Agriculture, Environment, and Biodiversity Division (AEB)

Director of the Agriculture-Environment-Biodiversity Division: Daniel Barthélémy

Deputy Director of the Agriculture-Environment-Biodiversity Division: Rutger De Wit

Administration and management support officer: Yasmine Lecuyer

Head of Administration and Long-Term Thematic Projects:Aude Montout

Head of the Human Resources Committee (HRC) Biology Agrosciences: Pierre Czernic

Human Resources Commission (HRC) Manager, Biology and Agricultural Sciences: Sabrina Lecourt

Head of the Human Resources Committee (HRC) Biology, Ecology, Evolution, Environment, Earth and Water Sciences: Mathilde Dufaÿ

Human Resources Commission (HRC) Manager Biology, Ecology, Evolution, Environment, Earth and Water Sciences: Yasmine Lecuyer

Strategic Steering Committee (SSC)

The Strategic Steering Committee acts as a link between the Research Cluster and institutional partners. It helps define the Research Cluster's major scientific strategic orientations and gives its opinion on the action plan proposed by the Director of the Research Cluster.

Pole Council

The Cluster Council provides advisory opinions on the direction and implementation of the Cluster's actions and strategy.

Hub office

The AEB division has an office staffed by the director, deputy director, and managers of long-term thematic projects.

Human Resources Committee (HRC)

The Human Resources Committees deal with issues specific to the staff of the University of Montpellier. Each Human Resources Committee issues an advisory opinion, in accordance with the statutory provisions specific to the teaching and research staff.

Key figures

1UNESCO Chair in World Food Systems

37 Laboratoriesin Agriculture, Environment, and Biodiversity

9Service units, research support units, experimental units, or scientific platforms

9Partner institutions

1Primary doctoral school(GAIA Biodiversity, Agriculture, Food, Environment, Earth, Water)

19European Research Council (ERC) projectsunderway in 2024

1,800 facultymembers and researchers

175theses defended each year

38CIFRE contracts

1UNESCO Water CenterICIREWARD

• Lead, communicate, highlight strategy and scientific foresight

• Bringing together and promoting partnerships

• Increase visibility and contribute to the Region's excellence in agronomy, the environment, ecology, and biodiversity at the national and international levels.

• Promoting the link between training and research

• Facilitate collective reflection on platforms and infrastructure in connection with institutions and organizations.

• Lead a collective discussion on coordinated planning of jobs, skills, and human resources in conjunction with institutions and organizations.

The Center comprises 46 research, experimental, research support, and service units as its main affiliates, and 10 other laboratories as secondary affiliates. It encompasses agricultural, environmental, and water sciences, as well as ecology and evolution. It has four long-term thematic projectsin these disciplines:

• Plant Adaptation to Global Change
• Agroecology and Food Systems
• Biodiversity, Ecology, Evolution
• Georesources, Risks, and Societies

Structured around these four interacting thematic areas, the AEB cluster forms a highly multidisciplinary group working on a wide range of issues and questions related to the promotion of sustainable and ecologically innovative agriculture, food safety and security, the characterization, documentation, management and conservation of biodiversity, the structure and functioning of ecosystems, health and environmental quality, explicitly taking into account the impact of environmental and global changes, particularly climate change, on all of these issues.

The AEB Cluster brings together agents from several research organizations:

• BRGM ( Geological and Mining Research Bureau)
• CIRAD ( Center for International Cooperation in Agricultural Research for Development)
• CNRS ( National Center for Scientific Research)
• IFREMER ( French Research Institute for Exploitation of the Sea)
• INRAE ( National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food, and the Environment)
• IRD ( Research Institute for Development)

or higher education:

• University of Montpellier
• Institut Agro (National Institute of Higher Education for Agriculture, Food, and the Environment)/Montpellier SupAgro
• CIHEAM-IAMM (International Center for Advanced Mediterranean Agronomic Studies-Mediterranean Agronomic Institute of Montpellier)

It also maintains close ties (even hosting agents within its laboratories) with other research organizations such asINRAP (National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research) and INRIA (National Institute for Research in Digital Science and Technology), as well as higher education institutions: AgroParisTech (Institute of Life and Environmental Sciences and Industries), ENSCM (National School of Chemistry of Montpellier), ARMINES ParisTech (IMT Mines Alès), EPHE ( École Pratique des Hautes Études), UPVM ( Paul Valéry University Montpellier), UPVD ( Perpignan Via Domitia University), University of Avignon, University of the Antilles, University of Réunion, University Center of Mayotte.

Laboratories with a primary affiliation:

• ABSys " Biodiversified Agrosystems"
• AGAP " Genetic Improvement and Adaptation of Mediterranean and Tropical Plants"
• AIDA " Agroecology and Sustainable Intensification of Annual Crops"
• AMAP "Botany & Bioinformatics of Plant and Vegetation Architecture"
• ASTRE "Animals, Health, Territories, Risks, and Ecosystems"
• Biowooeb "Biomass, Wood, Energy, Bioproducts"
• CBGP "Center for Biology and Population Management"
• CEFE "Center for Functional and Evolutionary Ecology"
• ChimEco " Bio-inspired chemistry and ecological innovations"
• DGIMI "Diversity, Genomes, Microorganism-Insect Interactions"
• DIADE "Plant Diversity, Adaptation, and Development"
• Eco&Sols "Functional ecology and biogeochemistry of soils and agrosystems"
• F & S "Forests and Societies"
• G-EAU "Water management, stakeholders, and uses"
• GECO " Ecological operation and sustainable management of banana and pineapple agrosystems"
• GM "Geosciences Montpellier"
• HortSys " Agroecological functioning and performance of horticultural cropping systems"
• HSM " Hydrosciences Montpellier"
• IATE "Agropolymer Engineering and Emerging Technologies"
• IHPE " Host-Pathogen Interactions Environments"
• INNOVATION "Innovation and Development in Agriculture and Food"
• IPSIM "Montpellier Plant Sciences Institute"
• ISEM "Montpellier Institute of Evolutionary Sciences"
• ITAP " Information – Technologies – Environmental Analysis – Agricultural Processes"
• LBE " Laboratory of Environmental Biotechnology"
• LEPSE "The Laboratory of Plant Ecophysiology under Environmental Stress"
• LISAH "Laboratory for the Study of Soil-Agrosystem-Hydrosystem Interactions"
• MARBEC "Marine Biodiversity, Exploitation, and Conservation"
• MIVEGEC "Infectious Diseases and Vectors: Ecology, Genetics, Evolution, and Control"
• MOISA "Montpellier Interdisciplinary Center on Sustainable Agri-food Systems (Social and Nutritional Sciences)"
• PHIM "Plant Health Institute of Montpellier"
• QUALISUD " Integrated approach to obtaining high-quality food"
• Recycling and Risk
• SELMET "Mediterranean and Tropical Farming Systems"
• SENS "Renewable Resources and Environment Management"
• SPO "Sciences for Oenology"
• TETIS " Territories, Environment, Remote Sensing, and Spatial Information"

CIRAD service unit:

• Analyses "Water, soil, and plant analyses"

CNRS/INEE service unit and also a very large research infrastructure:

• ECOTRON "European Ecotron of Montpellier"

Research Support Unit:

• MEEB "Montpellier-Ecology, Evolution, Biodiversity"
• OSU OREME "Mediterranean Environment Research Observatory"

INRAE experimental units:

• DIASCOPE "DiaScope Experimental Unit"
• VEGETABLE GROWING " Experimental Vegetable Growing Unit"
• PECH ROUGE "Pech Rouge Experimental Unit"
• VASSAL "Vassal Experimental Unit"

Laboratories with a secondary affiliation:

Primarily affiliated with the Social Sciences division:

Research Unit:

• ART-DEV "Actors, Resources, and Territories in Development"
• CEE-M "Center for Environmental Economics Montpellier"

Research Support Unit:

• MSH " Maison des Sciences de l'Homme SUD – Sciences and Society United for a Different Development"

Primarily attached to the MIPS division:

Research Unit:

• Espace-Dev "SPACE for DEVELOPMENT"
• MISTEA "Mathematics, Computer Science, and Statistics for the Environment and Agronomy"

Research Support Unit:

• ICS " Engineering, Characterization, and Services"
• ISDM " Montpellier Institute of Data Science"

Primarily attached to the Chemistry division:

• ICGM "Institute of Molecular Chemistry and Materials – Charles Gerhardt Montpellier Institute"
• IEM " European Membrane Institute"

Primarily attached to the Biology-Health division:

Research Unit:

• DMEM " Muscle Dynamics and Metabolism"
• INTERTRYP "Host-Vector-Parasite Interactions in the Environment in Neglected Tropical Diseases Caused by Trypanosomatids"

Research Support Unit:

• BCM " BioCampus Montpellier"

Locally:

• Four long-term thematic projects :
  • Plant Adaptation to Global Change
  • Agroecology and Food Systems
  • Biodiversity, Ecology, Evolution
  • Georesources, Risks, and Societies

Partner programs:

• Two key challenges for the Occitanie region: Biodivoc, Rivoc, VINID’OCC, O3T, and WOC
• An International UNESCO Water Center (ICIREWARD)
• A Foundation for Scientific Cooperation: One Science Montpellier
• A Mediterranean Environment Research Observatory (OSU OREME), which is part of the Universe Science Observatories of the National Institute for Universe Sciences of the CNRS.
• A Digital Agriculture Convergence Institute#DigitAg
• A "Territoires d'Innovation" (Occitanum) Fablab
• A UNESCO Chair in "World Food Systems"

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