Print

Tip a friend

Portrait of the Centre

© inra, P Martin

Dijon research Centre

The French National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA) was set up in 1946 as a mission-oriented public research organisation. Its three main areas of application are nutrition and food, agriculture and the environment. It benefits from very strong regional roots, with 21 centres in different regions and more than 200 sites throughout France.
 

The INRA Dijon Research Centre, which has been present in Burgundy since 1946, is a multidisciplinary community whose research fields focus on three scientific themes that lie at the heart of societal concerns and future challenges.

Missions: to participate in generating knowledge by proposing practical solutions at different scales: to develop innovative systems and integrated management strategies for farmed land that will ensure competitive and sustainable agriculture; to develop healthy food systems that will remain appropriate in the future, to develop territories and preserve the environment, and to inform the science-society debate.

In 1946, when the INRA Dijon Research Centre was set up, it grouped together the Oenology Research Unit in Beaune, the Agronomy Unit in Dijon, a plant breeding unit and an experimental dairy unit in Poligny. In 1953, the Institute acquired the 170 hectares of the Epoisses Experimental Farm, and during the 1960s, the Centre grew further, notably with the arrival of research teams from Versailles and Jouy-en-Josas, and started to focus its activities at two main sites: at the Rue Sully campus in Dijon, and at the Experimental Farm in Bretenières.

Human potential, skills and resources:

 Today the Centre employs 600 people, half of whom are researchers, doctoral students and postdoctoral fellows.  The research units and experimental units are spread over five sites, mainly in Burgundy but also in the Franche Comté and Rhône-Alpes regions.  The Centre benefits from 12,000m² of laboratories, 2000 m² of greenhouses and climate-controlled chambers, and a 120-hectare experimental farm. 

Written by: gs
Date of creation: 22/03/2006
Date of last update: 28/03/2012