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Sylvie Colleu
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Marie-Pierre Quessette
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Agrocampus Ouest
Bénédicte Villeroy de GALHAU
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Montpellier SupAgro
Ghyslaine Robinius
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Ismeline Mathet
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The French agricultural research and higher education sectors are restructuring in order to tackle current global food and environmental issues

30/06/2009 - Press release

INRA, CIRAD, AgroParisTech, Agrocampus Ouest, Montpellier SupAgro and ENV Toulouse, the six founder members of the “Consortium national pour l'agriculture, l'alimentation, la santé animale et l'environnement” (national consortium for agriculture, food, animal health and the environment), signed a founding agreement on 29 June 2009 that kicks off their collective operations. The six establishments thus now form an organization capable of tackling the global issues raised by new demands in terms of agriculture, food, animal health and the environment.

By founding this partnership, they intend to tackle the challenges of designing new agricultural, food and sustainable resource and territorial management models, in both industrialized and developing countries, through scientific output and innovation, training, and knowledge sharing and dissemination.
The consortium was set up as an EPCS (public scientific cooperation establishment), by the Ministers in charge of Agriculture, Higher Education and Research, and Foreign Affairs, proving their determination to improve the performance of the French research and training system in the aforementioned fields, with a view to boosting its visibility, attractiveness and operating capacity on an international level, and to building and mobilizing new scientific expertise centring on those fields.
The Consortium, which will be supported by a steering committee, will be open to experts in France and abroad. It will promote operations and programmes linking research, training and development on an international level, notably an international doctoral college.
Other organizations and colleges could become founder or associate members of the Consortium in future. This move to promote partnerships complements and strengthens the alliances already struck by its members with other players in the French research and education system within PRES (research and higher education platforms), and with other research organizations and universities

> download the founding agreement

The consortium was founded by decree dated 10 May 2009, in the form of an EPCS (public scientific cooperation establishment) that respects the independence and individual statutes of each member.
The six founder members account for: 12 000 people, including 5700 scientists , (5150 researchers and engineers and 575 teacher-researchers), 4700 students and 2200 PhD students working in the fields of agriculture and veterinary medicine.
Some 300 official research unit .
Five teaching and research campuses split between the Île-de-France, Montpellier, Rennes–Angers and Toulouse.
A network of top-level technology platforms and an open experimental system.
A wide, diverse range of partnerships with universities .
Joint operations with professional partners and development players.
International operations in more than 50 countries, both industrialized and developing .