Innovative Materials for an Environmentally friendly Agriculture – MATIAIRE

MATIAIRE industrial research project is in the scope of European concerns and difficulties in the field of agriculture production which faces many challenges: serve European food sovereignty a medium-term geopolitical issue, as much as an environmental one. Food systems must become sustainable in order to be resilient and able to go through current crisis than can be sanitary (or environmental (ie.climate change, droughts and floods). Secondly, and concomitantly with the first challenge the means of production at the national and European level must be questioned and optimized, in particular the fertilizing inputs and the reduction of antibiotics uses. Finally, in addition to these political, social and economic issues, there are additional uncertainties related to the consequences of climate change.
MATIAIRE project involving Timac Agro, a french leading company specialized in soil nutrition, plant nutrition and animal production, having 7210 employees all over the world, and the Institute of Material Science of Mulhouse (IS2M) aims at developing and bring to the market, a new generation of biostimulants to secure agricultural production in the face of climatic hazards, increase the efficiency of use of fertilizer inputs, enhance animals robustness and immunity and control greenhouse gases emissions from animal production. In order to fulfil these objectives, an innovative pluri and interdisciplinary approach is proposed with an ambitious scientific program involving the tailor-made design of new materials for uses in the field of plant and animal nutrition, by an environmental-friendly process from lab to industrial scale. Beside the scientific and technical challenges to face, the chair’s program aims also at providing training for students and professionals and dissemination of the knowledge toward general public.