EcoLab Côte d’Azur was selected along with 13 others from the 154 applications submitted nationwide for the Ministry of Productive Recovery’s call for projects to establish a Fablab in the region.
EcoLab Côte d’Azur, a new tool for innovation, ranked among the best French projects and was the only one selected in the Paca region. It will benefit from future investment funding.
EcoLab Côte d’Azur is supported by three partnering and complementary organizations: TRADMATIK, DIGITAL LAB, and THE SUSTAINABLE DESIGN SCHOOL.
What is a Fab Lab?
Derived from the contraction of the English “fabrication laboratory,” it is a place open to the public that caters to entrepreneurs, designers, artists, inventors, and students who want to quickly move from concept phase to prototyping, from prototyping to refinement, from refinement to deployment, etc.
In these fabrication spaces, individual creativity is encouraged through simplified, ergonomic, and increasingly interoperable computer interfaces. It becomes easier for non-specialist users to take control of technical tools (writing, illustrating, modeling, printing…).
EcoLab Côte d’Azur was ranked among the best French projects and received a de minimis grant of €160,000 for its development over 2 years.
EcoLab Côte d’Azur will rely on two complementary sites located within the perimeter of the Ecovallée, which will be named EcoLab OpenLoft and EcoLab Factory:
The first site, OpenLoft (Nice Premium, in premises provided by the Nice Côte d’Azur Métropole), will serve as a space for welcome, initiation, training, and discovering digital tools, allowing for the creation of models and prototypes.
The second, the Factory (Tradmatik company site, located in St Jeannet in the ZI St Estève), will be dedicated to the development of larger-scale projects and those specifically aimed at businesses.
The goal of EcoLab Côte d’Azur is to enable visitors to discover and share ideas and knowledge about digital technologies with easy access to CNC tools in the Open Source environment. In addition to these tools, it will also offer services (advice, training, and services) to businesses.
