On Tuesday December 17, Metz-Technopôle celebrated its 40th anniversary in the presence of François Grosdidier, Mayor of Metz and President of the Metz Eurometropole, who paid a heartfelt tribute to Jean-Marie Rausch. Rausch, who was Mayor of Metz from 1971 to 2008, Minister, Senator, President of the Lorraine General Council and then of the Lorraine Regional Council, was a visionary elected official, keen to develop the attractiveness of his city and save his region after the oil crises of the 1970s and the steel industry crisis, which had a direct impact on Lorraine, with the closure of numerous factories and an explosion in unemployment.
Faced with what many would have considered a foregone conclusion, Jean-Marie Rausch decided to provide the region with infrastructure that would give it hope and a future. And so, in 1984, the Metz-Queuleu ZAC, known as "Technopôle Metz 2000", based on cable, telematics and communications, was born and imagined on 35 hectares in place of the cow meadows and cereal fields of Grigy. Supélec (CentraleSupélec) moved into the Technopôle, and by 1986 the site had grown to 84 hectares, joined in the months and years that followed by emblematic institutions, companies and schools such as the World Trade Center Metz-Saarbrücken and TDF.
As a result, a zone of excellence entirely dedicated to the establishment of activities essentially focused on "New Information and Communication Technologies" was created within the same area, with the aim of welcoming and bringing together benchmark companies likely to involve a new source of economic development. As President of the Communauté d'Agglomération de Metz Métropole (CA2M), Jean-Marie Rausch will continue to promote the establishment of innovative companies.
An exemplary crossroads for innovation and high technology, where companies, research centers, business centers and campuses come together, Metz-Technopôle has continued to develop, structure and reinvent itself over the past 40 years, with the aim of providing the Eurometropole with forward-looking solutions that will benefit the region's economic development, as was the case again this year with the installation of the Maison de l'Innovation, de l'Entrepreneuriat, des Ecoles et de l'Université (MIEEU).
