Brussels, Belgium. Laurence Petit, Director of Innovation at France’s CEA, said at the European Innovation Council Summit 2026 that turning scientific excellence into successful deep-tech companies requires identifying market interest early and raising projects’ technology readiness.
CEA’s start-up model
Speaking to the Cyprus Mail on the sidelines of the event in Brussels this month, Petit discussed how CEA produces between 10 and 15 spin-off companies each year, the sectors she sees as most promising, and the challenges facing research organisations.
Since 2022, Petit has overseen all of CEA’s start-up support programmes, including maturation, incubation and venture-building activities, while also managing around 25 projects and the organisation’s investment subsidiary.
CEA, formally known as the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission, is a public research organisation active in energy, digital technologies, defence, health and deep-tech innovation.
From research to business
Petit said the first step in turning laboratory research into commercially viable businesses is identifying who could benefit from a technology.
“You need first to identify innovation and have an idea of who could be interested in it,” Petit said.
She said researchers need to conduct extensive interviews to understand the potential applications of their discoveries.
“Researchers don’t know how to do interviews or how to identify potential applications for their research,” she said.
Technology readiness
According to Petit, increasing the technology readiness level of projects is another essential requirement.
She said this requires funding and access to technological infrastructure that can generate experimental data and show that technologies work not only at laboratory scale but also under operational conditions.
