Faurecia Sièges d'Automobile

Their core work

Faurecia Sièges d'Automobile is the automotive seating business unit of Faurecia, one of the world's largest tier-1 automotive suppliers. They design, engineer, and manufacture vehicle seats and seating systems for major car manufacturers globally, with deep expertise in occupant packaging, seat structure, ergonomics, and biomechanical performance. In H2020 research, they contributed this industrial expertise to projects addressing electric vehicle interior design and virtual crash safety testing — bridging the gap between academic simulation models and real-world production constraints. Their particular value in consortia is grounding research outcomes in the physical and regulatory realities of high-volume automotive manufacturing.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

With only two projects — DOMUS (starting 2017) and VIRTUAL (starting 2018) — the evolution window is narrow, and DOMUS left no recorded keywords, which limits direct comparison. The available evidence nonetheless shows a clear directional shift: DOMUS pointed toward user experience and design efficiency for electric vehicles, while VIRTUAL moved into rigorous, data-driven virtual testing with explicit concern for underrepresented user groups (women, children, cyclists, pedestrians). The trajectory suggests Faurecia's H2020 engagement grew more methodologically precise and equity-aware over time, moving from broad interior design participation toward evidence-based occupant safety validation.

Faurecia is moving toward simulation-based safety validation with growing attention to diverse user populations — a direction aligned with tightening EU type-approval regulations on crash testing representativeness.

How they like to work

Faurecia joined both projects as a participant, never as coordinator, which is consistent with a large industrial company that contributes validated real-world data and manufacturing constraints rather than leading research agendas. Despite only two projects, they worked with 37 distinct partners across 15 countries, indicating participation in large, multi-actor RIA consortia where industrial partners are expected to validate research against production realities. This makes them a reliable specialist partner rather than a project driver.

With 37 unique consortium partners across 15 countries from just two projects, Faurecia's H2020 network is disproportionately broad — reflecting the large, multi-stakeholder transport safety consortia typical of Pillar 3 RIA calls. No geographic concentration is evident; their European reach appears driven by project structure rather than bilateral relationships.

What sets them apart

Faurecia is one of the very few automotive seat manufacturers with documented H2020 research participation, giving them credibility in consortia that need an industrial anchor with both safety testing knowledge and mass-production context. Their engagement with open-source human body models — especially female and child representations — positions them ahead of suppliers still relying on legacy male-biased crash dummies. For a consortium needing an industry partner who can translate safety research into manufacturable seat design, they are a rare fit.

Highlights from their portfolio

• VIRTUAL
  Largest funding award (EUR 228,450) and the project most directly aligned with Faurecia's core seat safety expertise — notable for its open-source human body model work, including an average female model that challenges the male-biased baseline of conventional crash testing.
• DOMUS
  Represents Faurecia's entry into electric vehicle interior research, linking seat and cabin design to energy efficiency and user experience in a segment now central to automotive industry transformation.