French business school launches €1.5 million research
centre for agricultural-bio-industrial economics
February 2012. Reims Management School has launched a new chair dedicated to agri-bio-industrial research, confirming its contribution to the development of the bio-based economy, one of Europe’s most important growth markets.
Biotechnologies are used in a wide array of industrial products, from bio fuels to cosmetics. For twenty years, both public and private partners have joined forces to develop France’s agricultural resources including the State, regional authorities, research laboratories, higher education institutions and businesses.
The Chair for the Agro-bio-industrial Economy is Reims Management School’s response to the need for advanced scientific research conducted from an economic, financial, strategic and social point of view.
The Chair’s role and challenges
The main ambition of the chair is to promote agricultural resources. The Chair will identify and analyze current and future growth markets in sustainable chemistry and the totality of its scientific and industrial components. In addition, it will develop economic models of product profitability and identify the conditions for the success of these products both nationally and internationally. Lastly, the Chair will explore the sociological impact of the emergence of these new products.
The Chair will work in partnership with scientists from the agro-industrial site at Pomacle-Bazancourt, including from the IAR Cluster, the Bio Refinery Research & Innovation Platform, the ARD Research Centre, and the Ecole Centrale and AgroParisTech engineering schools.
The Chair will produce studies and publish articles based on the results of its work and will raise awareness of the agri-industrial sector among RMS students. “The Chair will propose 45 hours of elective courses available as part of all RMS’ programmes and will serve to inform students that this is a large, innovative and sustainable business,” said Svetlana Serdukov, Research Director at RMS. Classes begin in the second quarter of 2012.
RMS’ most financed Chair
The Chair will have a total budget of €1.5 million, making it RMS’ chair with the most funding. It is co-financed by the Champagne-Ardenne region, the Marne and Reims General Council which have each pledged €300,000 over three years, as well as €350,000 of funding from RMS and €250,000 from the private sector. Investors will participate in the operating costs of the Chair and its research activities (support for doctoral and post-doctoral fellowships, the inward and outward mobility of researchers, organisation of scientific events, etc.).
