Inauguration of the "SICLE.e" industrial 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 at the service of the environment). in the presence of Philippe Augé, President of the University of Montpellier and Françoise Nicolas, Managing Director of CTC Groupe.
A historic industry in the throes of change
Used since prehistoric times, leather is one of the oldest materials invented by man to protect himself from the elements. Today, it has established itself as a noble and aesthetic material, at the heart of the fashion, luxury goods, footwear, glove and furniture industries. The French leather industry represents a structured industrial ecosystem, with over 130,000 employees and a hundred or so trades.
Yet the industry faces major challenges: growing societal pressure, strict regulatory changes and urgent environmental issues. While leather has the advantage of being a recycled material made from hides from the agri-food industry, its transformation process still requires the use of chemical substances, notably chromium. However, European regulations (REACh) are imposing increasingly stringent thresholds, which could ultimately weaken the entire sector. Alternatives to chrome tanning are struggling to combine technical performance, ecological acceptability and market satisfaction.
SICLE.e: a chair to invent tomorrow's sustainable leather
To meet these challenges, CTC, as a professional economic development committee, is committed to working alongside manufacturers to build a more sustainable, innovative and competitive industry. The SICLE.e Industrial Chair, created by CTC and two Montpellier University laboratories, ICGM and IBMM, in partnership with CIRAD's BioWooED unit, is part of this dynamic.
This Chair is based on an ambitious scientific and industrial partnership, mobilizing complementary skills in biomolecular chemistry, agronomy, materials science and leather professions. It is structured around two lines of research:
- the development of an innovative silicon-based tanning process, non-toxic and patented, offering both environmental performance and new functionalities for the leather;
- recovery of tanning by-products and effluents to create new materials of interest to other sectors such as agriculture, food processing and construction.
SICLE.e will also train a new generation of researchers (twelve young scientists) and offer specific training courses for industry professionals, to help them make the transition to greener practices.
By bringing together scientific, industrial, economic and environmental issues, SICLE.e has established itself as a national benchmark for the sustainable transformation of the leather industry.
As a reminder, an industrial chair is a partnership between a research organization and industrial players aimed at developing, over several years, innovative scientific solutions for a given sector. SICLE.e is a €1.9 million project.