AgriForkTech: a unique platform for agricultural and agribusiness innovation in the Île-de-France region

SESAME Filières aims to bring together higher education institutions and businesses around joint projects, with the goal of structuring industry clusters and fostering new partnerships that drive innovation. This is precisely AgriForkTech’s goal for the Île-de-France region: to address the lack of transparency and coordination within an AgTech and FoodTech ecosystem that, despite its strong scientific and entrepreneurial potential, remains too fragmented. The platform aims to create a true convergence point between AgroParisTech, stakeholders in the Paris-Saclay cluster, and professionals in the agricultural and agri-food sectors.

AgriForkTech covers the entire agri-food value chain: from experimentation under real-world agricultural production conditions—field crops, livestock, and bioenergy—to the analysis of consumer behavior in real-world settings. In between, the project offers innovators a continuum of support to design, prototype, test at industrial scale, and deploy solutions that address the challenges of sustainability and the transition of food systems.

Deployed across the Palaiseau campus and the Grignon experimental farm, the platform is built around five complementary components. Together, they make AgriForkTech a unique, foundational tool for positioning the Île-de-France region as a leading hub for agri-food innovation.

• The Farm’InnLab: located at the AgroParisTech experimental farm in Grignon, the Farm’InnLab is a scientific and technical support initiative that assists innovative AgTech projects. At the intersection of research, education, and innovation leaders, it supports project development by leveraging the infrastructure of the AgroParisTech experimental farm, which includes five production facilities: 400 hectares of forage crops and market crops, a dairy cattle herd, a suckler sheep herd, a dairy processing facility, and a bioenergy production facility.

• The Food’InnLab: a scientific and technical support facility located on the AgroParisTech campus in Palaiseau, the Food’InnLab supports innovative FoodTech projects. Its support relies in particular on specialized infrastructure: a food formulation room, a prototyping laboratory, and analysis and characterization laboratories equipped with standard food science equipment, as well as dedicated spaces (offices, meeting rooms, and a creativity room).

• The Technology Hall: The Technology Hall of the SayFood UMR, located on the Palaiseau campus, provides infrastructure and equipment for teaching and research. It is also accessible to agri-food companies wishing to test, experiment, and produce in small batches. It stands out for its ability to support the transition to industrial scale (scale-up), enabling the reliable transfer of tests conducted in the laboratory or kitchen to conditions similar to those of industrial production.

• The experimental restaurant: the experimental restaurant, co-managed by the SayFood Research Unit, PNCA, and PSAE, in partnership with the CROUS of Versailles and co-funded by the PEPR Food-Microbiomes (SAMS – targeted project foodXPtools), is located above the CROUS university restaurant in Palaiseau. It is equipped with tools to guide the development of new foods and automatically collect data on consumer behavior in real-world consumption settings.

• The “cuisine comme à la maison”: it is a SayFood UMR laboratory consisting of a kitchen open to a dining room, allowing for the observation and analysis of consumer habits and behaviors in conditions similar to their daily lives.