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Achieve your PhD thesis or internship in an Institut Agro Montpellier laboratory

Update : 10/07/2025

Discover the cutting-edge research shaping the future at Institut Agro Montpellier. Our multidisciplinary laboratories are driving progress in agroecology, food systems, digital innovation, and sustainable resource management. Thinking about an internship or a PhD opportunity at Institut Agro Montpellier? Start your journey here.

L'Institut Agro Montpellier in brief:

  • 20 multi-disciplinary Joint Research Units (JRU) laboratories, focusing on research thematics crucial to our current and tomorrow societies.
  • Fundamental and applied research with professional partners to transform our future practices.
  • Multiple research partners : INRAE, CNRS, CIRAD, IRD for projects in countries from the Northern and Southern hemisphere.
  • To work on transitions in the fields of agro-ecological, digital, food, resource management and preservation

Interested in an internship or PhD thesis at Institut Agro Montpellier ? Get in touch with the professors and lecturers of the Joint Research Units–JRU below.

Water, soil & biodiversité

JRU Eco&Sols - Functional Ecology and Biogeochemistry of Soils

The work carried out at Eco&Sols aims to improve our understanding of the role of soil and plant organisms, and the interactions between them and with their environment, in biogeochemical cycles - mainly the C, N and P cycles - within soils and agro-ecosystems.

JRU LISAH - Soil-Agrosystem-Hydrosystem Interaction Laboratory

LISAH studies the complex workings of cultivated landscapes, focusing on interactions between plant production and natural resources (soil, water), on multi-actor and multi-object spaces (agricultural plots and landscape infrastructures), and within a critical zone (from surface water tables to the lower atmosphere).

JRU G-EAU - Water Management, Actors and Uses

G-EAU conducts research on the trajectories of socio-hydrosystems and their regulation; it contributes to the design and evaluation of tools facilitating the implementation of innovative public policies concerning water; UMR G-EAU, attached to the MUSE I-Site, is a member of ICIREWARD, a Category 2 Center under the aegis of UNESCO on water in Montpellier.

Plant biology, biodiversity &ecology, adaptations and plant breeding

JRU IPSIM – Montpellier Plant Institute

IPSiM is a joint research unit whose work aims to elucidate the fundamental mechanisms governing the hydro-mineral nutrition of plants and their responses to abiotic environmental constraints, particularly those linked to climate change. Our aim is twofold: to gain a better understanding of the organization and functioning of living organisms, and to contribute to the development of sustainable agriculture that saves natural resources and respects the environment.

JRU LEPSE –  Laboratory for Plant Ecophysiology under Environmental Stress

LEPSE produces methods and knowledge to help maximize crop production with fewer inputs, mainly water. Ongoing climate change, with rising global temperatures and the increased likelihood of heat waves and drought episodes, has led us to broaden our field of research.

AGAP Institute - Genetic Improvement and Adaptation of Mediterranean and Tropical Plants

The AGAP Institute produces, gathers and shares knowledge, methods and technologies on the genetics, physiology and evolution of cultivated plants, as well as innovative and collective management strategies. Considering plant diversity and its multiple uses as an opportunity, AGAP aims to impact the development of more efficient agroecosystems, through multidisciplinary approaches.

JRU CEFE – Center for Functional Ecology and Evolution

CEFE is currently France's largest research center in ecology and evolutionary biology. Its mission is to conduct independent fundamental scientific research into the dynamics and evolution of biodiversity, global environmental change and sustainable development. Its main objectives are to understand the dynamics and functioning of ecological systems, and to develop scenarios for their evolution, as well as strategies for their conservation and restoration.

Plant protection, biodiversity and biocontrol

JRU PHIM – Montpellier Plant Protection Institute

PHIM studies the interactions between plants and their biotic environment, notably fungi, bacteria and phytopathogenic viruses, which have an impact on plant health, growth and productivity. Several of their researchers are based in Kenya, Côte d'Ivoire, French Guiana and Costa Rica. They also have research platforms in Burkina-Faso, Cambodia and China.

JRU CBGP - Center of Biology for Population Management

CBGP conducts research into the systematics, genetics and ecology of natural populations and animal communities, for the purposes of agriculture, public health and biodiversity. It aims to characterize the diversity of these organisms, and to understand and predict their evolution in a context of global change. The results of some of these research programs contribute to the development of decision-making tools for the management of pests (biological control) and diseases, or for the conservation of endangered species.

Sustainable food and transformations

JRU IATE – Agro-Polymer Engineering and Emerging Technologies

IATE is active in the fields of agrifood and green chemistry. It comprises seven research teams that generate knowledge on the structural and functional properties of products of plant origin during their transformation into food, biomaterials, biomolecules and bioenergy. Societal challenges, such as food safety and the transition to a biotech-based society, fuel creativity and new research activities.

JRU QUALISUD – Integrated quality of food systems

QualiSud Joint Research Unit is developing activities aimed at analyzing, understanding and optimizing the food construction process throughout the entire processing chain. Six research teams work on the processing and quality of tropical and Mediterranean agricultural products of plant origin (cereals, roots and tubers, fruits, coconut, coffee, cocoa, ....) or animal origin (fish, meat, etc.).

JRU SPO – Sciences for Oenology

SPO is one of the most important laboratories involved in oenology research worldwide. It comprises 3 research teams: Adaptation, Diversity, Ecology of Yeasts (ADEL), Alcoholic Fermentation: Yeasts, Aromas, Metabolism (FLAM), Biomolecules of Oenological Interest (BIO). Close interaction with the INRAE Pech Rouge-Narbonne Experimental Unit (UE PR) enables research projects to be developed up to pilot or pre-industrial scale, offering unique opportunities for innovation and transfer.

Data science and digital agriculture

JRU ITAP – Technologies and methods for tomorrow's agriculture

With the aim of developing equipment for more sustainable agriculture and for services linked to the environment, UMR ITAP is developing the scientific and technical foundations for the following themes: information systems and associated systems (optical measurements, decision support systems), ecotechnologies for sustainable agricultural production (including equipment for crop protection and maintenance), environmental and social assessment based on life cycle analyses.

JRU MISTEA – Mathematics, Computer Science & Statistics for the Environment and Agronomy

 MISTEA activities concern the development of mathematical, statistical and computing methods dedicated to analysis and decision support for agronomy and the environment, with particular emphasis on the temporal dimension and complexity.

Agronomy

JRU ABSys – Diversified Agrosystems

Absys research aims to improve agricultural sustainability by mobilizing plant diversity in agro-systems based on perennial plants, including agro-forestry. this research aims to support the agroecological transition in various mediterranean and tropical environments.

Animal production management / zootechnics

JRU SELMET – Mediterranean and Tropical Livestock Systems

The unit generates knowledge to support sustainable transitions in farming in the Mediterranean and tropical zones. It focuses in particular on pastoral livestock and mixed farming-livestock operations, with a view to production in increasingly hot climates, and to challenging the limits of ecological intensification.

Economics, sociology & management sciences

JRU INNOVATION – Innovation et Développement dans l‘agriculture et l‘alimentation

NNOVATION's mission is to inform public and private decision-makers by producing knowledge on innovation and development processes in agricultural and food systems. Its research focuses on innovation processes, from understanding the objectives of stakeholders wishing to innovate, to analyzing the impact of innovations on development. The Joint Research Unit also focuses on methods for supporting innovators.

JRU CEE-M – Montpellier Center for Environmental Economics

The CEE-M aims to develop a wide range of work using specific tools (market econometrics, behavioral economics, experimental economics, public economics, history of economic thought, microeconomics, social economics, game theory). The areas targeted are as follows: Risks, preferences and behavior; Public decision-making, collective action and social ethics; Competition, regulation and network industries; Environment, natural resources and biodiversity.

JRU MoISA – Montpellier interdisciplinary center on sustainable agri-food systems (social and nutritional sciences)

MoiSA brings together researchers in social sciences and nutrition from CIRAD, INRAE, IRD, Institut Agro Montpellier and Ciheam-IAMM, as a part of Muse (Montpellier University of Excellence). We study the strategies and behaviors of stakeholders in agrifood systems in Mediterranean and tropical zones, and their outcomes in terms of food security and sustainable development. The main research disciplines are social sciences (micro-economics, organizational economics, management, sociology, anthropology, political science) and public nutrition.

JRU SENS – Knowledge, Environment, Societies

SENS has the following objectives:

  • to produce knowledge on the mechanisms underlying the relationships and tensions that constitute the society-environment link;
  • to support social and institutional initiatives and innovations aimed at sustainably influencing the trajectories of ecological and social systems at different scales;
  • to consolidate reflexive approaches to our role as scientists with regard to the complexity of the phenomena studied, their ethical and political dimensions, and the necessary co-construction of knowledge and practices geared towards sustainability.

Other research units outside of institut agro

  • JRU AIDA: Agroecology and sustainable intensification of annual crops
  • JRU GECO: Ecological Functioning and Sustainable Management of Banana and Pineapple Agrosystems
  • JRU LBE: Environmental Biotechnology Laboratory
  • JRU ASTRE: Animal, Health, Territories, Risks, Ecosystems
  • JRU HORTSYS: Agroecological Functioning and Performance of Horticultural Cropping Systems 

Documents

  • Achieve your internship or PhD thesis in an Institut Agro Montpellier laboratory (469.98 KB, PDF)

    02/10/2025

  • Réaliser son stage ou sa thèse dans un laboratoire de l’Institut Agro Montpellier (469.34 KB, PDF)

    02/10/2025

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Campus de La Gaillarde
2 place Pierre Viala
Montpellier

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2 place Pierre Viala
34060 Montpellier - France
Tél. : +33 (0)4 99 61 22 00 Tél. : +33 (0)4 99 61 22 00
Fax : +33 (0)4 99 61 29 00
contact@supagro.fr

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