| Objectives | Conditions for admission | Initial skills |
| International | Internships & project | Academic perspectives |
| Professional perspectives | Training program | |
Objectives of the training program
The research-oriented International Master’s program in Agricultural Sciences (IMAS) is at the core of the IMPLANTEUS Graduate School (GS), which has been designed to address the challenge of adapting Mediterranean agricultural systems for fruit and vegetable production to the constraints of global change all while fostering high nutritional quality.
The IMAS program includes a curriculum in English covering the fundamental aspects of plant and environmental sciences, food chemistry, food processing, microbiology, human nutrition, consumer science with a common objective of developing the production and consumption of safe and high-quality plant food in a Mediterranean context.
This integrated research-oriented training and the financial support of research internships and international mobility aim at fostering both i) awareness to research & innovation and ii) a doctoral experience.
Conditions for admission
- Admission to M1 level: a Bachelor’s degree in chemistry or biology, transcripts from the Bachelor’s curriculum, a curriculum vitae, a letter of motivation, any document attesting to the level in English
- Direct admission to M2 level: a M1 level or a complete Master’s degree (or equivalent degree) in chemistry or biology, transcripts from the Bachelor’s and Master’s curricula, a curriculum vitae, a letter of motivation, any document attesting to the level in English
Note: Regarding the level in English, the admission jury may decide a case-by-case evaluation (face-to-face or by phone).
Initial skills
- Fundamental bases in chemistry, biochemistry and/or biology
- A strong motivation to learn outside your initial disciplinary field through the multidisciplinary teaching program proposed by the Graduate School
- A good level in English. Candidates must be able to attend classes and seminars delivered in scientific English (oral + visual support)
International
The IMAS program has a strong international character as shown by:
- A systematic use of English in the teaching program.
- Aids for outgoing mobility. Master’s students will benefit from a dynamic policy encouraging their outgoing mobility during their internships. This policy will heavily rely on the dense global network of international partners of the IMPLANTEUS Graduate School.
- A strong involvement of international academic partners in the teaching program (through seminars and Summer schools) and in the hosting of Master’s students for their research internships.
Internships & Project
By enrolling in this competitive Master’s curriculum, M1 and M2 students are committed to:
- Completing their two internships in the research labs associated with the Graduate School (including international partners) with adequate financial support from IMPLANTEUS via research grants and mobility aids
- Developing a project in collaboration with the private sector and mentored by a socio-economic partner. Each year, proposals by M2 students will be validated and supported (g., to cover travel costs). Projects may deal with research, innovation and any topic at the science – society interface.
Note: A scientific mentor will be assigned to each Master’s student. During the first semester, appointments will be held between the student and his/her mentor to discuss the curriculum and prepare the research internship (lab contacts, bibliography…).
Academic perspectives
Given the research orientation of the IMAS curriculum and the two internships in research labs for a total of 10 months, Master’s students are naturally encouraged to consider pursuing a Doctoral diploma, in particular in the laboratories associated with the Graduate School and that are part of the Agricultural sciences & Sciences Doctoral School (ED536).
ED536 in brief: 14 Research Units. Roughly 200 researchers and 120 – 130 doctoral candidates with 75% involved in agricultural sciences.
A competitive examination for allocating three-year Doctoral grants funded by Avignon University, its Research Federation Tersys and the IMPLANTEUS Graduate School will be held each year in June for Doctoral candidates who will enroll in the university as of Sept. 1 of the same year.
Professional perspectives
The IMAS program aims to train:
- Future researchers to promote the sustainable production, transformation and consumption of safe high-quality plant food
- Future managers in innovation for the agro-food industry with an experience of research
Note: Support for professional insertion will be provided to IMAS students via the program’s effort to:
- Promote student projects in collaboration with the private sector
- Involve the socio-economic partners in the following actions:
- Train through keynotes and short modules focused on R&D, in particular
- Tutor student projects
- Host students for short periods in relation with their lab internships
- Organize an annual Job Fair and workshops for job placement
Training program
The IMAS program is part of the Master’s program in Agricultural Sciences (MAS), which also proposes 3 other curricula (in French) centered on plant production (C1), water & soil science (C2) and agro-food production (C3). See: http://univ-avignon.fr/rechercher-une-formation/
The master is fully accessible to non-French-speaking students: course materials in English, implementation of general courses in English, innovative pedagogy based on hybridization of face-to-face courses / online courses.
M1S1 2023-2024
Academic year 2023-2024
- EUR specific lessons (278h, in English, multidisciplinary): microbiology (30h), toxicology (25h), integrated nutrition and metabolism of plants (31h), agronomy plants and environment (30h) ; fundamentals of ecology, evolution & genetics (20h), fundamental of plant health (20h), chemistry of natural products (15h), principles of transformation (15h), fundamentals of food sciences (30h), fundamentals of human nutrition (20h), basics of statistics and probability (27h), scientific methods (10h)
>>> Syllabus M1S1
M1S2 2023-2024
- EUR specific lessons (278h, in English, multidisciplinary): history of agriculture (6h), plant ecophysiology (part 1, 24h), conventional conservation and transformation techniques (20h), phytochemicals: bioavailability and health effects (part 1, 20h), safety of the production chain of fruits and vegetables (part 1, 24h), ethics & scientific integrity (6h), fundamental of cardiovascular health & impact of nutrition (21h)
- 4-month internship in the laboratory
>>> Syllabus M1S2
M2S1 2023-2024
- EUR specific lessons (278h, in English, multidisciplinary): plant ecophysiology (part 2, 15h), plant breeding (parts 1 & 2, 25h), plant health (15h), agroecology (20h), green food processing, conservation & transformation (25h), formulation of food products, conservation of agro-food wastes (25h), phytochemicals: bioavailability and health effects (part 2, 20h), safety of the production chain of fruits and vegetables (part 2, 12h), consumer science (7h), data treatments & statistics (21h), modeling (22h), quality control & analysis, metabolomics (12h), imaging and techniques of internal investigation (9h)
- Collaborative project with tutoring by a partner from the socio-economic world or a researcher
>>> Syllabus M2S1
M2S2
- 6-month internship in the laboratory
NB: seminars and summer schools (in English) with the participation of EUR international partners are an integral part of the IMAS programme.
>>> Syllabus M2S2