Industrialisation as a new target

It has become clear in recent years that BRGM needs to focus on the practical application of the geoscience research carried out by researchers and engineers. Innovation is at the heart of what we do. It’s in our genes. 

In this way, BRGM has clearly defined its main areas of work. As well as nurturing an internal culture of innovation and entrepreneurship, and seeking to protect and promote its intellectual heritage, BRGM is also focusing on project development and industrialisation, and opening its doors more widely to innovation ecosystems. All of these factors are key to innovation. Following the creation of the Innovation Division, 2023 saw a drive to industrialise innovations and open up more widely to start-ups. 

From development to industrialisation

The development of innovative concepts with economic potential is now up to cruising speed, with 37 projects under way. Through a process of continuous evolution, this project development cycle leads naturally to industrialisation. To reinforce these efforts, BRGM is pursuing a proactive policy to industrialise innovations, and steer its innovation division towards closer collaboration with industry. 

This focus on industrialisation can be summed up in a few words: it involves finding the means to bring an innovation to market by scaling it up with the support of industry. This is a process that began five years ago and has now reached its logical conclusion. Formally defined for each project, it is led by the development team and steered by the innovation team.

Five projects are now at the industrialisation phase, four of which went through in 2023, with objectives exceeding those set out in the COMP for 2023-2027. These include the CO₂ Dissolved project with SLB (see “CO₂-Dissolved: towards industrial and commercial deployment”), and materials traceability with the Trace group. 

Developing innovations with industry also involves joint innovation or shared R&D projects, with BRGM contributing through its capacity for applied research (see projects in the box below).

Increasing collaboration with start-ups

The second focus for innovation in 2023 involves closer links with the start-up ecosystem. The aim is to speed up collaboration with start-ups in sectors linked to the Earth sciences. For this purpose we look for external start-ups through competitions such as INNEAUV, organised with the National Geographic Institute (IGN) (see box). 

In this respect, external collaboration was structured and the reception of start-ups increased in 2023. The main sectors include satellite imaging applied to various risks or to water, for example, where the techniques are suited to BRGM's expertise. 

For their part, start-ups are interested not only in using BRGM data, but also in working with our researchers on joint R&D projects, as is the case with NamR (see box). 

All these activities are aimed at fulfilling BRGM's application role by facilitating the transfer of BRGM's expertise and innovative concepts to the socio-economic sphere.