Awardees Announced for 2024 Cosmetic Victories Perfume and Cosmetics Competition
The 2024 Cosmetic Victories competition, rewarding innovative projects relevant to perfume and cosmetics, is now accepting applications for the 2024 prize. Submissions are welcome from students, researchers, start-ups and SMEs worldwide.
The Cosmetic Valley is a technopole in France focused on the development of consumer goods in the perfume and cosmetics industry. The technopole is comprised of businesses of all sizes, in addition to laboratories, universities and training institutes.
The Cosmetic Victories Competition is an annual international competition that aims to reward and promote students, researchers, start-ups and SMEs worldwide who are in charge of innovative projects related to the perfume and cosmetics industry. The competition seeks to promote excellence in research internationally while facilitating access to the cosmetics market for the awardees.
Following the most recent call, which closed in January 2024, Cosmetic Valley has announced its latest pair of awardees.
The Academic Prize is awarded for the most relevant project that meets the new technical challenges of the cosmetics industry. This prize is open for PhD students, postdoctoral fellows and researchers. The 2024 Academic Prize was awarded to Matej Hladis (Université de Côte d’Azur, France) for a project utilising knowledge of odour coding to develop a bio-inspired AI that is capable of accurately predicting odour reception. The tool is intended to enable users to develop innovative fragrances and to provide alternatives to raw materials to reduce their ecological impact.
The Industry Prize is awarded for the best cosmetic innovation of the year. This prize is open for managers of business-creation projects, innovative start-ups and SMEs. The 2024 Industry Prize was awarded to Prateek Mahalwar (BIOWEG, Germany) for the development of MicBeads100, a bacterial cellulose-derived functional micropowder intended to replace solid microplastics such as PMMA in cosmetics and personal care products. The micropowder is produced by upcycling agri and food waste.
Each prize comprises a cash reward of €10,000. Prize holders may be supported by Cosmetic Valley to develop their project by facilitating collaborations and providing connections with the cosmetics accelerator Beauty Hub. Prize holders will also receive international exposure through major national and international press coverage.
(This Bulletin article was the subject of a ResearchConnect news alert.)