Fields of excellence

INRAE researchers provide society with research of excellence based on knowledge, at research fronts. They are known for their high-quality work and extensive expertise and have made remarkable discoveries in many different fields. They include plant biology, animal biology, animal health, human health, nutrition, and environmental sciences. They are recognized globally through international awards, web of science top 1% and Clarivate rankings, as well as the European Research Council.

Agroecology

Resistant vines team

Never one to wither away in the face of a challenge, INRAE’s "grapevine resistance” team is identifying naturally disease-resistant grapes. The broader goal is to create quality wines while forgoing fungicides. This work has led to the official registration of 9 grape varieties that are resistant to downy and powdery mildew.

Claire Chenu, soil science

Claire is a Research Director at INRAE and professor of soil science at Agroparistech. Her research focuses in soil organic matter, providing important ecosystem services such as carbon sequestration, essential to mitigate climate change. She was nominated as a special Ambassador of soils, by the FAO in 2015.

Biodiversity

Patrick Pastuszka, maritime pine

Patrick has made varietal improvement of maritime pine one of INRAE’s real success stories. He pushed the Pierroton Forestry Experimental Unit he leads to the cutting edge of industry needs and international research by “bridging the gap between researchers and industry professionals.”

Mickaël Henry, bees and tropical bats

After an extensive international academic career, Mickaël has published more than 20 articles on behavioural and spatial ecology by the time he was 36. Recognised worldwide as an authority on tropical bats, he has become a renowned specialist on bees since joining INRAE.

Bioeconomy

Nathalie Gontard, packaging materials

Nathalie Gontard is a research director in the Agropolymer Engineering and Emerging Technologies Unit. Concerned with the amount of plastic waste accumulating in oceans and on land, she invented innovative biodegradable packaging materials and is looking for ways to anticipate its impacts over its lifecycle.

Ana Villares, biobased materials

From the discovery of physicochemical properties of plant-based polymers in Spain, to their assembly at INRAE in Nantes, she is designing new biobased materials that are reliable and sustainable. She boasts more than 65 publications in international journals.

Climate change and risks

Lisa Wingate, soil micro-organisms

During the first 15 years of her career, she is credited for 26 publications, a small revolution in the field of environmental ecology, an international network of global warming observatories, prestigious research fellowships, and promising work on the role of microorganisms in the soil in atmospheric carbon flow.

Hervé Cochard, plant hydraulic systems

Hervé Cochard is a renowned ecophysiologist specialising in plant hydraulic systems under environmental constraints. Convinced that technical developments and scientific progress go hand in hand, he has developed advanced concepts that greatly improved the understanding of trees tolerance to drought.

Food and global health

Sophie Nicklaus, eating habits

Designing scientific protocols to study eating habits and ultimately influence them has been the prime focus of Sophie Nicklaus’s research. She acquired a rich body of knowledge on how eating habits develop in children. She is the scientific director of a vast program to promote sustainable diets in the Dijon metropole.

Joël Doré, gut microbiota

Joël Doré is a research director in the Joint Research Unit for Food and Gut Microbiology for Human Health and scientific director of the MetaGenoPolis. His speciality is the gut microbiota, of which he has studied every facet for over 30 years, first focusing on those of animals before studying those of humans.

Plant and animal science

Abdelhafid Bendahmane, plant genomics

Abdelhafid is internationally recognised for his research in plant genomics and deputy director of the Institute for Plant Sciences - Paris-Saclay. In 2023, he was doubly funded by the European Research Council to explore how to make flowers more attractive to pollinators and sex determination in flowers.

Animal welfare team

They are ethologists, physiologists, neurobiologists, and geneticists and represent a network of over 100 INRAE scientists, whose focus is animal welfare and the treatment of animal welfare within farming systems. Their discoveries have brought about concrete changes in how farm animals are treated.

Society and regional strategies

Christophe Gouël, international economy

The prices of commodities such as wheat, rice, corn or soya can fluctuate significantly on international agricultural markets with little or no warning. Volatility and price stabilisation policies have long captured the interest of Christophe Gouel, researcher at the EcoPub Public Economics Unit.

Anne-Célia Disdier, economy

Focused on the effects of tariff and non-tariff measures such as health, phytosanitary and technical regulations on commercial trade and well-being, she is a researcher at the Economic Sciences Joint Research Unit of the Paris School of Economics. She has published over 12 articles in international academic journals.

Water management

María Helena Ramos, flood prevention

María Helena Ramos is a hydrologist and part of a team in charge of developing forecasting tools for flood prediction services in France. Extreme phenomena like floods or droughts are not uncommon, and a rapid and effective response is essential.

Sami Bouarfa, water

Sami Bouarfa studies all aspects of water with the G-eau water management research team: drinking water, water used in industry, nuclear power stations, agriculture, etc. The vital question is how can we use water as sparingly as possible?