This paper presents preliminary results in the frame of the development of a very high speed synchronous drive with a rated power of 6 kW at the rated speed of 180 krpm taking place in the context of a university-industry partnership. Due to the very high speed, direct sensors, for speed and position, must be avoided. This paper presents the use of very sensitive back-emf based position and speed indirect sensors for the speed control of the considered synchronous drive. The validation of the used control scheme by experimental results is presented at the end of the paper.