Since the beginning of the program at the end of the year 2015, actions rolled out throughout the innovation pillar of the program have aimed at satisfying many different objectives:

• Strenghten synergies between the various stakeholders of the Research and Innovative sectors & reinforce the innovation processes,
• Enable the innovation process to be easier and encourage a better knowledge between each stakeholder involved in the innovation processes,
• Design together new tools and organize events linked to innovation,
• Develop and promote a structured offer of joint collaborations and services dedicated to agro-food industry,
• Improve research & innovation infrastructures in order to have pooled and up-to-the-minute facilities for collaborative R&D projects and generate a higher number of innovative projects for businesses.

Throughout the program, many concrete actions have been developed by Cap Aliment (an association which brings together food businesses – through the regional food industries association LIGERIAA – research, higher education and technology transfer institutions, technical and institutional partners in Pays de la Loire) and his collaborators so as to fulfill these goals. More specifically, an innovation Committee has been created.

This innovation committee run by Cap Aliment (Regional Agency) and chaired by Terrena, mixes the regional research innovation stakeholders (regional technology transfer actors getting the most out of publicly funded research…) in the food sector. The aim of this committee is:

• To strengthen innovation and research synergies and the ties between those involved in these fields.
• To develop and promote a packaged offer of collaborations and services for businesses
• To optimize the commercialization of research expertise

Members :

Specific action plan from 2016 to 2019:

• Meetings of members in order to improve the mutual knowledge, to reinforce the possibilities to work together and visits of different labs and research institutes: LABERCA, IFV, CBAC, GRAPPE, …
• Implementation of 3 workshops on the following issues:
  • Managing the intellectual property within collaborative research programs (whether students are involved or not. The drawing lessons of these meetings will be summed up in a specific tool sold out in 2018
  • Implementation of a “good practices” guidance of successfully passed R&D projects, planned to be launched in January 2018; A tool should be set out during the 2nd quarter of 2018
  • “How to successfully collaborate with students in addition to internships?” A connected guide (Cap Aliment website) has been sold out within the beginning of april 2018 : http://www.cap-aliment.fr/index.php/La-FUSEE-de-Cap-Aliment
• Development in 2017 of a matrix showing the packaged offer of commercialized research expertise available to food businesses. The aim is to convert the research expertise into innovative industrial products (in 2018, connection to local online tools such as “PlugInLab Ouest” will be planned)
• Organization of a regional event (2nd semester of 2019) to make the most of the digital tools developed within the innovation committee dedicated to agri-food businesses
• Increase awareness of scientists about « innovation » in a marketing and industrial point of view. The goal is to acculturate scientists about the wide meaning of this notion.

An innovation expert is planned to be a speaker in the innovation group in 2019.