November 30, 2018

Space and sports medicine CNES and Stade Toulousain sign joint statement of interest

Thursday 29 November, CNES Chief Operating Officer Lionel Suchet and Didier Lacroix, Chairman of the Board of Stade Toulousain, signed a joint statement of interest aimed at working together to improve and extend protocols for monitoring the health and fitness of astronauts and rugby players, as well as equipment designed for this purpose.

CNES and Stade Toulousain are joining forces to develop physiological and psychological monitoring of healthy subjects in a very specific environment, each in their own domain: astronauts for CNES and rugby players for Stade Toulousain. They will identify and define procedures together for collaborating and contracting directly or through ESA programmes, the European Union’s Horizon H2020 programme, R&T plans and bilateral partnerships with other space agencies or entities such as the MEDES space clinic, CNES’s subsidiary in Toulouse.

After the signature, Lionel Suchet commented: “This unique collaboration for CNES encompasses two centres of excellence in the Occitanie region that are each leaders in their respective domains, in France and in Europe, and which share the desire to get the best—both physically and psychologically—out of human beings operating in extreme conditions. Research at the CADMOS centre for the development of microgravity applications and space operations and at MEDES, and numerous experiments conducted on the International Space Station are helping to improve lives on Earth, and that is also CNES’s role in life sciences.”

“Stade Toulousain is proud to be engaging today in a partnership to monitor the health and fitness of both our professional and youth players, and to be able to call for this on the expertise of CNES, a leading light in technology research in Toulouse, France and Europe. This innovative partnership will help us to further our knowledge together of players’ and astronauts’ physiology, and thus develop applications for space and sport over the long term. This meeting of talents is a natural extension of the pursuit of excellence that underpins the club’s sporting and human ethos, as well at its role advancing and encouraging sport and health for the widest number,” added Didier Lacroix.

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CONTACTS
Pascale Bresson    Press Officer    Tel. +33 (0)1 44 76 75 39    pascale.bresson@cnes.fr
Raphaël Sart    Press Officer    Tel. +33 (0)1 44 76 74 51    raphael.sart@cnes.fr