Biocitech hosts official visit from Stéphane Le Foll, minister of agriculture, Louis Schweitzer, general commissioner for investment, and Eric Allin, managing director of FranceAgriMer

Romainville, France, December 16, 2016 – Biocitech, the city complex for healthcare and biotechnology companies located at the edge of Paris, property of the CDC, announces today the official visit at Spectralys Innovation on Monday, December 19 of Stéphane Le Foll, minister of agriculture, agrifood and forestry, spokesperson for the government, accompanied by Louis Schweitzer, general commissioner for investment, and Eric Allain, managing director of FranceAgriMer, This visit follows funding of the CERES project with a €1.9m ($2M) grant awarded under the call for proposals ‘Structural Projects for Agricultural and Agrifood Sectors’ (PS2A), from France’s ‘Investment for the Future program’, led by the General Investment Commission and run by FranceAgriMer.

The CERES project aims to develop a comprehensive and centralized analytical platform that measures, on a single device, all the compliance and technological quality criteria of cereal grains when entering a silo: protein, moisture, specific gravity, Hagberg fall index and mycotoxin levels. These measures will be handled by batching software to enable cereal storage companies to organize their storage according to market fluctuations. The CERES R&D program started in September 2016, to run for 31 months.

The ‘Investment for the Future Program’ granted a funding of €1.9M ($2M) for this project. Spectralys Innovation, the project leader, is an innovative company that develops and produces analytical instruments to measure various quality criteria for the standardization of agrifood products. The company specializes in the development of disruptive optical analytical solutions, which are non-destructive, sensitive and real-time. This technology is based on the innovative use of natural fluorescence signals emitted by biological and food products. The CERES project is supported by key players in the cereal industry (AXEREAL, VIVESCIA, AGORA and UNEAL) and analytical research companies including artificial intelligence specialists (CRA-W and ISIR, UPMC).

“This is good news for Spectralys as it highlights its R&D efforts. It also reflects the overall dynamism of Biocitech,” said Hammou Allali, director of housing, real estate investment and tourism at the CDC’s Investments and Local Development department, and Biocitech’s chairman. “This recognition from Stéphane Le Foll and Louis Schweitzer shows that our companies are at the forefront of innovation in the agrifood sector. We are pleased to welcome them to this event which honors a long-time resident.”

“Biocitech and the Seine-Saint-Denis region host a strong concentration of young innovative companies with high potential, developing breakthrough technologies. Spectralys is a good example. We are delighted that they obtained a grant that will allow them to continue to innovate in ideal conditions,” said Jean-François Boussard, head of sales for Biocitech’s real estate portfolio.

“The official visit of major political figures to our premises at Biocitech demonstrates a strong interest in the CERES project we are spearheading,” said Inès Birlouez, president of Spectralys Innovation. “The grant will allow us to continue to develop our innovative analytical platform to bring major benefits to the cereal industry. The widespread adoption of measurement at the intake of grains in silos and the use of a tool to assist batching will enable the whole agrifood industry to make important qualitative and economic gains. The biggest French agricultural cooperatives already support us in this ambitious project. We are still looking for partners to help us meet these major challenges.”

About Spectralys

Spectralys is an innovative company that develops and produces analytical instruments that offer solutions for measuring and predicting the quality of products, from raw materials to finished products. The objective is to allow the necessary adjustments in a controlled standardization of finished food products. The company was founded in 2008 by Inès Birlouez, a former research professor at AgroParisTech, following a career of 25 years of research in food science, nutrition and analytical chemistry. Her work has resulted in over a hundred scientific publications in international journals and books. Inès Birlouez created Spectralys to develop the potential of fluorescence as a new rapid diagnostics meant for the biological quality of food products. The technology was evaluated in two European projects, Icare (FP6, 2006-2009) and Prometheus (FP7, 2010-2013).

http://www.spectralys.fr/?lang=en

About BIOCITECH

BIOCITECH is a city complex for healthcare and biotechnology companies. Located at the edge of Paris and property of the CDC, BIOCITECH fosters business innovation and growth (plug&grow) and provides a complete range of services to residents from inception through to business maturity (plug&live). BIOCITECH’s package includes real estate services, scientific services, technical services and communal services that support entrepreneurial development. BIOCITECH is ICPE certified (Equipment Certified to Protect the Environment) and provides entrepreneurs with secure premises of a high technological standard. BIOCITECH generates strong synergies and numerous collaborations for resident firms that are at the forefront of innovation. BIOCITECH is a key element in the Medicen Paris region’s world-class competitiveness hub for health and new therapies and also belongs to the Cap Digital and Systematic clusters.

For more information: www.biocitech.paris / Twitter / LinkedIn