Inauguration of the “SICLE.e” Industry Chair at the University of Montpellier
On Tuesday, May 20, 2025, the University of Montpellier and CTC inaugurated the SICLE.e industrial chair (Silicon in Leather Innovation: Laboratories and Companies Working for the Environment) in the presence of Philippe Augé, President of the University of Montpellier, and Françoise Nicolas, CEO of CTC Group.
A long-standing industry undergoing major changes
A material with a history stretching back thousands of years, used since prehistoric times, leather is one of the oldest materials invented by humans to protect against the elements. Today, it has established itself as a refined and aesthetically pleasing material, central to the fashion, luxury goods, footwear, glove-making, and furniture industries. The French leather industry represents a structured industrial ecosystem, bringing together more than 130,000 employees and some 100 different trades.
However, this industry faces major challenges: growing societal pressure, strict regulatory changes, and urgent environmental concerns. While leather has the advantage of being a recycled material made from hides sourced from the food industry, its processing still requires the use of chemicals, particularly chromium. However, European regulations (REACH) are imposing increasingly strict limits, which could eventually undermine the entire sector. Alternatives to chrome tanning struggle to combine technical performance, environmental acceptability, and market satisfaction.
SICLE.e: A research chair dedicated to developing the sustainable leather of tomorrow
To address these challenges, CTC, as a professional economic development committee, is working alongside industry leaders to build a more sustainable, innovative, and competitive sector. It is within this framework that the SICLE.e Industrial Chair was established, led by CTC and two laboratories at the University of Montpellier—ICGM and IBMM—in partnership with CIRAD’s BioWooED unit.
This chair is based on an ambitious scientific and industrial partnership that brings together complementary expertise in biomolecular chemistry, agronomy, materials science, and the leather industry. It is structured around two research areas:
- the development of an innovative, non-toxic, patented silicon-based tanning process that offers both environmental benefits and new functionalities for leather;
- the reuse of byproducts and effluents from the tanning process to create new materials that could be of interest to other sectors, such as agriculture, the food industry, or the construction industry.
SICLE.e will also train a new generation of researchers (twelve young scientists) and offer specialized training to industry professionals to support them in the transition to more sustainable practices.
By bringing together scientific, industrial, economic, and environmental considerations, SICLE.e has established itself as a national leader dedicated to the sustainable transformation of the leather industry.
As a reminder, an industrial chair is a partnership between a research organization and industry stakeholders aimed at developing innovative scientific solutions for a specific sector over a period of several years. SICLE.e is a project with €1.9 million in funding.