Laurent Billon receives the “Academic Prize” from the Cosmetic Valley competitiveness cluster for his project on bio-inspired microgels
Laurent Billon, professor at the Institute of Analytical Sciences and Physical Chemistry for the Environment and Materials (IPREM) has been awarded the “Academic Prize” of The Cosmetic Victories 2021 competition for his project: “Bio-inspired Microgels for Cosmetics ... and What Else? New generation of bio-inspired microgels for cosmetic applications”.
The Cosmetic Victories competition aims to reward and promote students, researchers, start-ups and SMEs in charge of innovative projects related to the perfumery and cosmetics industry, as well as to promote research and innovation that will contribute to the future of the cosmetics industry.
Each year, this competition awards two prizes: the “Academic Prize” for the most relevant research project that meets the new technical challenges of the cosmetics industry, and the “Industry Prize” for the best cosmetic innovation of the year.
Laurent Billon, winner of the “Academic Prize” 2021, is rewarded for his research project dedicated to a new generation of microgels that opens the door to numerous applications in the health and cosmetics fields.
Within the framework of this project on bio-inspired microgels, IPREM (UPPA/CNRS Joint Research Unit) is collaborating with industrial partners such as LVMH Recherche and URGO Group, but also with the Stanford University School of Medicine (USA). It should also be noted that this project has been the subject of 8 patents and 10 high-level scientific publications.
See also: “Microgels with superpowers”.
This year, more than 80 projects from 14 different countries were submitted. The winners were chosen by an international committee of scientists.
Cosmetic Valley is the first network and competitiveness cluster dedicated to the perfumery and cosmetics industry created to develop innovation and international partnerships in the field of cosmetics.
One of the challenges is to detect and support young innovative companies, but also to promote research and cosmetic sciences. This led to the creation of The Cosmetic Victories competition in 2015, sponsored by the Cosmetic Valley-ESSEC endowment fund. The competition, recognized by the profession, aims to reward and promote students, researchers, start-ups and SMEs in charge of innovative projects, related to the perfumery and cosmetics industry, as well as to promote research and innovation that will participate in the future of the cosmetics industry by awarding two prizes: the Academic Prize, for the most relevant research project that responds to the new technical challenges of the cosmetics industry, and the Industry Prize, for the best cosmetic innovation of the year.