Description

Agri Sud-Ouest Innovation is a French "pôle de compétitivité" dedicated to innovation in the agri-food sector in southwestern France. ASOI has a staff made of 17 people and gathers some 400 members, mostly SMEs and mid-caps, laboratories, research centres and institutions. 
The Strategic Research Agenda of ASOI relies on three main priorities:
- Develop agro-refineries and enhance overall agricultural production, such as bioplastics,
- Improve production system efficiency, for example in agricultural machinery or precision farming through digital solutions
- Optimise eco-efficiency production inputs, for example with biocontrol products or biostimulants
Agri Sud-Ouest Innovation spreads on the large perimeter of the south-west part of France (Regions Nouvelle-Aquitaine and Occitanie), where the diversity of farm productions is important, regarding both vegetal and animal productions. Concerning crops, the cluster unite excellence competences from public and private research centers on vine and wine, fruit and vegetables, sunflower, corn and soy, including the European leader seeds companies and some rising SMEs in the ICT, biotechnologies and biocontrol sectors.

The core activities of ASOI rely on:
- the emergence of innovative ideas through the regular organization of creative events (innovation clubs, creativity sessions, hackathons) and thematic workshops or seminars (~ 20 events organized every year),
- the construction of innovative project with companies. ASOI provides an overview of funding possibilities at regional, national or European level, boost consortium dynamics, provide project engineering expertise and gives a label to projects fulfilling excellence criteria based on innovation aspects and economic and social spill-overs (~50 collaborative projects awarded every year)
-the support to companies to bring the innovation to the market: expertise in IP, business models, strategic intelligence, prospective missions on international markets (~100 SMEs supported every year). 

Agri Sud-Ouest Innovation is a GOLD-labelled cluster (Cluster Management Excellence Label) since 2012.

Le Pôle de compétitivité Agri Sud-Ouest Innovation répond aux enjeux de demain.   Il offre aux chefs d’entreprises et aux chercheurs un processus unique pour construire des projets collaboratifs de recherche et développement.  

Ces projets aboutissent à des produits concrets qui répondent aux nouveaux besoins des consommateurs en permettant aux entreprises de créer de la valeur et de l’emploi sur les territoires.

Agri Sud-Ouest Innovation is leader of the project DIVA (Innosup 2018-2021) devoted to promote innovative digital solutions in the ago-food sector. www.projectdiva.eu 

The activities of the hub are well aligned with the French national initiative for digitising industry, Alliance Industrie du Futur.

Sectors

• Agriculture and food
• Manufacture of food products, beverages and tobacco
• Manufacture of machinery and equipment

TRL Focus

• TRL4 - Component and/or breadboard validation in laboratory environment
• TRL5 - Component and/or breadboard validation in relevant environment
• TRL6 - System/subsystem model or prototype demonstration in a relevant environment
• TRL7 - System prototype demonstration in an operational environment

Services provided

• Awareness creation
• Ecosystem building, scouting, brokerage, networking
• Visioning and Strategy Development for Businesses
• Incubator/accelerator support
• Access to Funding and Investor Readiness Services
• Mentoring