Page 115 - Biorefinery 2030 Future Prospects for the Bioeconomy (2015)

1 Challenges for the White Biotechnology Centre of Excellence (CEBB) 83

– A foundation of industrial processing activity.
– Research and development carried out by a private joint research centre (ARD)
and its subsidiaries (SOLIANCE, WHEATOLEO).
– Pilot schemes and industrial demonstration sites, resulting from the creation first
of BIODEMO, and then of the FUTOROL pilot scheme. 1

From 2011–2012, a fourth layer appeared, that of academic research led by three
Chairs set up from leading French engineering and business schools linked to the
University of Reims Champagne-Ardenne. These Chairs make up the Centre of
Excellence for White Biotechnology (CEBB) and support ARD and the industrial
firms on the site. They firmly establish the already innovative, exceptional character
of the biorefinery in the French or even European landscape.
According to one of the instigators of this rapprochement, the schools are only
interested in Bazancourt-Pomacle because of its international dimensions. The
engineering schools that have agreed to relocate a proportion of their research
laboratories to the Bazancourt-Pomacle site are indeed attracted by the exceptional
potential offered by the community made up of industry, demonstration sites and
research capabilities that is already on site. Nor are the schools indifferent to the
funding provided by the local authorities (Champagne-Ardenne Regional Council,
Marne Department General Council, Reims Metropolitan Area), given their initial
significant 7-year commitment. Indeed, the total accumulated investment in
buildings, equipment and salaries of these three authorities over the period adds
up to 30 million euros.
The future prospects for Bazancourt-Pomacle can be discussed in terms of two
additional elements: its evolution towards a knowledge economy; and the strategy
to integrate its ecosystem upstream and downstream in concentric circles. Finally,
we will discuss associated issues, such as the sustainability of cooperative values
and the governance of the biorefinery.

1 Challenges for the White Biotechnology Centre
of Excellence (CEBB)

The main challenge for the CEBB is to prove that the site’s unorthodox develop-
ment proved well suited to the context and a reason for its success.
It will have to test a coopetition model by creating different types of value over
the next 15 years:

– Creation of original knowledge and competences in the form of patents,
methods, codified expertise, commercial secrets (tricks of the trade), implicit
knowledge.

1
It should be noted that the ARD-SOLIANCE site has a whole series of pilot-scheme tools, but
which are not all aimed to interconnect or to produce fulltime.