Created in 1967 at the initiative of the Ecole des Mines de Paris, ARMINES is a contract research association and partner of French Engineering Schools. Its focus is "industry-oriented research". ARMINES provides to it common research centres, some supports in persons, equipments and functionalities equivalent to the volume of contracts activity. With 500 employees dispatched in 50 laboratories, with the participation of Schools' teacher-researchers and with a 37 Millions Euros annual sales figures, it is the first French contract research organization working with school institutions. It is reinforcing the R&D activity of the research teams of the Ecoles des Mines under the control of the Ministry of the Economy, Finance and Employment, the Ecole Polytechnique, the Ecole des Ponts et Chaussées the Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Technique Avancées and the Ecole Navale by orienting them toward industrial problems.