CHARENTON-LE-PONT, France— Essilor has inaugurated the Centre for Innovation and Technologies (CI&T) Europe in Creteil, France, which it calls “the world’s largest private campus dedicated to research and innovation in the ophthalmic optics industry.”

The goal of the new campus is to push the ophthalmic lens’ physical limits to better answer and anticipate consumers’ needs, Essilor said. Consolidating research and engineering teams and expertise at a single site will foster fruitful collaboration, accelerate projects as well as new product and technologies launches, supporting Essilor’s mission to improve lives by improving sight. Together with Essilor’s two other Innovation and Technologies Centres, one in Dallas, Texas and another in Singapore, the new campus complements Essilor’s global research organization, allowing the company to further its goal of making innovation a key focus of its development strategy, the company said.

“Vision is our most important sense and plays an essential role in our lives. The new center, which we are inaugurating, is a powerful platform for developing tomorrow’s lenses, materials and coatings that will open new perspectives in term of vision correction and protection, and take up the challenge of prevention and visual health,” said Hubert Sagnieres, chairman and CEO of Essilor.

Within the CI&T Europe, some 900 people from Essilor’s R&D, worldwide operations, global engineering, purchasing, quality and supply chain are now working in close collaboration at the same site seeking and developing innovative solutions to satisfy consumers’ visual needs.