INRAE Transfert's mission is to leverage the innovations that emerge from the INRAE research laboratories. We summon our professional skills, our understanding of markets and over 10 years of experience to transfer your results to businesses using the most appropriate strategies. We provide this service in all the areas of expertise in which INRAE works: plant and animal production, the environment, food, microbiology, biomass transformation processes, white biotechnology etc..

To meet your goals, we enlist our expertise and know-how to move through all the stages needed to transfer your results to businesses:

• analyse the marketing potential of your inventions based on your statements of usable inventions and results (DIRV : available for download here)
• and your patent applications;
• identify additional funding for the proof of concept;
• find and put you in touch with companies interested in your results;
• form research partnerships with businesses, in particular through three institutes – 3BCar, France Futur Elevage, Plant2Pro and Qualiment;
• negotiate the terms of transfer and exploitation of your results with companies; and
• provide administrative and financial oversight of your licensing contracts over their entire lifetime.

Do you have a technology or a result to leverage? Your points of contact:

• Crop Production & Environment: Claire Lemontey claire.lemontey@inra.fr
• Animal Production : Réjane Le Tinévez rejane.letinevez@inra.fr
• Human Diet & Microbiology : Stéphanie Mercier Arabal stephanie.mercier@inra.fr
• Processes and White Biotechnologies : Nathalie Turc nathalie.turc@inra.fr

Learn more about Successes of Innovation

Coordination and management of Investments in the Future projects

Since 2010 INRA Transfert has assisted with setting up Investments in the Future projects and launching winning projects. A total of 13 Investments in the Future projects are currently being coordinated and managed by INRAE Transfert; which breakdown as follows:

Five biotechnology and bioresources projects

• BREEDWHEAT Open or Close

  

  BREEDWHEAT sponsored by the INRA Cereals Diversity and Ecophysiology joint research unit (UMR DGEC) in Clermont-Ferrand, aims to bolster the competitiveness of the French wheat breeding sector by addressing societal challenges to ensure sustainable production and quality. This pre-competitive project is planned to last nine years for a total investment of €34 million (including 9 million from the Investments in the Future programme). It involves 26 partners: 13 public research laboratories located at INRA centres and universities across France, 10 seed cooperatives and companies specialising in biotechnology, 2 technical institutes and the Céréales Vallée competitiveness cluster. In an unprecedented effort, BREEDWHEAT combines new high-throughput genotyping and phenotyping technologies to identify the genetic factors involved in properties of agronomic interest, such as yield, quality and biotic and abiotic stress tolerance. It will enable the development of new breeding methodologies and will use untapped genetic resources to identify and combine alleles of interest for new varieties that perform better under environmentally friendly growing conditions and are adapted to climate change. The project began on 1 September 2011.
  
  Contact information :
  Coordinator : Jacques Le Gouis – jacques.legouis@inra.fr
  Project manager : Emmanuelle Lagendijk – emmanuelle.lagendijk@inra.fr
  www.breedwheat.fr
  

   

• AMAIZING Open or Close

  AMAIZING combines genotyping and phenotyping approaches that harness high-throughput analytical techniques to pinpoint the factors involved in properties of agronomic interest, such as yield, quality and biotic and abiotic stress tolerance. Ultimately, the project will lead to the development of breeding tools and methods that can be used directly by industry stakeholders to reinforce the competitiveness of the maize breeding and growing sectors in France.The project began on 1 October 2011.
  
  Contact information :
  Coordinator : Alain Charcosset – alain.charcosset@inra.fr
  Project manager : Agathe Renard – agathe.renard@inra.fr
  www.amaizing.fr
  

• Genius Open or Close

  

  The mission of international farming is to ensure food security while replacing fossil fuels, reducing its environmental impact and adapting to climate change. While France and some European countries are addressing the genetic aspect of this challenge through genomic-only selection, a growing number of major agricultural countries are turning to transgenesis to expand the pool of available genes. Furthermore, transgenesis is already an indispensable technology for French scientists and seed breeders to remain competitive at the global level.

  Recent advances in transgenesis now offer answers to some concerns raised by citizens. In particular, the emergence of nuclease technology now makes it possible to alter plant genomes with very high accuracy. In this context, it is a strategic priority to maintain a high level of transgenesis expertise, to participate actively in the debate about these new technologies and to demonstrate their applicability and their value in a large number of cultivated species. The project, coordinated by the Plant Reproduction and Development joint research unit (UMR RDP) at INRA Lyons, will provide French scientists and breeders with cutting-edge expertise, along with the corresponding biological material and intellectual property, and will pave the way for high-throughput functional genomics capable of meeting the challenges that must be overcome. The biological material produced will either be taken directly to the seed market or optimised upstream. The technical information and ethical framework presented to French citizens and legislators could, in time, lead to an easing of the regulatory burden for experts and applicants. To achieve these objectives, the GENIUS project will bring together 15 public and private partners, including 9 public research units that work in the life sciences and social sciences and 6 private sector companies that specialise in breeding and biotechnology. This consortium will create synergies and reorganise entities – until now were focused on a single species or scope of application – into a real community united by a common technical objective. The 8-year project started on 1 September 2012. It will receive total funding in the amount of €21.3 million (including an ANR grant for €6 million).

  
  Contact information :
  Coordinator : Peter Rogowsky – peter.rogowsky@ens-lyon.fr
  Project manager : Laure Trannoy – laure.trannoy@inra.fr
  www.genius-project.fr
  

   

• ProBio3 Open or Close

  

  The ProBio3 project sponsored by INRA started on 1 July 2012; its scientific oversight is handled by the Microbiological Engineering, Systemic Analysis and Process Innovation team at the Processes and Biological Systems Engineering Laboratories (LISBP), an INRA-CNRS joint research unit at INSA Toulouse.It seeks to develop a new biofuel production chain: BIOcatalytic PROduction of lipid BIOproducts from renewal raw materials and industrial by-products: BIOkerosene application. This 90-month innovative project garnered an investment of €24.6 million and is receiving €8 million in assistance from the General Commission for Investment. This project is a fundamental priority of the aviation industry with the strong growth in kerosene projected in the coming years. Its objectives are to: Identify non-utilised renewable or industrial resources suited to the nutritional demands of oleaginous micro-organisms; Develop intensive bioprocesses to produce lipids for biokerosene use; and Demonstrate the feasible of the sector (m3) with an evaluation of the environmental, economic and societal impacts.

  The expected impacts are: Advances in the fundamental knowledge about lipid metabolism in oleaginous micro-organisms and micro-algae by analogy;Acceleration in the development of industrial strains and fermentation strategies by high-throughput technologies;A realistic study of scaling for an industrial pilot project;Competitive advantages for a leadership position in the microbial production of lipids to meet a 2Mt BioJetFuel annual target by 2020; andJob creation along the entire supply chain.This project includes:Eight academic partners (LISBP, IGM/UPSud, MICALIS, IJPB, IMFT, Toulouse White Biotechnology, SQPOV, Toulouse School of Economics); four industrial firms (EADS, Tereos Syral, Airbus, Sofiproteol), the IFPen research centre; and three national technical centres (CREOL, CVG, ITERG). They will lead seven working groups with their interdisciplinary expertise in an array of fields, including life sciences, process engineering and economic and social sciences.

  
  Contact information :
  Coordinator : Carole Molina-Jouve - Carole.Jouve@insa-toulouse.fr
  Project manager : Laure Akomia - laure.akomia@inra.fr
  http://www.probio3.fr/

• BFF - Biomass For the Future Open or Close

  

  Biomass For the Future (BFF) is one of the 8 winning projects chosen in the second call for Biotechnology and Bioresources projects in the Health and Biotechnology excellence category of the Investments in the Future programme.

  The BFF project is led by the Jean-Pierre Bourdin Institute (IJPB) at the INRA centre in Versailles-Grignon, one of the largest European research institutes in the field of plant biology. The project pools the skills and expertise of 22 partners (9 public laboratories, 1 technical institute, 10 SMEs and large groups working in biotechnology, agronomy, seed, construction composites and materials, and 2 urban municipalities) which are required to design and implement an infrastructure to support the production and industrial use of miscanthus and sorghum biomass in the pioneering communities. BFF aims to tackle the environmental and social issues surrounding the production and use of biomass to foster the development of tomorrow's green industries:

  • Develop crops intended for non-food biomass in France by creating new varieties and farming systems for miscanthus (northern France) and sorghum (southern France) which have a low environmental impact and suitable composition for industrial applications; and
  • Structure the entire industrial value chain for the biomaterials and bioenergy sectors by promoting the organisation of production systems at the local level with the participation of industrial firms and stakeholders in the regions concerned.

  The project proposes innovative multidisciplinary approaches that combine modelling and systems biology to characterise the architecture, metabolism and composition of the plants best suited to biomass production. The project will help to reclaim 'marginal' farmland and to develop new, local green economies while involving all the stakeholders in a given geographical area.

  
  Contact information :
  Coordinator : Herman Höfte - herman.hofte@inra.fr
  Project manager : Laure Trannoy - laure.trannoy@inra.fr
  www.biomassforthefuture.org
  

   

Three Infrastructures

• PHENOME Open or Close

  Phenome will equip the French scientific community with an infrastructure and a series of methods to characterise genotype panels of different species (the main agronomic species) under various scenarios associated with climate change. Its objectives are to: (i) build or finalise platforms with extensive instrumentation at five sites in France that, as a whole, can meet needs pertaining to the main agronomic species within environmental constraints; (ii) develop hardware and software applications with technological breakthroughs and invent new sensors, analytical methods and databases compatible with millions of data points; and (iii) disseminate techniques and methods to the French phenotyping community (seed companies, technical institutes, public research entities) and facilitate the emergence of French SMEs involved in developing phenotyping methods. The Phenome consortium includes 12 academic groups and 2 technical institutes.

  Phenome will be an essential tool for (i) the academic community, enabling the development of original programmes in genetics/genomics; (ii) private seed companies which will have access to the infrastructure through collaborative projects and bilateral contracts; (iii) French SMEs which will benefit directly from the project via subcontracting and indirectly to facilitate their access to the international markets for phenotyping and precision agriculture. The project began on 1 September 2012.

   

  Contact information :
  Coordinators :
  François Tardieu - francois.tardieu@inra.fr
  Jacques Le Gouis - jacques.legouis@inra.fr
  Project manager : Pamela Lucas - pamela.lucas@inra.fr
  www.phenome-fppn.fr
  

• CRB ANIM Open or Close

  CRB ANIM - Network of Biological Resource Centres for Domestic Animals

  The goal of this project is to integrate and strengthen the biological resource centres (CRBs) which preserve reproductive material and genome material for the domestic animal species raised in France, including mammals, birds, fish and shellfish. The CRB-Anim network comprises public research organisations (INRA, CNRS); institutions of higher education (Université de Tours, Université de Rennes I, AgroParisTech, national veterinary schools); a science foundation (FRB) and two private platforms; GIE LABOGENA and the company ANTAGENE, which host genomic collections for breeders. This national infrastructure has six hubs located near Paris, Rennes, Tours and Lyons, which store about 530,000 biological samples (seeds, embryos, cells, tissue, DNA, RNA). CRB-Anim addresses two priorities of the National Research and Innovation Strategy: (1) health, diet and well-being; and (2) environmental urgency to preserve biodiversity. This project is one of the winners of the 2011 Investments of the Future call for projects and will receive €11 million over a total period of eight years. This project addresses two major challenges for science and society: the erosion of biodiversity, particularly in farmed species that are subjected to intensive breeding; and the boom in genomics, which ushers in a new era in understanding the relationship between phenotype and genotype and leveraging the phenotypic wealth achieved through the domestication of animals. This research work must have access to characterised biological samples and tools to cryopreserve biological resources.

  Contact information :
  Coordinator : Michèle Tixier-Boichard - michele.boichard@inra.fr
  Project manager : Laure Akomia - laure.akomia@inra.fr
  www.crb-anim.fr
  

• MetaboHUB Open or Close

  

  The MetaboHUB infrastructure project is intended to create a national metabolomics and fluxomics platform that will place France among Europe's leaders in the field. This infrastructure will provide metabolomics tools and services to academic laboratories and the private sector to advance research and innovation in all areas where understanding and analysing the metabolome is a decisive factor: nutrition, health, agriculture and biotechnology. 
  MetaboHUB brings together four metabolomics platforms: 'Bordeaux Metabolome Platform' (INRA, Université de Bordeaux and CNRS); 'MetabolomeIDF' (Paris-Saclay, CEA and Université Pierre et Marie Curie); MetaToul (Toulouse, Université Paul Sabatier, INSA, INRA, CNRS and INSERM) and 'Exploration du Métabolisme' (Clermont-Ferrand, INRA and Université Blaise Pascal). Each platform has developed cutting edge methods and knowledge in specific scientific fields, including health, nutrition, the environment and green and white biotechnology. Initially, the powerful synergies between these platforms will translate into sharing the methods deployed in a metabolomics/fluxomics study along the entire analysis chain, namely from bench-top techniques to bioinformatics tools ('wet to dry metabolomics'). Thus the MetaboHUB will be equipped with everything needed to design new methodological tools to overcome today's obstacles. In a subsequent phase, MetaboHUB will put its skills, methods and tools to work in large-scale projects developed in collaboration with public and/or private actors.  Positive effects are expected in all the fields mentioned above (health, environment etc.). 

  
  Contact information :  
  Coordinator : Dominique Rollin - dominique.rollin@inra.fr
  Project manager : Caroline Sautot - caroline.sautot@inra.fr
  www.metabohub.fr

Two pre-industrial demonstrators

INRAE Transfert supports TWB in particular with the following:

• Annual scoping of the comprehensive business development plan
• Organisation of kick-off meetings with existing and potential customers
• Production of external communication materials (websites, brochure, posters)
• Implementation of collaborative work platforms
• Annual reporting to the ANR

In addition, INRAE Transfert assists Métagénopolis in developing its contractual research portfolio with industrial clients

Escapade Project

Evaluating Nitrogen Cascade Scenarios in Agricultural Landscapes and Territorial Modelling

The ESCAPADE interdisciplinary project was sponsored by INRA under its GC-HP2E SIG. Its goal is to find innovative methods at the country level that complement traditional approaches at the plot and farm level to optimise nitrogen use and reduce losses into the environment, and thus permanently preserve agro-ecosystems while maintaining productivity in production systems.

The project, which began on 1 February 2013, under the direction of Jean-Louis Drouet (INRA Grignon, Environment-Arable Crops joint research unit), has 11 R&D partners: several education and research institutions, a technical institute and two cooperatives. This ambitious, 48-month project (2013-2016) amounts to €6.5 million in total investments, 1 million of which came from the ANR (French National Research Agency) as part of its Agrobiosphere programme).

     ESCAPADE - ANR-12-AGRO-0003

The results will be shared with farmers through the partner technical institutes and cooperatives involved in the project.

The Escapade project was set up by INRA Transfert in 2012 in response to the ANR Agrobiosphere call for projects.) INRA Transfert has been providing assistance with the administrative and scientific management of the project since it began in 2013.

www.n-escapade.fr/

Sustain apple Project

Find sustainable solutions to manage health and phytosanitary risk in the apple sector

INRA sponsored the Sustain'apple project as part of the work of its Fruits SIG. It aims to find answers to the questions currently facing the apple sector, particularly with regard to the use of pesticides and national and international regulations governing their use. The project will focus primarily on organisational problems and their impact on economic, environmental and social performance.

Analyses will be carried out at different levels of the sector and its institutional environment. They will also examine short circuits, which will be evaluated against sustainability criteria by comparison with the long circuits of national and import supply chains. Finally, the global dimension of the sector dictates that the study should also take into account France's competitors on the international market and a few key countries targeted by French exports.

This project launched on 28 January 2014 is overseen by a broad R&D consortium (INRA, Cirad, Irstea, Montpellier SupAgro, UAPV, CTIFL, GRAB, ANPP). This original project will be conducted over 48 months (2014-2017) with a budget of €1.9 million, including ANR funding in the amount of €827,000.

     ANR-13-ALID-0004

The project was set up by INRA Transfert in response to the ANR ALID (Sustainable Food Systems) call for projects.

Setting up and managing projects have constituted the primary activity of INRA Transfert since 2011. The goal of INRAE Transfert is to give INRAE researchers access to specialists in project set-up and management who have consolidated their expertise in many fields over the company's 10 years of existence.

The services that INRAE Transfert offers researchers in building a project as part of a call for projects can be divided into three major stages:

To deliver meaningful support to researchers working on unique projects, INRAE Transfert has built a team of nearly 30 specialists with expertise in setting up and managing three major types of project:

To deliver meaningful support to researchers working on unique projects, INRAE Transfert has built a team of nearly 30 specialists with expertise in setting up and managing three major types of project:[it1]