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Alliance Centrale - Audencia - ENSA
A Strategic Alliance
Since 2014, École Centrale de Nantes, Audencia and Ecole nationale supérieure d'architecture de Nantes (ENSA Nantes) have formed a strategic alliance based on their complementary strengths.
This alliance combines engineering, management, architecture and creation to enrich the three schools' teaching, research, corporate relations and international reach.
The resulting value-creating hybridization of skills is fertile ground for the innovation process.
Legal Structure and Governance
An association has been created to build bridges and enrich exchanges between the three schools.
The presidency of the Alliance Centrale Audencia ensa Nantes operates on a rotating basis: the directors of the three schools take turns presiding over the Alliance.
In the same spirit of cultural exchange, each director participates in the boards of directors of the other two schools. The operational implementation is ensured by a General Delegate, Jean-Pierre Elloy, General Delegate of the Alliance Centrale-Audencia-ensa, and a Steering Committee.
The Schools
Centrale Nantes
Centrale Nantes is a leading engineering school founded in 1919. It trains engineers, masters and doctoral students in academic courses based on the latest scientific and technological developments and the best management practices. It has a unique positioning among engineering schools, focusing on research, entrepreneurship and technology.
Audencia
Founded in 1900, Audencia is one of Europe's leading business schools, with programs consistently ranked among the best in the world. EQUIS, AACSB and AMBA accredited, Audencia is one of the few business schools in the world to hold triple accreditation, a testament to its commitment to teaching excellence.
Since its inception, Audencia has been committed to educating and guiding the development of responsible future leaders and entrepreneurs, with a focus on giving meaning to their decisions and actions.
Ensa Nantes
The Ecole Nationale Supérieure d'Architecture de Nantes is a public higher education and research institution of the French Ministry of Culture. It is one of 20 public schools in France that prepare students for the National Diploma of Architecture. It also offers other training courses in naval architecture and scenography, urban planning, and architectural and urban environments.
The skills and knowledge of the Grandes Ecoles are combined to provide an increasingly relevant response to the needs of the market and the demands of employers, thus offering students a very promising future. Within companies, young graduates are expected to understand the complexity of management reality, to develop scientific and technological skills, and to exploit the sources of innovation arising from technology transfer between research and industry. This innovative pedagogy has evolved over the years and its development is a strong priority shared by the Grandes Ecoles.
- Double degree in Engineer and Architecture
- Double-degree in Engineering and Management
- Double-degree in Architecture and Urban Planning
- Digital Business and Information Technology Management concentration and Digital City option
- Other training courses (e.g. coding workshops)
International Cooperation - The institutions have agreed to implement the following actions, including
- Mutualization of already well-developed international networks
- Launch of a joint International Training course delivered in English focused on management and business development
- Mutualization of logistics and management of inbound and outbound student mobility of Audencia Business School and École Centrale Nantes
- Creation of a shared "international" space on the Nantes campus, providing accommodation for international students and visiting professors, workspace, and space for the joint international teams of the two schools
Faculty researchers are collaborating on a growing number of research projects. These projects, which focus on the intersection of technology and management, aim to produce results that can be quickly transferred to the business world.
Research projects also arise from the shared values of the two schools. Global responsibility and sustainable development are cross-cutting themes that regularly appear in the partners' research.
- Laboratoire ambiances, architectures, urbanités (AAU) UMR 1563 CNRS-MCC-ECN (Laboratory of Ambiences, Architectures, Urbanities)
- Rn'B Lab, Audencia and Centrale Nantes Research Laboratory
- Les workshop Mobiance
- L'IRSTV - l'institut de recherche en sciences et techniques de la ville (the Urban Research Institute for Science and Technology)
The Centrale-Audencia-Ensa alliance, Manpower Group and Orange, together with the Cercle de la Prospective RH, have published the 9th edition of the Cahier de la Prospective RH [HR prospects Workbook]. It is entitled "The hybridization of skills: a key process for inventing tomorrow?"
It is the result of the reflections of 70 participants, mostly HR professionals, accompanied by a futurist and several experts.
The hybridization of skills, ways of thinking and organization is at the heart of the project of the Centrale-Audencia-ensa Alliance, the initiative of this Foresight Project.
At a time when the most in-demand jobs did not exist 10 years ago and no one knows how many times each of today's students will have to change jobs, the Alliance wanted to think with businesses about the skills they need to equip their students to thrive in a world that is changing at an unprecedented rate.
Promoting entrepreneurship in all its forms: technological, social, and artistic.
In 2025, Nantes University joined the governance of the incubator, which has been run by Centrale Nantes and Audencia since 2013. Since its creation, the Kivo incubator, formerly known as the Centrale-Audencia-Nantes University incubator, has supported more than 170 projects. It offers a support program for innovative startups in the Pays de la Loire region. Incubated companies are placed in the best conditions to enable them to develop and accelerate their high-potential projects. They benefit from the support and expertise of its three institutions through a dedicated offer of training, coaching, and accommodation. The incubator has a team dedicated to serving project leaders, access to a large network, expertise in entrepreneurial support, and an environment of excellence supported by three higher education institutions.
- Alliance Days: For several years, the Centrale-Audencia-Ensa Nantes Alliance has organized two dedicated days for students from the three schools: the principle of these 2 days was to offer students a choice from a series of seminars given by teachers from the Centrale-Audencia-Ensa Nantes Alliance.
- Citylab Alliance: Students were divided into 10 teams, each of which included students from all the schools in the Centrale-Audencia-Ensa Nantes Alliance. Each team tackled a project by pooling their skills in a hackathon format, with projects developed based on a problem proposed by a partner.
- For educators: quarterly workshops on pedagogical innovation (ensa Nantes) allow educators to analyze concrete situations in order to identify practices to be adopted in pedagogical scripting and course facilitation. Monthly "feedback" seminars, Happy Learning (Audencia) and eCube (École Centrale de Nantes), allow innovative educators to share their successes. These seminars are led by a pedagogical engineer and an educator working together on a specific topic.