Renault - Ecole des Mines Partnership    The Ecole des Mines and Renault have decided to develop a partnership on the MSc in Industrial Economy and International Management. Renault, Créateur d'Automobiles Renault was founded 1898 in a Parisian suburb by a young engineer, Louis Renault, who invented the first ‘direct drive’ gearbox at a time when automobiles had a chain-transmission. Ever since, Renault has been constantly basing its development on innovation throughout its history. Renault’s innovative concepts created new segments on the automobile market, for example with the first hatchback vehicle, the Renault 16 (1965). In 1984, Renault introduced the concept of compact vans in Europe with the Renault Espace. Other successful innovative products such as the Renault Twingo, Scénic, Kangoo or Avantime installed Renault as the most creative car-maker in Europe. Beside innovation in design, Renault proved its technological excellence with 6 World Champion titles as Formula 1 motorist in the early 1990’s. Over the decades, Renault has grown to a global player of the car industry: Renault cars are distributed in more than 100 countries and manufactured in 50 plants worldwide. By taking a 36.7% stake of Nissan in 1999, Renault became one of the major automobile manufacturers in the world. The Renault-Nissan Alliance ranked 4th on the top-10 car-makers in 1999. Renault alone achieved sales of EUR 37.6 billion in 1999, with an output of 2.4 million vehicles, and was the first brand on the European automobile market. As part of its strategy of ‘profitable growth’, Renault has set itself the ambitious goal of selling 4 million vehicles worldwide by 2010, nearly doubling its present output. This strategy is supported by a strong expansion outside Europe. After investing massively in Brazil, Renault took over Romanian manufacturer Dacia in 1999 and Samsung Motors of Korea in 2000. In order to implement its international projects, Renault identified the need to internationalise its human resources, which led the company to sponsor the Ecole des Mines’ MSc. The Renault - Ecoles des Mines Partnership Building on a long tradition of cooperation with the Ecole des Mines, Renault caught the opportunity of the MSc of Industrial Economy and International Management to postgraduate some graduated engineers of selected countries and universities. The students will be selected by Renault and the Jury of the MSc. Renault will sponsor the selected students by paying the fees for their MSc (EUR 10,000 per student). Additionally, each student will receive a personal grant for living expenses of EUR 533 per month. The student will do his/her MSc internship at Renault and will receive during that time a total indemnity of EUR 1143 monthly. At the end of the internship, the student will have 2 possibilities: 1. Renault offers him/her a permanent job contract with international career opportunities ; OR 2. Renault and the Ecole des Mines wish him/her all the best for a new life as a post-graduate student without any link or obligation to Renault. In case 1, the student may not accept the contract offered by Renault. In that case, he/she will have to refund the tuition fees paid by Renault for him/her (personal grant not included). Selection Procedure The first group of students will start their MSc in early September 2001. The selected universities for this session are : Brazil Federal University of Santa Catarina Dept. of Mechanical Engineering Dept. of Electrical Engineering (2 grants) (2 grants) Finland Technical University of Helsinki Department of Electrical and Communication Engineering (1 grant) Romania Polytechnic Universityof Bucarest Department of Quality and Control Training (1 grant) All candidates to these grants, graduated from the department of the selected university have to download and fill the application form and send it to the following addresses before December 15th: http://www.mines.inpl-nancy.fr/possibilities/aform.doc The applicants are aware that a minimum level of English language is required (at least more than a 250 score at the TOEFL). A basic knowledge in French would be appreciated. Naturally, a good GPA is compulsory from the academic point of view to increase the probability of selection. A first selection will be done by Ecole des Mines and Renault on the quality of the application form. The selected candidates will have an interview during the month if January. At the very beginning of February, they will receive an official announcement of the final selection.