Avignon University (2020-2030)

Project title : Interdisciplinary program on Mediterranean Plant Production and Processing, Environment, Human Health and Sustainability

Graduate schools are associations of Master’s and Doctoral training programs with high-level research labs of universities and partner institutes. Their goal is to strengthen the impact and international attractiveness of training programs and research carried out in specific / high-priority scientific domains.

The IMPLANTEUS graduate school, a proposal coordinated by Avignon University and the regional INRAE research center, was selected for funding by the French Government at the end of August 2019.
Its activities started at the beginning of the 2020 academic year.

Context & Scope

Mediterranean climatic regions are considered to be the vegetable baskets and orchards of the world. They span more than 3 million km2 of land surface on 4 continents in the North and South hemispheres. Future fruit and vegetable (FV) production in Mediterranean regions faces multiple challenges and opportunities arising from climate change and degradation of soil and water resources, pressures on land from increasing populations, and the growing demand for FVs because of the heightening awareness of their beneficial effects on health. These factors are leading to intensified agricultural systems that require mastery of multiple disciplines in the biological, environmental, nutritional and social sciences to assure sustainable, high quality production without exacerbating environmental constraints.

The IMPLANTEUS Graduate School 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 Avignon site

Avignon is the ideal site for such an interdisciplinary project thanks to its research and teaching distinctive forces and its socio-economic environment. Avignon is first at the heart of France’s main FV production region, gathering 27% of its horticultural crop producers and 21% of its fruit orchardists. Avignon also has developed a unique research and teaching dynamic in agricultural sciences drawing on the Avignon University (AU), an INRAE Research Center and the Innov’Alliance cluster, a network mobilizing private companies and research structures for innovation in agriculture and the agro-food industry. Agricultural sciences have made up one of the two AU strategic axes for the last decade. Collaborations between AU and INRAE in this field have notably grown into a dedicated Federative Research Structure TERSYS. Overall, the IMPLANTEUS project benefits from the local dynamics of ca. 250 permanent researchers and engineers and the affiliated technical and administrative staff.

The offer

The IMPLANTEUS Graduate School is built on AU’s existing degrees to propose an innovative teaching offer encompassing a research-oriented Master’s degree and a Doctorate degree. Both degrees draw on a common set of modules (ca. 300h), Summer schools and seminars taught in English and organized into 4 thematic blocks bridging plant sciences with environmental sciences, human health sciences, food chemistry, mathematics and social sciences. They favour training through research most notably through laboratory internships and a strong involvement of INRAE scientists in the curriculum (ca. half the teaching volume). The IMPLANTEUS Graduate School supports also its students’ international experience through mobility grants, visiting professorships and a dense network of foreign academic partners. It ensure also the participation of numerous socio-economic partners of the agricultural and agro-food sectors through teaching, tutoring of the student R&D projects, internships and professional workshops and Job Fairs. The IMPLANTEUS Graduate School rely on this innovative and comprehensive teaching offer to attract students from France and abroad.

IMPLANTEUS trains :

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 experience in research

Key-concepts underlying research and teaching in the IMPLANTEUS Graduate School

AXIS I – Plant production in Mediterranean context Plant breeding, plant health Genetic & environmental factors Water & soil resources, sustainability	AXIS II – Preservation, extraction, transformation and formulation of vegetable matter Innovation & sustainability in food processing Turning wastes into added-value products
AXIS III – Plant food, health, consumer’s behavior Contaminants, safety Nutritional benefits, micronutrients What determines consumption?	AXIS IV – Cross-disciplinary methods Statistics & data treatment Modeling, imaging, metabolomics Ethics, science – society debates

The actors

Federative Research Structure Tersys
Doctoral School ED536 – Agricultural sciences & Sciences

IMPLANTEUS rely also on the Innov’Alliance cluster’s socioeconomic partners and on regional companies (e.g., Naturex-Givaudan) and technical centers (CRITT PACA, CTCPA, CTIFL).

Research units from Implanteus

AXE 1

Agronomy, plant biology, plant health

Qualisud: Integrated approach to quality food production (CIRAD Montpellier, IRD, AU) ^*
PSH: Plants & Cropping Systems in Horticulture (INRAE) ^{* &}
GAFL: Genetics & Breeding of Fruit & Vegetables (INRAE) ^{* &}
PV: Plant Pathology (INRAE) ^{* &}
UPRI (AU) ^{* &}
– ERIT PSII – Plant Science, Interactions & Innovation

Environment, soil & water science, agroecology

EMMAH: Mediterranean Environment & Modelling of Agro-Hydrosystems (AU, INRAE) ^{* &}
IMBE: Mediterranean Institute of Biodiversity & Ecology (AU, AMU, CNRS) ^{* &}

AXE 2

Food science, applied (bio)chemistry, microbiology

SQPOV: Safety & Quality of Plant Products (AU, INRAE) ^{* &}
IATE: Engineering of Agropolymers & Emerging Technologies (INRAE, Montpellier)
UPRI (AU) ^{* &}
– ERIT SAFE – Amphiphilic bioactive systems & sustainable formulations
– ERIT S2CB – Bioorganic colloidal systems

AXE 3

Human biology, nutrition

LaPEC: Physical Activity, Nutrition & Cardiovascular Health (AU) ^{* &}
C2VN: Center for Cardiovascular & Nutrition Research (AMU, INRAE, INSERM) ^*
MOISA: Markets, Organizations, Institutions, Strategies of Actors (INRAE, Montpellier)

AXE 4

Applied maths

LMA: Labs of Mathematics (AU) ^{* &}
LIA: Labs of Computer sciences (AU) ^&
BioSP: Biostatistics & Spatial Processes (INRAE, AU) ^{* &}

^* Research units belonging to TERSYS, ^& Research unit belonging to ED 536

“Improvement Board” (in French “Conseil de perfectionnement”)

Composition

Chairman of the Board – Responsible for the Master’degree	Philippe OBERT
Teaching team	Cindy MORRIS Florent BONNEU Carine LE BOURVELLEC Catherine RIVA Marc BARDIN Laurent LEGENDRE Jean-François LANDRIER Sylvie FAYARD Malaury BOISSIER Séverine LACOUR
External members (1 to 3), who may be: → representatives of the socio-economic world or associations for masters, LP or professional degree courses → secondary school teachers for bachelor’s degrees → representatives of possible further study courses for bachelor’s degrees	Sandrine LOPIS-PRESLE- competitiveness cluster Innov’Alliance Antoine BILY – Director R&D – Givaudan
Student representatives (2 à 3)	Waseem AHMAD: M1 delegate Waqas RAZZAQ : M2 delegate
Former student in employment (if possible)
Representative of the partner institution if the course is co-accredited
Permanent guests	AU Vice-chairman in charge of Student life and training: Bassam JABAIAN AU Vice-Chairman responsible for economic development and professional integration: Florence CHARLES IAgES Vice-Dean of Studies: Séverine SUCHAIL SAFIRE director : Ludovic BERNARD IAgES Dean : Carole MATHE de SOUZA

International Advisory Committee

Composition:

We have chosen external experts with outstanding international experience regarding IMPLANTEUS GS’s strategy.

Pr. J. Armengol (Valencia Univ.), Head of the European Master’s program “Plant Health in Sustainable Cropping Systems”
Dr. A.-C. Moonen (Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, Pisa), expert in agronomy & environment
Pr. J. Tarhouni (Institut National Agronomique de Tunisie), expert in hydrogeology in the Mediterranean context
Dr. L. Lepiniec, DR INRAE, expert in plant biology, Director of the GS Saclay Plant Sciences (SPS, University of Paris-Saclay)
Pr. G. Cravotto (Turin Univ.), expert in extraction processes and the chemistry of natural products
Pr. V. de Freitas (Porto Univ.), expert in natural products chemistry & biochemistry
Pr. F. Visioli (Padova Univ.), expert in nutrition
Pr. Joop van LENTEREN (WUR, NL, plant health, biological control, Netherlands (retired)
Dr. M.-C. Cormier-Salem, DR IRD, Director of Agropolis Fondation (Montpellier), SHS approach to product quality who was replaced in June 2024 by Pr. Yves Desjardins, Laval University, Canada, expert in food sciences and nutrition.

To ensure better representation of cross-disciplinary approaches (modelling, statistics, etc.), the Board was extended in June 2024 with the entry of

Dr D. Makowski, expert in statistical/machine-learning modelling applied to environmental risk management, agroecology, climate change, and food safety (MIA-PS, University Paris-Saclay, AgroParisTech INRAE)

Director and co-director: Philippe Obert, professor at Avignon University, and Cindy Morris, research director at INRAE.
philippe.obert@univ-avignon.fr , cindy.morris@inrae.fr

Project manager: Sylvie Fayard sylvie.fayard@univ-avignon.fr
Educational secretariat: Séverine Lacour secretariat-implanteus@univ-avignon.fr
International relationships: Malaury Boissier malaury.boissier@univ-avignon.fr
Contact : implanteus@univ-avignon.fr

The IMPLANTEUS Graduate School