The quest for excellence
Essilor's innovation approach has relied for many years on a solid network of partnerships and collaboration.
Sharing expertise, scientific discipline and openness contributes to the progress and enthusiasm of the group's research and development (R&D) teams!
Shared intelligence
Essilor now has around 100 partnerships covering needs ranging from scientific collaborations to research joint ventures. These partnerships with universities, public and private laboratories and other industrial groups have increased the group's innovation capacity.
- the CNRS, a long-standing partner, provides multi-disciplinary scientific support, enabling research into various applications, mainly in the fields of materials and coatings.
- the partnership with the Institut de la Vision represents another of Essilor's research fields. Created in 2008, this is the first multi-disciplinary research center in Europe dedicated entirely to eye disease.
- in collaboration with academic research centers, the R&D optics teams are constantly expanding their knowledge of how eyesight works. Essilor also funds a chair at the Université de Montréal dedicated to perception and ageing.
Progress through disruption
The term "disruptive" describes R&D which develops technologies unrelated to Essilor's core business. Disruptive R&D is of special strategic value to the company, since it is essentially a source of excellence.
One of the key disruptive R&D partnerships is in Japan where Essilor has set up a research joint venture with Nikon: Nikon-Essilor International Joint Research Center (NEIJRC). The joint venture focuses its research on innovative and breakthrough technologies resulting from the respective expertise of the two companies, i.e. cameras for Nikon and ophthalmic optics for Essilor.
These partnerships mean that Essilor's divisions can benefit from the best technologies from other fields and expertise.