Innovate in Bourgogne-Franche-Comté
The Regional Economic Agency of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté (AER BFC) supports the development of your innovation projects.
Our Innovation & Research Division is here to help you:
Define and structure your
innovative project
Would you like personalized support to develop your innovation project?
Through confidential one-on-one meetings, our team helps you define and structure your innovation initiative and identify your specific needs.
We guide you toward relevant regional resources—both technical and financial—and connect you with key players in the local innovation ecosystem.
Flowcharts: Start-up Support Pathway / SME Support Pathway
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- Startup Support Pathway
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- SME Support Pathway
For better readability, click on the support flowcharts to enlarge them.
“The collaboration and synergy within the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté innovation ecosystem enabled us to identify the right contacts and made our establishment in the region much easier.”
Séverine SIASE, President of VASI by Nature Inject
For departments 21, 58, 89, 71
Your contact: Karl BOURNAT
For departments 25, 39, 70, 90
Your concact: Karine BERGER
Breaking strategic barriers with
the Lab Innovation
Are you looking for expert support to solve a technological challenge or roadblock?
Are you questioning your business model, your marketing strategy, or looking to make your company more efficient and eco-responsible?
Would you like to benefit from expert advice and connect with other project leaders?
THE LAB INNOVATION IS MADE FOR YOU!
Designed for SMEs—Small and Medium-Sized Companies—the Lab Innovation is a true “ideas laboratory”, an open collaborative space to discuss your project, share experiences, and benefit from expert insights.
Each session lasts around 2 hours and is held in a small, focused group. We bring together a tailor-made, one-of-a-kind collective to help build a customized response to your challenge. By your side to address your issue: experts, researchers, engineers, funders, students… All participants are bound by confidentiality.
The Lab Innovation is an innovative thinking format that can lead you to surprising and impactful solutions!
Examples:
- Exploring a new business model
- Seeking eco-friendly packaging solutions for food products
- Mapping the development stages of a functional prototype for an innovative machine
- Planning a scale-up with recruitment and training challenges
“Those two hours of direct interaction with experts allowed us to save valuable time and avoid costly mistakes, while uncovering new avenues for innovation and ensuring the economic viability of our project.”
Koreissi TOURE, Managing Director of JIRIBA
Fostering collaboration with the research sector
Would you like to establish a Business–Research partnership and/or work with high-level expertise?
The Regional Economic Agency of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté (AER BFC) offers personalized meetings to help you define your needs, identify the technical skills aligned with your innovation project, and present available funding opportunities—such as the these CIFRE, which enables a company to hire a PhD student for three years with support from the French Ministry of Higher Education and Research.
Our team works closely with key regional research stakeholders to connect you with the right partners—including research laboratories, technology platforms, Université Bourgogne Franche-Comté, Université Marie et Louis Pasteur, SAYENS, FC-Innov, and others.
Are you a recently established business? Are you looking for affordable office space and personalized support?
Join one of the business incubators in the PEP’IN BFC network. These incubators offer flexible, cost-effective workspaces and tailored support to help entrepreneurs and business founders grow their ventures and contribute to the vitality of their region. Some incubators are specialized (in innovation, digital technologies, agroecology, arts and woodcrafts, etc.), while others are more generalist—but all share the same goal: guiding you toward success.
Do you need financial and technical support for your innovation project?
The Innovation Support Guide presents the financial and technical resources available from key innovation stakeholders.
Feel free to contact us to learn more and get connected with the right partner.
Explore the Innovation Support Guide
Contacts
For departments 21, 58, 89, 71
Your concact: Karl BOURNAT
For departments 25, 39, 70, 90
Your concact: Karine BERGER