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The Jean-Marie Lehn Foundation is enhancing its management and engagement with businesses. Its new program offers a structured package of scientific expertise and support, tailored to meet the exploratory research and innovation needs of companies. The goal: to accelerate and optimize the connections between academic and industrial researchers to co-create projects that address significant challenges in health and sustainable development.
Today, companies face significant challenges, particularly in sustainable development and health. For example, reducing greenhouse gas emissions presents unprecedented scientific challenges. It’s no longer just about limiting CO2 emissions but transforming this gas into a useful resource by using it as a carbon source for creating new products. Similarly, the design of materials that are biodegradable or recyclable at the end of their life represents another major scientific challenge for companies, requiring constant innovation and cutting-edge research.
The health sector also faces significant challenges. Understanding the molecular mechanisms of diseases paves the way for the design and development of new therapeutic molecules. These new scientific challenges can only be addressed through innovative fundamental research, based on new scientific concepts that can be developed and applied by companies in their markets.
The University of Strasbourg’s competitive advantage lies in the quality of its fundamental research, while the university is ranked 16th in the world for its impact on innovation. Producing high-quality science is essential for generating innovation. The “chemistry and frontiers” research cluster at the University of Strasbourg/CNRS is a world-renowned centre of excellence at the interface of chemistry and biology, physics, and medicine. How can we create a more visible, fluid, and effective connection between the scientific expertise and the technological innovation expectations of industries?
The team responsible for corporate relations at the Jean-Marie Lehn Foundation provides a solution with a new framework for managing and facilitating collaborations. The program is designed to meet the specific needs of the company, selecting the appropriate scientific expertise, coordinating exchanges, co-constructing scientific concepts, and guiding science towards its technological applications. This new program is clearly structured, combining responsiveness, relevance, and proximity to offer a “tailor-made” solution to business challenges.
The Jean-Marie Lehn Foundation has always fostered fruitful relationships between academic laboratories and companies. However, a new approach has emerged, which has been developed in response to the challenges and expectations of industrialists. “We have conducted a comprehensive analysis of the scientific strengths of the Strasbourg chemistry research cluster and compiled a detailed list of the expertise sought by industrialists in various fields, such as CO2 capture, water purification, alternatives to fluorinated products, antibiotic resistance, digital health technologies, bio-based polymers, and controlled biodegradability plastics,” explains Stéphanie Chéron, director of corporate relations at the Foundation. “Together with researchers, we have built a distinctive offering of expertise that can meet the technological challenges of sustainable development and health faced by companies.”
The Foundation works closely with industry experts to develop and enhance its services for businesses. To rethink its approach to industry relations, the Foundation has engaged the expertise of Robert Gresser, former Vice President of Research and Innovation at Solvay. His experience has provided the Foundation’s team with valuable insights to better understand and anticipate the challenges faced by industrialists. “As a major chemical group, we had to address significant technological challenges. We were convinced by the reputation of the University of Strasbourg’s expertise in chemistry without necessarily knowing how to use it,” recalls Robert Gresser. “Which laboratory should I work with? What is its advantage? Who can explain it to me? How do I get in touch? From these classic questions in relations between industrialists and research institutes, I contribute to building a more accessible and reliable bridge for companies.”
The Jean-Marie Lehn Foundation’s new program goes far beyond a “catalog of skills.” The team quickly provides a response to the company based on all its needs. In a concise and accessible format, they present the scientific expertise most connected to the company’s challenges and the competitive advantages of the selected laboratories. They also offer suggestions for technological innovation. The relationship then builds on common reflections and discussions that can lead to a collaborative research program. “This approach allows us to work with agility and cross-functionality with academic laboratories, aligning with the company’s innovation management strategy,” says Stéphanie Chéron.
But that’s not all: the Foundation is committed to guiding and supporting throughout the entire process, ensuring project management in which the expectations and contributions of both parties remain aligned. In this program, the team thus plays a facilitative role in co-constructing projects, always maintaining a connection between the various stakeholders, academic scientific concepts, and the exploratory research and development requirements of companies.
From the perspective of businesses, this new program presents a number of attractive opportunities. From the outset, it offers a listening ear to needs, a global vision of available scientific resources, a single point of contact for orientation towards appropriate expertise, and relationship management. The Foundation acts as a key link in the innovation chain, facilitating connections between companies and the campus’s technology transfer services once results are produced.
“In today’s business environment, there is a clear need for academic expertise to drive new directions in research and development. The chemistry and interfaces cluster (including biology, materials science, quantum science, artificial intelligence, etc.) is well-positioned to meet the challenges of health or sustainable development by proposing disruptive innovations. Our system enables researchers and companies to collaborate more effectively in developing innovative, productive, relevant, and socially useful programs,” concludes Stéphanie Chéron.
