Alenia Space, whether for design, production, engineering, sales or support, and to encourage all employees to unleash their creativity and initiate actions.”

The launch of the Innovation Cluster comes at a time when the company’s R&D budget has jumped 15% in just a year. It encompasses all Thales Alenia Space units, in France, Italy, Spain, Belgium, the United Kingdom, Germany and Poland. The Cluster can instantly provide funding and other resources, and is based on an agile structure to enable the fast validation of solutions that may well meet emerging market trends, offering disruptive technologies and innovative development paths to the company’s customers.

Christophe Wilhelm, Vice President for Strategy and Innovation, cites the Stratobus stratospheric airship (photo) as an example of the kind of new concept that the Innovation Cluster aims to stimulate.