Vitagora

VITAGORA - Agrifood Innovation cluster

CLUSTER ACTIVITY
Innovation & development support, and industry leadership

Created in 2005, Vitagora is a professional association based in the French regions of Burgundy-Franche-Comte and the Paris region providing support for the agri-food industry. A major food innovation player in Europe, Vitagora facilitates a dynamic innovation ecosystem of 650 members – start-ups, food and health businesses, public and private research in France and throughout the world, and international partners.

In addition to R&D project support and its associated services, Vitagora provides its members with thought leadership and industry insights, ecosystem building, business acceleration, as well as day-to-day support, to drive their development in France and abroad. To develop its international ecosystem and support the internationalisation activities of its members, Vitagora opened in 2020 and 2021 two internatonal offices, in Japan and in Rwanda.
Since 2017, Vitagora has run ToasterLAB, the acceleration program dedicated to agrifood start-ups. To date, more than 60 start-ups have been accelerated by the program.

STRATEGY
Consumer wellness through tasty, healthy and sustainable food

In order to support its members’ innovation ambitions, Vitagora has developed a strategy focusing and developing the pooled expertise of its ecosystem (more than 12,500 food and health research personnel in its home regions). Three key areas of scientific and technological excellence are thus targeted, responding to increasing consumer demand for wellness through food: wellness through eating pleasure, wellness through physical health, but also wellness through a link to our environment, protected by sustainable agri-food industry practices.

ACTION AREAS
Driving industry development, innovation

Vitagora’s ability to extract actionable insights from emerging consumer trends and to leverage its exceptional knowledge base has allowed it to emerge as an industry thought leader driving development in a number of key areas, including:
- FoodTech – the application of new digital solutions to drive agri-food industry development, from precision agriculture to innovative, connected services for consumers and professionals
- Disruptive primary productions – new food sources combining sustainability and nutritional benefits, including insects, microalgae and plant proteins.
- Fermented foods – harnessing the benefits of microorganisms for taste, health and improved food safety
- Sustainable food and agriculture – new agricultural practices and manufacturing techniques for a reduced environmental footprint
- Silver food – food products and services adapted to the taste, health and behaviours of older populations

In 2016, Vitagora was awarded the Gold Label of Cluster Management Excellence.