At the 2022 Carnot Meetings, two components were recognised for their research conducted in partnership with industry.
This year, several collaborations between companies and components of Carnot 3BCAR were showcased. Nathalie Turc, Director of Carnot 3BCAR, welcomed this recognition: “The RDV Carnot 2022 provided the opportunity to highlight two partnerships that are emblematic of the expertise and technologies that can be developed within Carnot 3BCAR. These two award‑winning projects share a common origin with young researcher‑entrepreneurs who, empowered by the support they received, have helped bring two innovations of relevance to the bioeconomy to market.”
This year, the Carnot Network launched the inaugural edition of the Carnot Prize for Collaborative Research. This Prize aims to highlight outstanding endeavours by its members in research partnerships between a Carnot Institute and a company, and to honour the researchers who initiated such collaborations.
The award was presented to the work undertaken by UMR IATE—Christian Jay‑Allemand and Luc Bidel—in partnership with the company Antofénol, which received the Prize in the ‘Research Partnership with an SME–ETI’ category as well as the Grand Jury Prize. This partnership focused on the eco‑extraction of natural compounds from vine wood with antifungal properties, aimed at developing natural antifungal agents for the agri‑food sector.
Within the framework of the RDV Carnot, the doctoral thesis prize – ‘Science–Industry Collaboration for the Ecological Transition’ – was also awarded. This annual accolade recognises an early-career PhD holder who completed their doctoral research under a CIFRE agreement with an SME and whose work yielded tangible benefits.
This year, the prize was awarded to Alexandre Mallet for his thesis titled ‘Robust Spectroscopic Characterisation of Organic Waste: Overcoming the Effects of Water’. Alexandre conducted his research through a collaboration involving the Environmental Biotechnology Laboratory (INRAE‑LBE, Narbonne), UMR ITAP (INRAE/Institut Agro Montpellier), and the company BioEnTech.
His co-supervisor at INRAE‑LBE, Jean‑Philippe Steyer, expressed pride in this recognition:
“He didn’t know it was possible, so he did it! He gave reality to our ideas, gave them substance and carried them very high, opening new scientific horizons that are reflected in the optimisation of methanisation processes for bioenergy production.”
These two successful collaborations between academia and industry demonstrate that partnership-based research can transform the bioeconomy into an industrial reality. If you have an R&D project and are seeking an academic partner, the Carnot 3BCAR team is available to guide you towards the most relevant experts.
