Montpellier Agronomie et Développement durable
Agropolis Fondation
Presentation
The aim of Agropolis Fondation is to promote and support the development of international level projects (programmes for research and training-through-research) in agricultural sciences and sustainable development on themes and issues concerning both the North and the South.
Agropolis Fondation is a Scientific Cooperation Foundation (or Fondation de Coopération Scientifique - FCS). It is the legal entity for the Thematic Advanced Research Network (RTRA) "Montpellier Agricultural Sciences and Sustainable Development".
Agropolis Foundation was formalized in February 2007 (decree MENR0700282D dated Feb19th, 2007) - For more information, please refer to the official documents: Decree [PDF] and Statutes [PDF] of the Foundation, Agreement with the Government [PDF] .
The Foundation received an initial funding of 20 million Euros -17 million Euros from the French government and one million each from the three initial founding organizations, i.e. CIRAD , INRA and Montpellier SupAgro. The Languedoc-Roussillon Region will also contribute to an additional 5 million Euros over 5 years. IRD recently joined the Foundation as a new founding organization.
The Montpellier RTRA is one of the 13 Thematic Advanced Research Networks (RTRA) defined under the French Research Programming Act of 18 avril 2006, to strengthen the role of the main and most competitive French scientific competences, by enabling them to be leaders in the international research field.
The Foundation's aim is to promote a Thematic Advanced Research Network on plants (or réseau thématique de recherche avancée - RTRA) internationally visible and renowned. Plants are the central theme of the RTRA: plants from the gene to the whole plant; plants in their environment; plants, plant products and food and non-food uses. The RTRA addresses the following major development issues: the increasing demand for plants for food and non-food purposes; the agricultural adaptation of cultivated plants as a response to climate change; risk prevention and management: plant pests and diseases, food safety, erosion of natural resources and biodiversity, social risks linked to changes in farming systems, etc. The RTRA (29 research units, 780 scientists) is composed of high level scientific teams, working on biotechnical sciences and social sciences, and is organized in two tightly connected fields: Integrative Plant Biology, Socio Technical Dynamics of Innovation.
Last update : 07/07/2008
