The network of scientific excellence in agricultural research and sustainable development, which was created at the instigation of CIRAD, INRA and the future international centre for higher education in agricultural sciences in Montpellier, SupAgro, has been chosen as an advanced thematic research network (RTRA).

CIRAD, INRA and SupAgro* have launched a network of scientific excellence in agricultural research and sustainable development, in Montpellier. The project is one of 13 advanced thematic research networks (RTRAs) selected by the French government. It involves almost 500 researchers and teacher-researchers in the three founding organizations, along with 80 CIRAD researchers on assignment in the French overseas regions and elsewhere. It should help boost the momentum of the Agropolis International group.

The network’s main two objectives are to ensure food security and alleviate poverty. More precisely, it is plants that will serve as the network’s main thread, centring on two closely linked axes: integrative plant biology and the sociotechnical dynamics of innovation, in temperate, Mediterranean and tropical regions. The aim is in fact to improve our fundamental knowledge of how plants function in their environment, from gene to plant stand: improvement, pests and diseases, integrated pest management, ecology of populations, etc. Moreover, the network will also be working towards a greater understanding of the various innovative processes that involve plants and their products, with a view to sustainable development. It is novel in that it plans to tackle innovation from two angles: technical – agroenvironmental and agrifood innovations – and socioeconomic – social innovations and social management of innovation.

The creation of RTRAs is one of the structural measures taken under the April 2006 Research Programming Act to consolidate the main French scientific poles capable of being among the leading runners in the global research field.

* In January 2007, Montpellier SupAgro will be a single establishment associating four organizations headed by the French Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, working in Languedoc-Roussillon: Agro.M, CNEARC, ENSIA-SIARC and the CEP in Florac. Along with Agro ParisTech, it will be one of the two leading French agricultural higher education establishments.


The advanced thematic research networks
Aeronautics – Toulouse
Agricultural research – Montpellier
Cancer biology, physics and therapy – Paris
Chemistry – Strasbourg
Infectiology – Lyon
Informatics and communication – South of Paris
Nanosciences – Grenoble
Neurosciences – Paris
Economic sciences – Paris
Economic sciences – Toulouse
Mathematical sciences – Paris
Fundamental physics – Saclay
International thematic centres in human and social sciences

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Agricultural research in Montpellier is recognized as one of 13 fields of scientific excellence in France