Ecole Centrale Paris (ECP) was founded in 1829. It was the first major engineering school to train engineers in the early days of industry. Today the primary vocation of ECP is still to train managers for industry, a role which gives it a unique position among the major French engineering schools.

In order to promote its research activities which are heavily geared towards industry, ECP created a Private Limited Company in 1986, Centrale Recherche S.A (CRSA), whose major task is to operate as a commercial interface with industry promoting the expertise of the research laboratories of ECP to potential customers interested in contracting out research work.

CRSA deals with the financial, administrative and legal issues regarding the research contract activities of the laboratories with over two hundred clients: SME’s, large firms, public and private research centres, national agencies and public departments as well as with the European Commission in Brussels.