Prof. Dr. Frédéric Pichelin - PH

What made you decide to apply for a grant at the Leading House Asia?
Affordable building materials are a worldwide demand and harbor a big income generating potential for the economic wellbeing and health of low-income groups in developing countries. Agricultural and forestry residues have already been considered as a potential resource for low-cost building materials. The Philippines are the second largest producer of coconuts worldwide, the fibrous coconuts husk represents a large agricultural residue (≈5 billion tons/year).

The technical feasibility to produce low and medium density fiberboards made of milled coconut husk (Cocoboards) was shown in a SNF r4d project between the Bern University of Applied Science (BFH) and several partners in the Philippines.

Even if the raw materials (coconut husk and tannins) for the production of Cocoboards are available in large volumes, the previous results of the project show that their actual accessibility is a very critical point

How did you secure a research partner?
The collaboration between the Bern University of Applied Science and the Visayas State University (VSU) started already in the previous SNF r4d project Cocoboards. In this project the VSU performed a detailed survey on the availability of coconut husk in the diverse province in the Philippines, interviewing more than 1000 farmers. Furthermore, student exchanges between the two universities took place during the Cocoboard project, permitting a mutual transfer of the scientific and cultural knowledge.

Based thus on the successful collaboration between the two institutions, a further step towards the consolidating of the information regarding the accessibility of the coconut husk resources was intended.

How would you describe your experience of the programme?
A stakeholder workshop with participants from the research teams and actors from a governmental agency (Philippine Coconut Authority) and the private sector (plantation owners, producers of coconut products) took place from 3rd to 5th May 2017 and included:
a) general inputs and discussions on the data collected during the first 5 months of the project
b) plenary and group sessions to develop possible project topics
c) joint outlining of project proposals
d) launching of a consortium amongst stakeholders and researchers for further collaboration (“Cocoboard Technology and Sustainable Value Chain Development Program”).

What role did the Leading House Asia play in the programme?
The Research Partnership Grant represented a key contribution for the strengthening and the continuation of the collaboration between the partners beyond the initial research phase and towards the implementation of the achieved results. It permitted also the collection of key inputs for the preparation of new project proposals.

What were the impacts you made through the project/partners/individual?
In the post-working phase of the workshop, two project proposals were elaborated and submitted:

“PINOY Tannin” - Swiss Programme for Research on Global Issues for Development (r4d) - accepted
“CocoCreate – Resilient Value Chain Development for Cocoboard Technology” – Southeast Asia-Europe Joint Funding Scheme for Research and Innovation – rejected

Through the Pinoy Tannin project, the collaboration between the Bern University of Applied Science and the Visayas State University was further consolidated. A mutual exchange of students was planned, even if at the moment it has not yet been implemented due to the implemented COViD-19 travel restrictions.

The promising gathered data concerning the accessibility of coconut husk in the Philippines also led to the creation in 2020 of a Spin-Off from the Bern University of Applied Science (NatureLoop AG, www.naturloop.com), with the primary target to setup a pilot production of Cocoboards in the Philippines and, in a second step, to transfer the technology in neighboring countries or even worldwide.

The NatureLoop AG has so far gathered a high interest in Switzerland and has already won numerous and challenging national grants, which helped in the fine development of the business plan, the financial support of the laboratory scale optimization of the manufacturing process, and in the widening of the national and international network of stakeholders and possible investors.

Testimonial: what were your personal experiences/thoughts on the bilateral cooperation experience?
The possibility to get Research Partnership grants is a great opportunity for the preparation and consolidation of collaborations between Swiss and developing country partners.

The importance of an on-site joined development of research and implementation activities was clearly highlighted during the project. The achieved results would have been much trickier to be reached through a remote digital communication.

The on-site meeting and workshop represented a high-value tool for better filling the cultural gap between the two partners, and to better understand the respective strengths and weaknesses. Furthermore, it permitted to meet the full research team of the hosted institution, not limited to the most prominent representatives. This aspect also helped in the understanding of the actual potential of the forecasted collaboration.