Partnerships and scientific promotion of the Lyon-Grenoble Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Centre
Research projects at the Lyon-Grenoble Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Centre are for the most part designed and carried out with academic and/or institutional and/or socio-economic partners, and can be at local, national or international level.
Our Centre manages about 400 research contracts. These include 28 contracts associated with calls for projects by the ANR (French National Research Agency), as well as 5 projects funded by the European H2020 programme. Of these, our Centre is involved in 2 large-scale H2020 projects, DRyVER and MULTISOURCE, which have the following goals:
- DRyVER, aims to secure biodiversity, functional integrity and ecosystem services in drying river networks. The project brings together a multidisciplinary consortium of 25 experts from 11 European countries, 3 South American countries, China and the United States.
- MULTISOURCE, aims to develop new tools to integrate enhanced natural treatment into the urban water cycle. The project brings together about twenty partners from Europe, Brazil and Vietnam, all mobilised around INRAE.
Our Centre is also heavily involved in ZABR (Zone Atelier Bassin du Rhône - Rhône Watershed Workshop Zone) which is co-chaired by an INRAE researcher. This scientific observation scheme for the Rhône basin brings together 23 research institutions located between Geneva and the Mediterranean.
Over time, useful links have been forged with the research ecosystem on the Lyon-Saint-Etienne site, notably by the setting up of framework agreements with INSA Lyon, ENS Lyon, VetAgroSup and ISARA. Contacts have also been made with researchers at the Grenoble site, with an agreement currently in preparation with UGA (Grenoble-Alpes University) as well as the involvement of INRAE in the steering bodies of the site and its Idex partnership with UGA, in addition to engaging with local and regional economic partners such as the electricity generation company CNR (Compagnie National du Rhône). Joint laboratories with SMEs/Start-ups (Viewpoint, Scimabio, Syntea) have also been created or are under construction. The Centre’s Research teams also have a close and long-standing working relationship with the French Water Agency RMC (Rhône Mediterranean Corsica).
2020 and 2021 saw the repositioning of INRAE within SATTs (Technology Transfer Acceleration Companies) in Lyon (Pulsalys) and Grenoble (Linksium), the aim being to support more projects into the economic world.
Activities illustrating our thematic axes and partnerships
Natural, health and environmental risks
* The first global study to assess the extent of pharmaceutical pollution in rivers
Although medicines have improved human health and life expectancy, pharmaceutical residues cause pollution and impact the environment and living organisms. For the first time, a large-scale international study led by the University of York (United Kingdom), in which INRAE and more than 80 other research institutes participated, analysed pollution in 258 rivers in over 100 countries across five continents.
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Territories and socio-ecosystems: qualifications, trajectories and support
* Mountain tourism: the transition of ski resorts in the face of ever-elusive snow
With climate change, the prospect of snow cover is increasingly uncertain and calls into question the future of winter sports resorts that directly depend on it. INRAE researchers, in partnership with the French Snow Research Centre (CNRM - National Centre for Meteorological Research - Meteo-France/CNRS), have modelled the prospects of snow in the Pyrenees for the next century based on forecasts of greenhouse gas emissions used by the IPCC, and studied the diversification of tourism underway in mountain resorts.
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Integrative biology of model and cultivated plants and adaptation to their environment
* Plant reproduction: researchers unravel the role of a new membrane within pollen grain
While the reproduction process of flowering plants has been known for more than 120 years, there still remain many mysteries to unravel. Researchers from INRAE, ENS de Lyon, CNRS and Limagrain characterised a new membrane within pollen grain that surrounds the two sperm cells.
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➤ VIEWTOX: the Centre’s 1st Partner Associated Laboratory (LPA)
The Lyon-Grenoble Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes INRAE centre and ViewPoint have created a Partner Associated Laboratory (LPA) called ViewTox. The preservation of water resources and aquatic biodiversity are major concerns in society, and one of the key goals is to limit the discharge of toxic contaminants into the aquatic environment. It is in this context that the self-monitoring of industrial and urban waste is gradually appearing in the legislation. A partnership between Viewpoint – a company specialising in video analysis equipment to track the behaviour of organisms – and the ecotoxicology laboratory of the RiverLy unit has resulted in the joint development of the ToxMate system, capable of assessing water quality on site, online and in real time using video tracking to analyse the locomotor behaviour of 3 aquatic invertebrates (crustacean, snail, leech). The aims of this LPA are to acquire a deeper knowledge of the behaviour of aquatic species in order to use them in video tracking, to develop new fields in which to apply the methodology (industrial waste), and also to understand the link between the nature of chemical contamination and the diversity of responses by animal species.
Project supported by the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Region.