The development of the 3DEXPERIENCE Lab

The 3DEXPERIENCE Lab works with startups, giving them preferential access to the 3DEXPERIENCE platform and customized assistance.

Dassault Systèmes set up its first 3DEXPERIENCE Lab in France in 2015, and very soon expanded it into the United States and India. It now works with more than 30 startups and 15 incubator, technology and fab lab partners across the world.

The 3DEXPERIENCE Lab was designed both as an ideas laboratory and a startup accelerator, with the aim of supporting disruptive innovations that have a positive impact on society. It has also joined forces with multinational companies to accelerate promising projects in specific sectors. Its growing community of 1,200 mentors provides expertise in disciplines as diverse as design, simulation, regulation and marketing.

Since 2019, new startup incubator partners have joined the 3DEXPERIENCE Lab’s dynamic ecosystem, such as MIT Enterprise Forum CEE in Poland, Greentown Labs in the United States, Centech in Canada, OuiCrea and HAX in China, Tshimologong in South Africa, HEC business school in France and FabLab Communautique in Canada. For Frédéric Vacher, head of innovation at Dassault Systèmes, “The 3DEXPERIENCE Lab shows the power of collective intelligence, open innovation and cloud platforms in enabling disruptive innovations that align with the United Nations’ sustainable development goals”.

Dassault Systèmes’ Museum of Innovation – an immersive virtual reality experience – is a way to discover the disruptive projects being developed with the support of the 3DEXPERIENCE Lab. During the virtual tour, visitors pass through different exhibition spaces focusing on life sciences, cities and lifestyles, covering all of the Lab’s areas of activity.

At their own pace, visitors can discover projects and startups offering personalized health solutions, creating more sustainable cities and designing more environmentally friendly products. Each project has its own individual space involving a real-time interactive 3D experience. During the tour – a genuine educational expedition – visitors can find out about the background to a project and understand how it contributes to the attainment of the United Nations’ sustainable development goals, before diving into a virtual simulation in which they interact with a virtual twin of the project alongside its physical prototype. This virtual reality experience exists within a digital environment in the cloud, which means that it is dynamic and rapidly deployable.

The Museum was officially launched in the Atelier des Lumières’ immersive exhibition space in Paris. Dassault Systèmes has already introduced it to its offices in Boston, Pune, Shanghai and Munich and is planning to extend access to other countries in which the company operates, as well as linking up with science museums to share the experience with the general public.

The 3DEXPERIENCE Lab supports the United Nations’ 17 sustainable development goals. Each startup project is associated with and committed to one of these goals. For example, Agreenculture designs agricultural robots, aiming to help “end hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture”. In the healthcare sector, Damae Medical (devices to detect skin cancer), FEops (simulations for heart interventions), Gyrolift (new mobility solutions), Inali (prosthetic hands), PKvitality (bio-wearable solutions), Digital Orthopaedics, Exact Cure and Gyrolift aim to “ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages”, while Leka intends to “ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all”.

The goal of Eel Energy and SparkCharge is to “ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all”, while SplashElec is helping to “reduce inequality within and among countries”. XSun’s drones and XYT’s urban vehicles, meanwhile, intend to “make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable”.