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National Infrastructures in Biology and Health

Published on 25 March 2015
In 2010 and 2011, two “National Infrastructures in Biology and Health” calls for bids were launched as part of the Biology and Health program in Investissements d’Avenir (IA), underlining the importance of technological research infrastructures to maintaining research excellence in the field of life sciences.

The Life Sciences Division (DSV) of the CEA is considerably involved in this program. The coordination of most of the ‘National Infrastructures’ is shared between the DSV and the main national research organizations (Inserm, CNRS, INRA).
The DSV coordinates 4 of these 23 National Infrastructures in Biology and Health, in the fields of: genomics (France Génomique), biomedical imaging (France Life Imaging), translational research in neurosciences (NeurATRIS) and the modeling of infectious diseases (IDMIT). The DSV is also heavily involved in 4 other National Infrastructures: structural biology (FRISBI), proteomics (PROFI), metabolomics (MetaboHub), and bioinformatics (IFB).

These National Research Infrastructures bring together the best teams in their field, across France. These Infrastructures are mostly distributed over several sites and are open to the national and international academic communities as well as industry. They structure the French participation in the European infrastructures, particularly established by the ESFRI roadmap.

 Their missions

  • Respond to the needs of very large infrastructures as expressed by the scientific community
  • Offer a high added value service, previously unavailable, to the entire academic community and to private partners
  • Ensure technological development at the highest level so that the service is at the forefront and that it accompanies advances in biology
  • Provide training for users, as well as personnel assigned to platforms at smaller sites that are not capable of development

These national infrastructures benefit from a policy of structuring, sharing and evaluation led by research organizations and supported by the Ministry of Higher Education and Research. They are evaluated and co-financed by the IBiSA group that supports French platforms in biology,  the local authorities and foundations.