The Agropolis Foundation, an important international player in the agricultural research sector, received a US$35 million grant from the French government last month (13 May).

About the Agropolis Foundation

Agropolis Fondation is a French scientific foundation established in 2007 to promote and support high-level research and higher education (training-through-research) as well as to broaden international research partnerships in agricultural sciences and sustainable development research.

It supports projects with fellowships, doctoral and post-doctoral grants and other awards that enable leading and promising international scientists to work with the Foundation's scientific network in Montpellier thereby facilitating knowledge exchange and international partnerships.

Scientific focus

The scientific work supported by the Foundation covers all aspects of the plant - from its genes to its environments to its final uses - and concerns temperate, Mediterranean and tropical climates. It supports research undertakings on:

• Integrative Plant Biology
• Social and Technological Dynamics of Innovation

The main issues addressed are:

1. Increasing demand for plants and plant by-products for food and non-food uses
2. Interaction between climate change and crops
3. Prevention and management of risks related to crop and food systems

See the Agropolis website for further information