FuturGen Insight – Open Innovation: setting our sights on boldness
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Innovation rarely comes as a sudden breakthrough! It is built step by step, with boldness, humility, perseverance… and a lot of listening.
Vicente Milanes, Director of Open Innovation, Renault Group is convinced that building a more sustainable, more connected, and more human mobility requires us to step outside our usual frameworks, and seek inspiration where it is born: in ecosystems, startups, academia, technical centers, regions, and user practices.
A “startup” mode to cultivate agility
At Renault Group, innovation is not a department: it’s a mindset. It permeates our businesses, our projects, and our ways of collaborating. It’s a culture we’ve always nurtured and that we are continuously developing to stay aligned with major technological, environmental, and societal challenges. This culture of innovation enables us to take risks, question ourselves, and build the future with confidence.
Being a large Group is a strength. We have the means to design, industrialize, scale up, and mobilize top-level expertise.
But let’s be clear: speed, agility, and rapid experimentation are not always the strong suits of large organizations.
That’s where open innovation truly makes sense. By collaborating with bold startups, cutting-edge research labs, innovative universities, and agile industrial partners, we accelerate our transformation.
These partners help us think differently, stay connected to the forefront, and anticipate tomorrow’s uses. In France, we work with leading research institutions such as the CNRS or the CEA, close cooperation with key players like Bpifrance and support initiatives like the Grand Prix ACF AutoTech, which helps us spot tomorrow’s gems early on.
« Our belief is simple: no company, no matter how large, can innovate alone. It is by building strong ties with an open and international ecosystem that we create value – both for today and tomorrow. »
Vicente Milanes
A global vision, local innovation hubs
This technology watch that is Scouting is really our radar. It helps us stay ahead in a world of ever-accelerating technology.
With powerful tools - artificial intelligence, scientific monitoring, patent analysis - we detect weak signals, anticipate disruptions, and identify key players.
But at its core, scouting is above all a mindset: one of curiosity, openness, and a desire to understand what’s happening elsewhere.
It’s this mindset that allows us to turn an intuition into a project, a meeting into a partnership, and an idea into a concrete solution for tomorrow.
Une vision globale, des innovations hubs locaux
Our strength also lies in our ability to think globally while acting locally. Today, Renault Group relies on innovation hubs located in strategic areas, each rooted in its local ecosystem:
- France: electric vehicle design, vehicle engineering, circular economy, software research laboratories, software-defined vehicles
- Brazil & Argentina: creative lab, local adaptation of sustainable mobility solutions
- China: new trends on electric vehicle ecosystem and software
- India: hackathons, startup challenges, collaborative projects
- Israel: cybersecurity, smart sensors, AI and software
- Morocco: support to local production ecosystem
- Romania: creative lab and software development
- South Korea: AI interfaces, software-defined vehicles, smart mobility partnerships
- Spain: renewable energy, tech scouting and local proof of concepts
- Turkey: collaborative projects, support to local production ecosystem
These hubs allow us to capture innovation where it emerges, test it quickly, and help it grow. They keep us close to local research institutes, universities, and tech gems.
We are also present at major tech events to stay open to this ecosystem of innovation.
In recent months, for example, we were at Viva Technology 2025 in Paris with the Software Republique, where we met with over 50 startups on topics ranging from AI to cybersecurity and robotics. We also attended the South Summit in Madrid to explore intersections between mobility and emerging technologies. And at NextRise in Seoul, we presented our vision of the connected car alongside Korean partners!
A scientific council to anticipate any technological shift
Innovation also means taking a step back. That’s why we have set up a scientific council of top-level experts from academia and industry. Their role? To help us stay on course, challenge our choices, and anticipate major disruptions. They provide an objective and insightful external perspective on our innovation strategy - a valuable compass in a world where everything is accelerating.
An invitation to co-innovate
As you’ve probably gathered, I firmly believe that innovation is a team sport. It thrives on diverse perspectives, constructive dialogue, and genuine collaboration. That’s why I’m extending an invitation: get in touch with us. Whether you’re a startup, researcher, engineer, or institution - we need you and your ideas.
