INRA is the foremost French institute devoted to research in agriculture, food and the environment with a staff of 8700 including 4100 scientists. It has 17 departments, including Environment and Agronomy, Forestry, and Plant Protection and Environment, and geographically INRA counts 22 centers which total 257 research units spread all over France. Two INRA units will be involved in the project.
The UMR 406 is one such research unit located at the INRA center of Avignon, a leading center in southeastern France with 263 scientists whose research focuses mainly on
(i) assessment of the environmental impact of agricultural practices with the goal of developing sustainable farming and
(ii) fruit and vegetable production in relation with consumer health.
The UMR 406 is associated since 2000 with the University of Avignon (Unité Mixte de Recherches) and is part of the department of Plant Protection and Environment. It counts 14 scientists working in the area of integrated pest management, environmental toxicology, and bee biology and pollination with regional, national and international funding such as grants from the EU (CEE.AIR-III CT 94-1961 to study fruit quality in relation with pollination in cantaloupe) and the US National Institute of Health (study on pheromone and social organization in honeybees). The Laboratoire de Pollinisation Entomophile (LPE) is the leading INRA unit working on pollination and its focus is on the ecology of sexual reproduction in entomophilous species. In particular, the research is aimed at understanding the mechanisms of effective pollen flow and its consequences in the context of sustainable farming, that is in terms of production output (quantity and quality), biosecurity (gene dispersal) and biodiversity (plant reproduction, pollinator guilds).

The second unit, Zoologie Forestière (UR 633), is part of an INRA Forestry Research Centre located at Orléans, north- central France. The Centre counts a staff of 35 permanent scientists of which 9 are working with the Zoology unit. In addition, a team of the University of Orléans, including 6 scientists, is associated to the UR 633. The present research activity mainly concerns the mechanisms underlying the invasion of forests by exotic insects.
It specifically addresses:
a) the genetic structuration of invasive populations compared to that observed in the native range;
b) the behaviour and ecology of invasive insects (cues governing host shifts; competition with native entomofauna for tree resource) to predict invasive risks and patterns;
c) the relationships between the composition of forest ecosystems and their invasiveness;
d) the mathematical modelling of invasion development in space and time; and
e) the biological control of both exotic forest insects and invasive trees.
Models concern conifer seed insects, xylophagous insects (bark beetles, long-horned beetles), and their associated organisms (nematodes, fungi).

RESEARCH TEAM: Bernard E. Vaissière, Alain Roques