Institut national de la recherche agronomique

The Institut national de la recherche agronomique was a French public research institute dedicated to agricultural science. It was founded in 1946 and is a Public Scientific and Technical Research Establishment under the joint authority of the Ministries of Research and Agriculture. From 1 January 2020 the INRA merged with the IRSTEA to create the INRAE.
INRA led projects of targeted research for a sustainable agriculture, a safeguarded environment and a healthy and high quality food. Based on the number of publications in agricultural sciences/crops and animal sciences, INRA was the first institute for agricultural research in Europe, and the second in the world. It belonged to the top 1% most cited research institutes.

WWW international.inra.fr 𝕏 Inra_France FB Inra.France IG inra_france IN french-national-institute...GitHub INRA

Missions

INRA main tasks were:

to gather and disseminate knowledge
to build know-how and innovation for the society
to provide expertise to public institutions and private companies
to participate in science-society debates
to train in research

Staff and organization

INRA was a research institute with 1,840 researchers, 1,756 research engineers and 4,694 lab workers/field workers/administrative staff.
In addition, 510 PhD students were trained, and 2,552 interns were employed every year.
INRA was composed of 13 scientific departments:

Environment and Agronomy
Biology and crop breeding
Plant health and environment
Ecology of forests, meadows and aquatic environments
Animal genetics
Animal physiology and animal production systems
Animal health
Characterization and processing of agricultural products
Microbiology and food processing
Human nutrition
Sciences for action and development
Social sciences, agriculture and food, territories and environment
Applied mathematics and computer sciences

Moreover, INRA provided tools and support to the scientific community: databases, environmental research observatories, genetic resources centers, experimental platforms, etc.
The past and current directors of INRA include:

1946–1948 : Charles Crépin
1948–1956 : Raymond Braconnier
1956–1963 : Henri Ferru
1963–1972 : Jean Bustarret
1972–1974 : Jean-Michel Soupault
1975–1978 : Raymond Février
1978–1989 : Jacques Poly
1989–1991 : Pierre Douzou
1991–1999 : Guy Paillotin
1999–2003 : Bertrand Hervieu
2004–2012 : Marion Guillou
2012–2016 : François Houllier
2016–present : Philippe Mauguin

Centers and partnerships

In 2014, INRA had 17 regional centres in France, including in the French overseas territories. Most laboratories and facilities located in Paris region are to be moved to the Paris-Saclay research-intensive cluster.
INRA develops partnerships with:

universities and French top schools in agricultural/veterinary sciences
French research institutes of fundamental and targeted research. Notably, CNRS and INSERM are INRA first two partners.
French research institutes of agricultural applied research
the main agricultural research institutes in the world. It has scientific collaborations and exchanges with many countries in Europe, America and Asia. Nearly half of the publications are co-authored by foreign scientists.

Research on wine and grapes

INRA maintained a collection of vines at Domaine de Vassal, in Marseillan near Sète, a site where phylloxera cannot survive. Gouais blanc can be found there.
Researches on vine cultivation are conducted in Pech Rouge estate, in Gruissan. INRA also owns the Château Couhins wine-producing estate near Bordeaux. Many wine grapes have been created at INRA stations including Ederena.
INRA was a member of the consortium for the genome sequencing of Vitis vinifera in 2007.