Ecosystem

The local ecosystem is particularly favorable for the various stakeholders (entrepreneurs, organizations, employees, students, self-employed, etc.) in the specialized industry sectors of the Pays de Grasse, who can depend on local access to a variety of finely honed skills and trades, as well as human, financial, technical, and logistical resources.

This ecosystem combines entrepreneurship, territorial identity, and collective dynamics to form a strong economic community.

Business

Technical and financial support for the creation, purchase, or development of businesses in the Pays de Grasse and surrounding area.
Website : www.initiative-terres-dazur.com

Incubator for innovative companies to help nurture and develop innovative projects, with an environment designed specifically to this end that features offices, laboratories, co-working space, shared services, and personalized support.
Website : https://www.innovagrasse.fr

The Alpes-Maritimes department provides extensive support to young growers getting established in the region who are faced with the high cost of setting up a venture and accessing land. The department’s “Point Info Installation” guides those creating new businesses in the administrative procedures to follow (choosing the business’s administrative category, information on using the Dotation Jeunes Agriculteurs [DJA] subsidies and involvement with the Commission Départementale d’Orientation Agricole [CDOA], etc.).
Website : https://www.departement06.fr

Economic development

Formerly called Pôle Terralia-PASS, Innov’Alliance is a plant-focused competitiveness cluster created to support agriculture’s ecological and technological transition in the four sustainable industrial sectors of in greater southeastern France: Food, Health Ingredients and Food Supplements, Cosmetics, Fragrances and Flavors.
Website : https://pole-innovalliance.com/

The CCI provides investment in and support for regional entities, facilitating synergies that can benefit the region, and gives entrepreneurs the aid they need to create, innovate, and expand.
Website : https://www.cote-azur.cci.fr/

The Fleurs d’Exception du Pays de Grasse is a non-profit organization that provides assistance to new growers settling in the region to work in the Production de Plantes à Parfum, Aromatiques et Médicinales (PPAM – production of perfume, aromatic, and medicinal plants) industry and organic farming. The FEPG association provides technical support and assistance in formalizing projects and business plans and acts as a liaison for the market’s raw-material demands.
Website : https://www.fleurs-exception-grasse.com/

Research & Development

The ERINI (European Research Institute on Natural Ingredients) technology platform is a public-private research partnership that provides companies working with natural products in the fragrance, flavors, and cosmetics industries with strategic capacities in expertise, analysis, and innovation.
Website : https://www.erini-institute.com/

Structures devoted to industry-specific business development

A strategic and emblematic location that serves as a vector for economic development and innovative projects and, on a single site, boasts high-tech material resources and is home to:
• The fine chemicals center of the Université Nice Côte d´Azur
• The ERINI Research and Development platform
• The InnovaGrasse business incubator
• Grasse Campus
• The Club des Entrepreneurs du Pays de Grasse, Initiative Terres d’Azur
For more information : www.paysdegrasse.fr/espace-jacques-louis-lions

This is a business park dedicated to companies in the Fragrances, Flavors, Cosmetics, Pharmacy, and Biotechnologies sectors.
For more information : https://www.paysdegrasse.fr/parcs-dactivites
Website : https://www.grassebiotech.fr/

Communities and Professional Organizations

The structures of the community partnership known as the Communauté d’Agglomération du Pays de Grasse (CAPG) are perfect complements to local research and academic pursuits and the local economic fabric. The CAPG provides a range of services for everything from traditional business-creation projects to the social and solidarity economy, as well as innovative projects and those related to the fragrance and flavors industry. Working jointly with its municipalities, the CAPG also facilitates and encourages agricultural expansion in the region.
Website : https://www.paysdegrasse.fr/

The Région Sud, the official national name for the southeastern and south-central France region, and its economic development agency, Rising Sud, have implemented an economic development policy focusing on eight strategic sectors. The O.I.R.s (Opérations d’Intérêt Régional – Operations of Regional Interest) bring together economic-development entities to support a regions and its businesses, with the objective of implementing fundamentally formative projects in the region, including those related to natural products.
Risingsud website : https://www.risingsud.fr/deployez-les-projets-structurants-de-votre-territoire/
Région Sud website : https://www.maregionsud.fr/

This is the Syndicat National des Fabricants de Produits Aromatiques (National Union of Aromatic-Product Manufacturers), gathering all those involved in the aromatic sector for the perfume industry. Prodarom gives companies support in many realms, including regulations, analytical concerns relating to perfumery raw materials, EHS (Environment, Health, Safety), sustainable development, and social/labor questions.
Website : https://www.prodarom.com/

The leading network representing SMEs in France’s cosmetics industry, founded to foster SME/SMI development, promote and defend their interests, pool and disseminate professional information, and provide training.
Website : https://www.cosmed.fr/fr/

The Club des Entrepreneurs du Pays de Grasse is an association of directors and leaders from a wide variety of local businesses, half of which are part of the Pays de Grasse fragrance and flavors sector, that help promote the renown and attractiveness of the Pays de Grasse worldwide. The Club des Entrepreneurs is the driving force behind the Grasse Expertise collective trademark.
Website : https://club-entrepreneurs-grasse.com/site/

La French Tech By Pays de Grasse contributes to the dynamics of La French Tech Côte d’Azur, which is designed to unite and synergize those in the French startup ecosystem to make the French Riviera region a land of major digital innovation.
Website : https://www.frenchtechcotedazur.fr

The Association ATICA (Alliance des Techs et des Industries Côte d´Azur), the French Riviera Tech and Industry Alliance, was founded by French Riviera manufacturers and the Nice Côte d´Azur Chamber of Commerce and Industry to support their members’ development. It encompasses 4,331 establishments and represents more than 12.8 billion euros in sales turnover.

The Union Pour les Entreprises des Alpes-Maritimes represents more than 10,500 local companies from every industry sector, from very small businesses to large corporations, 34 trade unions, and 34 entrepreneur associations to defend and represent companies and assist company executives in their responsibilities.

Training and Education

Grasse Campus is a multisite regional campus that welcomes higher-education students, teachers, and researchers and streamlines dialogue and cooperation between economic, industrial, and academic entities. Some of the entities that form the campus include: the Master FOQUAL program, the Master of Science in Management of the Flavor and Fragrance Industry, the ASFO, the ECOLE SUPERIEURE DU PARFUM, ECAM EPMI, the ISP Fénelon, EFCAM, and many others.
Website : https://www.grassecampus.fr/

The University Côte d´Azur campus offers curricula for initial and continuous education to build bridges between educational phases, enhance professional education, and boost the region’s attractiveness. It is only natural that the “Fragrances – Flavors – Cosmetics” campus would make its home in the Pays de Grasse with the support of the Communauté d’Agglomération and Grasse City Hall.

Grasse Expertise members and other regional entities also contribute to the area’s industry-related training, including:

Culture and savoir-faire

In the center of Grasse, the perfume capital of the world, this museum is unlike any other in the world. Proudly an official Musée de France, it offers visitors the chance to learn about the global history of everything having to do with fragrance: raw materials, manufacturing, industry, innovation, trade, design, and use, as well as social and cultural impact.
Website : https://www.museesdegrasse.com/presentation-du-musee-0

As you stroll around this unique site, you will see and smell open-field crops of species traditionally grown for use in perfumery, as well as spaces dedicated to aromatic plants. The vegetation is organized by fragrance family: citrus, floral, woody, spicy, fruity, musky, etc.
Website : https://www.museesdegrasse.com/jmip/presentation

The Patrimoine Vivant du Pays de Grasse association was developed to preserve and promote various forms of savoir-faire in the Pays de Grasse, keeping them alive from generation to generation. It was this association that prepared and submitted the application for the Skills Related to Perfume in Pays de Grasse to be entered on UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity: perfume-plant cultivation, knowledge and processing of natural raw materials, the art of perfume composition.
Website : https://savoirfaireparfum.paysdegrasse.fr