AURORA journey step 3 in Northwest France
AURORA focuses on the quality, safety and traceability issues in the agri-food chain and aims to create a European dynamic around these topics.
After two roadshows organised in Warsaw in December 2022 and in Malaga/Granada last February, a new delegation from France, Spain, Poland, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom came to Rennes for the 3rd AURORA roadshow. From March 14 to 16, the host organisation Valorial, the innovation cluster dedicated to the agri-food industry, received visits from SMEs and clusters that wanted to explore the Breton ecosystem and attend the CFIA trade show.
Indeed, Brittany is one of Europe’s largest agricultural and livestock regions, and all types of technologies for improving the competitiveness and operational excellence of agriculture and factories can be found in its rich and dynamic innovation ecosystem. For the record, Valorial covers three French regions: Brittany, Pays de la Loire and Normandy.
During the mission, the AURORA delegation interacted with organisations covering complementary fields of action such as Photonics Bretagne (optical fibres and components), Bretagne Développement Innovation (digital and agriculture-agro-food), CEA Tech (energy production), Vegepolys Valley (plant sector) and Innovation Chimie Carnot (chemistry value chain). Visitors also had the opportunity to attend a conference held by Valorial on data in the agri-food industry and how it can stimulate the management of innovation processes. AURORA delegation had the chance to hear from several projects empowered by Valorial and its members to lead on the importance of digital twins applied to the agro industry sector, the implementation of local distribution network through a digital platforms for farmers and even the development of 3D food printing.
Visiting organisations also attended the CFIA Rennes 2023 that is a food processing trade show. For the record, the CFIA’s ambition is to address and promote innovative initiatives in food factories that respond to issues of safety, security, traceability and sustainability. CFIA brings together more than 1 600 exhibitors where visitors seek for expand their production while saving energy, or to better package their food products.
In addition, the delegation had the opportunity to visit the STLO, the “Science and Technology of Milk and Eggs” research unit, located nearby Valorial. The objective of the STLO is to develop a solid public research expertise on the components of milk and eggs, with a focus on their level of digestibility. In fact, the AURORA delegation had the chance to see one of the two artificial stomachs in Europe – yes, the other one can be found in… Wageningen, the hometown of our partners FoodValley NL!
In practice, the artificial stomach simulates the human digestion, and this way enables to verify the benefits of the new food products for the body and identify potential undesirable effects. The artificial stomach has been designed in collaboration with research team in China and the INRAE, France’s National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment. The delegation also had the opportunity to visit the facilities of the STLO platform.
After a final networking lunch to wrap up the third AURORA mission, Valorial said goodbye to its visitors. Don’t miss the AURORA step #4 organised by Agri Sud-Ouest Innovation next 20-22 June 2023 during the Wine Festival that will address the upstream issues of clean labels and traceability in the value chain.
About AURORA
Launched in 2022, AURORA is a pioneering and interdisciplinary programme aimed at strengthening cluster management excellence, facilitate exchanges and strategic partnering between clusters and specialised eco-systems and cities across Europe by fostering the development of European Strategic Cluster Partnership for Cluster Excellence Activities. It is co-funded from the European Union’s COSME Programme.
Project Duration: 01.02.2022 – 31.01.2024
Project partners: