Aquatic products

Nutrition innovating: for our personal health... and the health of industry

There are over 2,600 businesses in the region operating in the agrifood, biology, health and nutrition, and fishery-products sectors. Close to 51,000 jobs are generated by these industries. This means that the region, which produces revenues of over €15 billion with around a third of these in exports, is the leading region for exports in France.

If we look at the number of world leaders among companies in the sector (Roquette, Lesaffre, Bonduelle, Leroux, Ingredia, Bayer Schering...), we can see that the vast majority is made up of small to mediumsized enterprises and even very small enterprises. And while they cover all fields of activity, with the exception of the wine industry, they represent but a small proportion of research and development. However, this does not mean that small businesses are not investing in R&D; on the contrary. They are in fact particularly active in the various aspects of innovation, including formulation, process engineering, food safety and even ingredient and co-product development.
There are at least two reasons for this: on one hand, companies increasingly have to deal with the introduction of new requirements for the nutritional quality of food ; on the other hand, they are faced with the increasing scarcity of resources, which means they must exploit them to the full. This is the case, in particular, for aquaculture industries, with fishing quotas.

Improving competitiveness through partnerships

At the same time, Nord-Pas de Calais has a broad base of public and private research laboratories (CHRU*, INRA*, Inserm*, Institut Pasteur, ISA*, Universities of Lille 1 and 2, Ifremer*...) as well as a number of technical centres (Afssa*, CEVPM*, ADRIANOR*...) that can provide assistance to companies seeking to engage in innovation.

There are numerous existing structures that help to establish ties between industry and research, at the forefront of which are competitiveness clusters and centres of economic excellence. There are three of these in the region: NSL (Nutrition Health Longevity) and AQUIMER competitiveness clusters and the agri-food centre of excellence. Each of them, for their part and by means of partnerships with the scientific community, helps businesses to improve the nutritional quality of food, prevent and treat a number of pathologies, and increase their competitiveness and visibility both nationally and internationally. As a result, these clusters regularly launch calls for proposals, never missing an opportunity to promote the European dimension of partnerships.

*CHRU: Regional Teaching Hospital
*INRA: French National Institute for Agricultural Research
*Inserm: French National Institute for Health and Medical Research
*ISA: French Higher Institute of Agriculture
*Ifremer: French Research Institute for Exploitation of the Sea
*Afssa: French Food Safety Agency
*CEVPM: Centre for the Study and Optimum Use of Sea Products
*ADRIANOR: Agri-food Industry Technological Resources Centre

The AQUIMER competitiveness cluster

Developing fisheries co-products and tailoring them to the market

AQUIMER, which was designated a competitiveness cluster in 2005, had been operating as an association since 1999. It was a response to maritime professionals’ concerns to develop their products. A partnership had therefore been established with the scientific community and five programmes, linked to food safety, developed.
Aimed at businesses in the fisheries and aquaculture sectors -the majority of which are small to medium-sized enterprises- AQUIMER has approved 47 projects since it was founded, 27 of which have already received funding.

AQUIMER facilitates the development of your business

The pole :

• gathers your needs or helps you to identify them,
• accompanies you through your thought process: in the building of research projects, putting you in touch with the appropriate contacts, advising you on the services best suited to your request,
• brings you the benefit of technical and administrative support from an operational team in the building of your projects (funding applications, consortium agreements, communication of results),
• brings you the benefit of funding dedicated to projects labellised by the Poles of Competitiveness,
• gives you access to mutualised technological tools, to a collaborative platform and to the Pole's Watch Centre (database available online, question and answer service...).

Innovative products drawing on new technologies with tighter sanitary safety

AQUIMER's programmes focus on three themes: :

• the promotion of fishing and aquaculture products and co-products
• the strengthening of technicality and the business environment
• the improvement of sanitary safety

>> CONTACT :

Angeline PIGNON
Phone: + 33 (0) 321 107 898

www.poleaquimer.com