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Objectives and ambitions

The TRADER operation aims to develop INRA's research potential in the Pays de la Loire Region on the sustainability and sustainable use of agricultural resources for healthy and sustainable food, in a context of strong transitions.

This operation will support the development of a European pole centred on the Food of Tomorrow by addressing in particular:

•     the sustainable processing of agro-resources, from raw materials to processed products by enhancing co-products and effluents,
•     the structure of matrices versus its nutritional functions to build the food of tomorrow,
•     the deconstruction of food matrices under digestive stress related to nutrient availability and allergy problems
•     the non-food valorisation (materials, etc.) of agricultural resources

More generally, the aim is to reveal and disseminate innovations for the emergence of sustainable food systems in a cycle integrating construction and deconstruction.

Three emerging and differentiating research axes are being pursued within the framework of this operation around the sustainability of agro-resource processing:

1)- Multifactorial approach to plant production quality

2)- Deconstruction engineering for optimised construction

3)- Processes for functional agro-sourced materials.

These three axes are supported by:

•  shared methodological levers allowing access to high-level analytical equipment in order to open up to all the players in the Grand West (BIBS Biogenouest platform),
•  the increasing power of equipment for characterization of multi-scale structures,
•  the implementation of mathematical modelling and knowledge integration approaches essential for understanding complex systems.
•  the installation of dedicated dedicated laboratories (clean room) is an essential investment for the realisation of this project.

Investment programme and equipment planned

The investments relate more specifically tomulti-scale analysis and fractionation of polymers and the structures they form (microscopy, mass spectrometry, NMR, coupled chromatography X analysis, lipidorectomics, chemotyping). This equipment is complemented by the construction of a clean room for manufacturing nano-assemblies and the acquisition of a computing infrastructure for modelling.

The estimated budget for this operation, as set out in the CPER Pays de la Loire implementation agreement, amounts to €4 million. It mobilises local authorities (Nantes Métropole and the Pays de la Loire Region for 1,025k€ each) and European funds (ERDF) for 40% of the total amount. The INRA co-financing amounts to 350 k€.

Investments are spread over the years 2015 to 2020:

• the first tranche of investments amounts to 1 million euros in 2016, covering the following equipment:
  • Fully automated high performance automated thin film chromatography (HPTLC) system - 190 k€.
  • Diffractometer and associated equipment - 391k€
  • Steric solvent-based steric exclusion chromatographic exclusion chain - 125.5 k€.
  • Cluster of calculation - 99.8 k€
  • Clean room - 200 k€ 

• The second tranche of investments scheduled for 2017 amounts to 1,313 k€ and concerns the following:
  • Rejuvenation of Confocal Microscope and new sample preparation equipment for Microscopy (Photonics, Electronics) - 350 k€
  • Rejuvenation of  RMN (Superconducting Magnet / Microimaging / Low Field Spectrometer) - 373 k€)
  • New Mass Spectrometry Imaging -590 k€