It was created in 1919 on the request of the University of Nancy in order to contribute to the reconstruction of the mining and steel industry in the east of France after World War I. At the end of the 1950s, under the impulse of its then-director Bertrand Schwartz (younger brother of Laurent Schwartz), the school reorganized its curriculum to include a balanced blend of engineering, management and social sciences. At the time, it was an innovative educational model for engineers, that was later extended to other Grandes Ecoles.