CIRAD is a partner in the Carnot-labelled 3BCAR network

26/07/2011 - Article

The 3BCAR network (Bioenergies, Biomolecules and Biomatériaux of renewable CARbon) has just been awarded the Carnot label by the Ministry of Higher Education and Research, for a five-year period. CIRAD is a partner, through the "Bioenergies and biorefineries" platform in Montpellier.

The aim of this "Institut Carnot" is to provide integrated expertise to support the development of green chemistry using renewable carbon. Its ambition is to foster innovation by generating value in terms of carbon-neutral products and services (ie those in which carbon inputs and outputs cancel each other out), using clean, simple processes and renewable raw materials. The 3BCAR network has a coherent, coordinated range of research expertise, provided by more than 400 researchers, to be used by firms looking to work in the green economy, to enable them to innovate and boost their competitiveness.

It centres on four main lines of research:
- biomass and green biotechnologies,
- biomass and white biotechnologies,
- physical and chemical biomass transformation,
- systems analysis and ecodesign.

The network has nine members: Agro ParisTech, CIRAD, the CNRS, INP Toulouse, INRA, INRA Transfert, INSA Toulouse, Montpellier Supagro, and the University of Montpellier 2.
CIRAD is particularly involved in the "Bioenergies and biorefineries" platform, through its Biomass and Energy, Agropolymer Engineering and Emerging Technologies, and Production and Processing of Tropical and Mediterranean Woods research units.

The Carnot label is a label of excellence awarded by the Ministry of Higher Education and Research to research establishments in France. It is intended to foster research in partnership, in other words research operations by public laboratories in partnership with various socioeconomic players, particularly private firms. The scheme is similar to Germany's Fraunhofer institutes. The budget is some 60 million euros a year.