Axens, an IFP Group Company, has established a long-term research, pilot testing and analytical service cooperation agreement with IFP. This agreement secures a steady financial return to IFP and preserves both parties freedom to concentrate and capitalize on their core expertise, which is the selection and conduct of R&D activities and associated training services for IFP and process, product and service development and marketing, commercialization and customer services for Axens.

IFP's Solaize site, near Lyon France, is the cornerstone of the mutually beneficial relationship. In 2002, the René Navarre Center for Industrial Development Study in Solaize employs nearly 400 persons and operates on a site consisting of 17 000 m2 of buildings and 150 000 m2 of land. The site will incorporate the catalyst, physical chemical and analytical groups in 2003 consolidating an approximately 600 person R&D group at a single site. The Solaize site and the close proximity to the CNRS (National Center for Scientific Research), the IRC (Catalyst Research Institute) and other scientific centers and universities, constitutes a first-in-class pole of catalyst and process excellence.