Minatec's Ideas Laboratory (Grenoble, France) seems to have a smart agenda:

MINATEC IDEAs Laboratory is a laboratory dedicated to design of new products and services using micro and nanotechnologies. Its approach is based on a rigorous creative process integrating validation of the concepts by the users at a very early stage.

MINATEC IDEAs Laboratory is composed of teams from widely varying backgrounds: scientists from numerous fields (including human sciences such as sociology, anthropology or ergonomics) rub shoulders with technologists and users of all ages.

MINATEC IDEAs Laboratory

creates a place for exchanges and collaborative multidisciplinary work

innovates by interaction between different professions and technologies

verifies the value of use and the economic value of the new objects and services

Located in the heart of the MINATEC excellence centre, the laboratory benefits from resources at the leading edge of research in the micro and nanotechnologies sector.

MINATEC IDEAs Laboratory is a joint venture by the Grenoble CEA Leti, ST Microelectronics and France Telecom R&D. Around the core formed by these three founders, the laboratory is progressively opening up to other partners, industrialists and research organisations.