*Photo caption: From left to right, the director of the ICSuro, Albert Hereu, the member of the board of trustees Guillem Genover, the director of the R+D+i Department of the ICSuro and general coordinator of the CSA congress, Patrícia Jové, the vice-president of the ICSuro and president of the CFC, Rosendo Castelló and the president of the ICSuro and president of AECORK, Joan J. Puig

The Institut Català del Suro (ICSuro) has started a new stage that ends 28 years of public-private consortium to transform into a non-profit scientific foundation. The founders are the Associació d'Empresaris Surers de Catalunya, AECORK, and the Consorci Forestal de Catalunya, CFC.

With this new legal figure, the ICSuro demonstrates to society its charitable and non-profit sense, increases efficiency in daily management and is closer to the needs of forest owners and cork companies.

During the press conference held last May 17, the president of the Foundation, Mr. Joan J. Puig, has remarked that "Innovation and Internationalization will be two of the strategic axes to maintain and enhance in this new stage".

For this reason, the congress 'Cork in Science and Applications' (CSA), a congress with international speakers who presented on May 22 and 23 the latest innovations in cork, from its use in the wine industry to new applications in other sectors such as aeronautics or automotive, was the official presentation of this new stage of the ICSuro, highlighting the innovation and international spirit of the Foundation.

Since its creation, ICSuro has been a dynamizing instrument of the cork industry with the aim of developing and promoting a sector deeply rooted in our regions, based on the promotion of quality and control, training and innovation, which have consolidated it throughout the national and international wine markets important

In this new stage, the Institut Català del Suro Foundation wants to consolidate its leadership in research and dissemination of the cork sector, a sector with a lot of projection thanks to its intrinsic sustainability, which positions it as a paradigm of the new circular bioeconomy.