Range of experimental infrastructure

• 9500 m2 of which 63% are open fields, 22% greenhouses, 14% tunnels and growth chambers
• Technical buildings including a workshop for the maintenance of infrastructure

Management of experimental infrastructure provided by two teams of the unit

• "Plant production and experimentation" team whose service is the production of plants for experimentations, putting experimentations in place and managing the fields throughout the experiments
• "Maintenance" team that maintains the infrastructure and equipment in working condition. This team is also involved in the design and construction of prototype equipment

Confinement of growth chambers and greenhouses in accordance with the constraints imposed by the different organisms that we study

• Low confinement for non-quarantine plant pathogens (mainly bacteria, fungi and virus of vegetable crops)
• High confinement (S3-type greenhouses) dedicated to the manipulation of quarantine plant pathogens and recombinant virus in conditions complying with regulations applicable to these organisms.
• High confinement (NS3-type growth chamber) for the breeding of insects, healthy or infected by virus

Production system

• Management of experiments to achieve the minimal environmental impact of our activities: implementation of standards of confinement in accordance with the organisms that we study, heat treatment of organic waste, sewage treatment of fungicide wastes under a trickling filter, energy savings by a computerized management of the climate of greenhouses
• Quality assurance: writing of working procedures, traceability of experiments, reliability of results by the storage of climate and technical data

Computerized management of the climate of greenhouses with a programmable controller

The unit has invested in setting up this system as part of the quality assurance process and to reduce its energy bill.

This system can monitor and manage the machines controlling the boiler room, greenhouses and growth chambers. Climatic data (temperature, humidity, period lighting…) are recorded. Software allows us to view and to transmit instructions. The technical surveillance of the infrastructure is secured by an alarm system.