The jury for "The Cosmetic Victories", the 9th edition of the international innovation and research competition organized by the Cosmetic Valley endowment fund and its partner Essec, met on April 15, 2024, in Paris.
The jury, chaired by Marc-Antoine Jamet, President of Cosmetic Valley and General Secretary of LVMH, was able to evaluate three research projects for their future theoretical interest, and three industrial innovations for their practical capacity to transform the market, exploring through the candidates' presentations topics ranging from artificial intelligence to decarbonation, marine ingredients, organic components and innovative processes.
Established in 2015, The Cosmetics Victories is a competition that gives visibility to and rewards researchers, start-ups and SMEs working for the future of the perfumery-cosmetics sector. The competition attracted some 111 entries from 22 countries. Among these entries, three manufacturers and three researchers caught the eye of the jury's experts.
In the "Academic Research Prize" category, the winner was Matej Hladiš, from the Université Côte d'Azur (France), for his project "Deciphering the code of odors: a bio-inspired ia for accurate prediction of odor perception".
This innovative project is inspired by the biological mechanism by which our brain interprets olfactory percepts, to develop a bio-inspired AI capable of predicting the smell of molecules. The approach takes into account genetic information, enabling the creation of personalized scents. By opening the way to the modeling of complex mixtures, they aspire to offer future users the possibility of creating custom perfumes, while offering alternatives to raw materials in order to reduce their ecological impact.
Prateek Mahalwar from Bioweg (Germany) won in the "Industrial Prize" category. His project "revolutionizing the future of organic ingredients through the power of microbes and green chemistry" won over the jury.
MicBeads100 is a functional micropowder derived from bacterial cellulose that replaces solid microplastics such as PMMA in cosmetics and personal care products. Manufactured through the recycling of agri-food waste and the application of green chemistry, this innovative and sustainable ingredient is fully biodegradable in 60 days, giving it added value and enabling it to outperform synthetic polymers, while complying with new EU regulations on microplastics.
Participants in the competition had to aim for skincare product performance and efficacy, organic sourcing, digitalization for odor prediction, optimization of environmental impact and mastery of sustainable development.
Each of the winners received a prize of 10,000 euros and dedicated support from Cosmetic Valley.
