The P.A.S.S Competitiveness Hub in Grasse: a perfume of opening and innovation

The P.A.S.S Competitiveness Hub in Grasse :
a perfume of opening and innovation

With 3,500 employees working in 82 companies, a turnover of € 700 M, the Grasse Hub which represents 50% of the national turnover and 10% of the global turnover continues to grow rapidly. Triggered by the booster effect of the competitiveness hubs, it hopes to become, through the PASS (Perfumes, Aroma, Scent and Flavour) Hub particularly, the global expertise centre in the field of natural products and perfumery.

Since its creation in July 2005, the PASS Hub (50 members to date) which manages all the agricultural and industrial activities in aromas, perfumery, cosmetics and food–processing, from the Alpes-Maritimes to the Drôme Provençale, has structured its governance and has engaged in a broad range of promotional activities through regional and international events: network meetings with regional hubs (Orphème, Capénergie, Fruits and Vegetables, Trimatec and Cosmetic Valley in the Chartres region), Franco-Canadian meetings, Centifolia 2006, and the “Provence & Lavender” operation. The dynamics of B-to-B exchanges and Public Research strengthened by the opening of its Internet site promoted the detection of hundreds of innovative projects presented last April of which 3 projects - Immunosearch, Novo Arômes, and Parfums d’Ambiance - were certified in spring 2006. Immunosearch, a start-up managed by Hervé Groux and Claude Auriault, develops biomarkers to control the harmlessness of molecules used in perfumery, aromas and cosmetics. Novo Arômes, led by Prof. Uwe Meierhenrich and the firm Robertet, aims to identify and quantify the non-volatile compounds of the extracts. Parfums d’Ambiance led by Albhades Provence, an analytical laboratory, aims to improve the knowledge of the products of combustion and diffusion - candles and incense - to ensure greater safety for users.
The P .A .S. S. Hub aims to create more than 400 companies, 50 research laboratories and 36 training centres. To stimulate the R&D activity, the General Council and the CAPAP at the time of the signing of the 1st contract of regional managers last September, decided to grant an additional aid of € 400,000 to these innovate start-ups including 200,000 euros granted to Immunosearch. To compensate for its lost time in the vocational training sector, stigmatized for a long time, the Provence Azur Hub set up for 2007 a whole cycle of programs specific to its line to meet the needs of the industrialists more efficiently and anticipate the expectations of a global market with increasingly drastic regulations as regards medical safety and respect of the environment

Immunosearch : an ambitious project slackened by very slow decision channels

The Immunosearch project, certified in February 2006, was selected in June 2006 in the 2nd call for projects of the Companies Competitivity Funds (FCE), and is thus one of the 68 research projects which benefits from a financing to the amount of €80 M. Hosted in the PACA-East Incubator in Sophia Antipolis since June 21, 2006, Immunosearch, co-founded by Hervé Groux and Claude Auriault, designs biomarkers for controlling the harmlessness of the molecules used in perfumery, aromatics and cosmetics. The purpose of this research is to conduct comparative studies of in vivo and in vitro test models on the skin (irritation, allergy) and to propose alternative methods defining the new norms applicable in this field. Hervé Groux is a celebrity scientist, and among other things, is a vet, doctor of sciences, immunology specialist, and former Director of research at the CNRS. Rewarded for his works on AIDS with an Academy of Sciences award and for his work completed in the US on the immune system tolerance with the Hajime award (delivered by Nobel Prizes in biology of the University of Stanford), he holds 10 patents and is also the author of more than 50 publications, of which 3 are among the most quoted in the world. In 2001 he launched a company and funded a first Biotechnology company, specializing in anti-inflammatory immunotherapy: TxCell at Sophia Antipolis. The start-up was in the news in October 2004 for its success in the most important first round table in biology in metropolitan France raising funds to the tune of €10.5 M. The new ambitious project “Immunosearch” supported by the P.A.S.S Hub relies on the support of regional, national and international, private and public partners. It is thus associated with well known companies and industrialists (the companies IRISPHARMA and Skinethic, the perfumers, Givandan, Firminish, IFF, Mane, Robertet, and the cosmetic industry such as l’Oreal, Estée Lauder,…groups) and a solid team of scientific experts in biotechnology: institute of the molecular and cellular pharmacology (IPMC- CNRS/UNSA), I3S (UMR CNRS-UNSA), and INRIA. Hervé Groux hopes for a collaborative consensual spirit to accelerate the R&D phases in his line of business. This is far from being obvious. Since its certification, the start-up I (5 people to date), has been mobilized up to 100% by the collection of funds and buildings, hindered by the slowness of the administrative procedures, the absence of responsiveness from the banks to release bridging loans and payments of authorized funds… to Hervé Groux’ great displeasure. “We were not able yet, as envisaged initially, explains the founder, to start research within the consortium created, although we are already operational in carrying out certain alternative tests validated with our partners. We have in view the perfumery, the cosmetics, the aroma products market and thereafter the pharmaceutical industry if we are able to implement effective tests (sensitive, accurate) and a good market in a sector which is growing rapidly!”
And that’s where the shoe pinches. A thousand innovative projects managed by the competitive hubs and financed up to 70% by the shareholders of projects, involving an investment of more than 10 billion euros in R&D. Six months delay in their development amounts to a financial loss of an equivalent amount! This is a major handicap in highly competitive world, in view of the responsiveness of South Korea, the United States and Australia. Senator Pierre Laffitte rang the alarm bell during the 2nd world forum of competitiveness hubs which was held on November 17, 2006 in Sophia Antipolis. “Globalization forces us to preserve our competences and to reinforce them in order to create, innovate and stay attractive. It is urgent today; he stated in the preamble, that we have the means of winning the innovation race by accelerating the application of the most promising projects so that they are not caught up by projects coming from other continents.”

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Competitiveness hubs: An international co-operation in motion

The second edition of the Forum of competitiveness hubs dedicated to “Global Clusters and French Competitive Hubs” brought together representatives of 66 French hubs and the 7 major global clusters. One year after its launch, this was an opportunity to assess the various actions between hubs on an international scale. This great event organized at the initiative of the Sophia Antipolis Foundation and in partnership with the Ministries of Economy, Finances and Industry, Foreign Affairs and the CDC Enterprises made it possible to concretely put forward country-wise and hub-wise projects generated by “this cross fertilization”. The figures are encouraging: about fifteen international partnerships were concluded by the French structures with the foreign clusters, as well as many special agreements relating to research projects, thus promoting access to new markets, particularly India (Technology Park of Pune) and Israel (with MATIMOP, Industrial Centre for Research & Israeli Development).
Among the cooperation agreements initiated, let us quote those contracted between the Minalogic hub and the Netherlands, Photonique with Spain and Italy, the System@tic hub (Aeronautical, Space and airborne systems) of Toulouse with the German cluster Safetrans and the Dutch cluster Point-One , the Agroressources hub of Picardy with the Hungarian biotechnology cluster of Szeged and with Canada on the subject of renewable energies and energy management, the Risk management and Vulnerability of the territories hub with the AMRA hub, the Sea hub in the aquaculture field with Norwegian, Canadian, Asian and Egyptian partners, and, for PACA, the partnership agreement signed at the end of the forum between the Safe Communication Solutions hub and the Italian Foundation Torino Wireless. In the process of certification, the Pégase hub managed by Eurocopter, as also Alcatel Alenia Space and INRIA, wishes to federate the aeronautics industry in PACA, around the construction of particularly innovating “flying machines”. In evidence also, the aeronautical Aérospace Valley hub, defended by Christian Estrosi, the Minister for National Planning and Development, which does not wish to be on the same level of competing projects. In response to the arguments of Senator Pierre Laffitte, the Minister announced in 2007 two pragmatic provisions aimed at reducing the procedures of financing and strengthening the development of R&D activity of innovative SMEs. Therefore, an additional grant up to a total value of 30 to 45% in favor of the retained SMEs during the 2nd call for projects of 2006 of the unique ministerial funds (instead of the heavy and inoperative provision of exemptions of social securities), a grant offered by Oseo-Anvar (double the common law plan of support applied outside hubs), meaning for the certified projects, a financial support up to 40% repayable and 15% in grants. Anxious to protect the research work and technological innovation from computer hackings, the Minister, in addition, announced the introduction of an economic safety program financed 80% by the DIACT and up to 20% by each applicant hub. Placed under the control of the Institut National des Hautes Etudes de Sécurité (INHES), this program offers the set up of a collaborative database and referential methodological tools (Eris & Mars software) developed by “France Intelligence Innovation”. Tested in pilot-phase in 5 regions in 2006, they will be tested in 10 new regions in 2007, this in order to “acquire an exhaustive and dynamic knowledge of the environmental threats, and to develop a regional economic safety network, aiming at creating a climate of trust necessary between hubs in order to co-innovate and co-produce.”