Alexis Comar - CEO of HiPhen

A. Comar, can you present your career in a few words?

"With a degree in agricultural engineering, I am today the manager of HIPHEN and one of its founders. I set up this "start-up" specialising in the high-entry measurement of plants using sensors just after my thesis. »

You work with PhenoToul, why is it a singular partnership ?

"I did my thesis in Avignon between INRAE and ARVALIS, but the experiments were already taking place in Toulouse. Indeed, the INRAE Occitanie-Toulouse Research Centre is a pioneer in high-speed plant phenotyping. I remember with nostalgia a trip between Avignon and Toulouse that I made in 2010 with an old red 205 to bring urgently some equipment (spectrometers, flashes, cameras, etc...). I also remember the time spent in the hangars doing manual measurements (leaf area, biomass, etc...) to validate our sensor acquisitions.

10 years later, we have all become more professional! In parallel, INRAE has managed to structure an interesting multi-level phenotyping platform with PhenoToul.

Today HIPHEN collaborates with the platform in different ways. First of all, when relevant, we propose to our clients to carry out their experiments in collaboration with PhenoToul. Then, with the PhenoToul teams, we co-develop innovative data processing methods. Finally, we offer PhenoToul the ability to analyse their data quickly and at a lower cost. »

How do you see the evolution of the collaboration with PhenoToul ?

"Our collaboration with PhenoToul has only just begun. Initially, we are going to strengthen our exchanges with the team in charge of PhenoToul to set up a common working strategy. This will involve setting up a LabCom (a joint laboratory between a public research organisation and SMEs / ETIs), and renting office space within PhenoToul. Then, I hope that we will succeed in increasing the number of projects that we will have in common (public and private). Our objective is to make PhenoToul a platform where we will be able to develop and test new ideas. This will enable us to innovate constantly to acquire new market shares and to develop new ones. »

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