A year of new developments

In 2022, the CTP signed a new partnership with the producer responsibility organisation CITEO, undertook some new projects placing a strong focus on collaboration, and rolled out a new organisation to support innovation.

The CTP moves up a gear in its cooperation with CITEO


Our cooperation with CITEO was set on a new footing in 2022, with both parties very keen to move from a client-supplier relationship to a privileged «partnership»-type relationship. They share a single aim: speeding up the ongoing development of technologies and the associated know-how, to encourage the circular use of bio-based and renewable materials and reduce the impact of today’s society on the environment.

CITEO became a mission-led company (‘entreprise à missions’ under French law) in 2020 with the aim of helping economic players produce, distribute and consume while preserving our planet, its re-sources, biodiversity and the climate. Its financial support and the contributions from its Eco-design and Recycling teams are helping the CTP develop solutions for making recycled materials lighter and integrating them into products, improving re-cyclability, functionalising papers and boards and giving them new properties, optimising recycling processes, and addressing the health challenges of the circular economy.

The CTP stands out from other European institutes in that its activities and resources are geared as closely as possible to industrial needs, and this is reflected in its outcomes. It has acquired some unique pilot laboratory and industrial facilities and also benefits from being geographically and thematically close to the public laboratories of the Carnot PolyNat institute.
This dynamic, collaborative Grenoble-based research model is complemented by some European projects involving international teams.

An enhanced portfolio of projects


Another highlight of 2022 was the renewal of the Collective Research Programme (PRC), composed of collective projects overseen and co-funded by the French profession, and collaborative projects funded by national or European calls for projects. These then provide inputs for the roadmaps setting out the operational application of the three aims of the CTP’s Goals and Performance Contract.

Six collective projects were put together with French companies during 2022, and will begin in 2023. Each year the profession contributes to the definition of the PRC via the Industrial Challenges and Innovation Committee (CE2I), which discusses developments and identifies the potential opportunities and threats that could have impacts for the industry in order to provide a framework for the projects.

As part of this process a meeting was held at the start of the year to identify the challenges faced by pulp, paper and board production sites in fields such as energy, regulations and changes in consumer purchasing habits. Following on from these discussions, the CTP proposed ten projects and members of the profession evaluated their pertinence via an online survey. The six highest-rated projects were co-constructed by the companies and the CTP. This process called on about 60% of the pulp, paper and board production sites, of which 79.2% produce pulp and 71.3% produce paper and board.

In addition, twelve collaborative projects, both European (Horizon Europe, CBE) and national (ANR), were set up in 2022 with the CTP acting as coordinator or partner.

A new organisation focusing on innovation


Last but not least, 2022 saw the introduction of a new organisation at the CTP, redistributing the scope of each activity among a smaller number of operational teams. Concentrating management actions in the hands of fewer people frees up time to devote to R&D and value creation for industry.

Preventing the emergence of organisational silos, promoting cross-disciplinary actions, building links between the divisions and providing insight for discussions are the tasks of the newly-created «Scientific Coordination Committee». This com-mittee includes a scientific adviser for each of the five new divisions, who is in charge of providing scientific leadership within his or her team and hel-ping to steer the CTP’s work through collective or collaborative projects.

A key feature of this new organisation is the ap-pointment, in the Department of Innovation, of a European Projects Catalyst. She is helping to coor-dinate the process of putting together the Research Programme, setting up collaborative projects and establishing frameworks for cooperation, as well as applying the CTP’s intellectual property protection policy.

CTP - Une année  de nouveautés