Research is central to the missions of AgroParisTech

The research carried out at AgroParisTech falls into four particularly important sectors for the economy, the environment, health, and society as a whole. 

• Agricultural and forestry production,

• Food and non-food processing,

• Sustainable Management of Natural Resources and the Environment,

• Human health.

AgroParisTech conducts fundamental and applied research projects in collaboration with public and private partners. As a player in targeted and theme-based research, the institution develops multidisciplinary work often connected to engineering. This work makes it possible to understand systems in their entirety and to design new systems, support the transition from one system to another, and coordinate them. AgroParisTech thus seeks to produce results and innovations in response to the issues affecting its fields of research. The institution has, moreover, developed the ability to address complex problems at the interface between several fields, such as sustainable food and the bioeconomy, for example.

The scientific strategy of AgroParisTech aims, first and foremost, to reinforce the quality of the research from an academic and ethical point of view. Research activities, and the knowledge and advances they produce, also feed into the courses taught at the institution. In return, teaching activities provide the opportunity for new needs and research topics to emerge. AgroParisTech ensures, moreover, the visibility and recognition of the fruits of its research, through a well-established open science policy and actions to promote innovation and dialogue btween science and society. 

AgroParisTech works with institutions that share its scientific priorities. As of 2021, AgroParisTech co-supervised 23 joint research units (UMR) alongside, in particular, INRAE, the CIRAD, the IRD, the CNRS and Universities, supervising a research and development unit. 

90% of its senior scientific staff conduct research in a unit supervised by AgroParisTech. 

The institution is involved in: 

• 8 LabEx

  • AGRO
  • ARBRE - Recherches Avancées sur la Biologie de l’Arbre et les Ecosystèmes Forestiers
  • CEBA - Centre d’Étude de la Biodiversité Amazonienne
  • DIGICOSME
  • DRIHHM - Dispositif de Recherche Interdisciplinaire sur les Interactions Hommes-Milieux
  • ENTREPRENDRE
  • LMH -Labex mathématique Hadamard
  • SPS - Sciences des plantes de Saclay

• 3 Convergence institutes,

  • Cland - Climate change and land-management systems

  • DataIA

  • Institut Convergences Agriculture Numérique | #DigitAg Digital Agriculture Convergence Lab

• 1 Equipex,

• 1 university school of research (EUR),

• 3 Carnot institutes,

  • 3BCAR, Bioénergies, Biomolécules et Biomatériaux du Carbone Renouvelable
  • Plant2Pro
  • Qualiment, Qualité nutritionnelle et sensorielle des aliments

• Several partnership chairs.

As a melting pot for research, teaching and public-private partnerships, AgroParisTech has for several years been promoting the implementation of “third places”; different forms of spaces in which new interactions are forged, enriching the teaching, research and innovation produced. It is often at the crossroads of profiles, backgrounds and skills, when students, researchers, entrepreneurs, investors and business come together, that innovation emerges and develops. 

• the Food’InnLab, in Palaiseau, dedicated to innovation in the agrifood sector and Food Tech open to start-ups and small- and medium-sized enterprises. 

• the Farm’InnLab, in Grignon, on an experimental farm, demonstrating agricultural innovations on a large scale. 

• the Forest’InnLab, in Nancy, a regional innovation laboratory in the field of forestry, currently in the process of being set up. 

• 5 teaching and research departments 

• 10 centres 

• 21 joint research units (UMR), 

• 1 research and development unit (URD) 

• 250 senior scientific staff, faculty members and research engineers 

• 275 PhD students in 2020-2021 

• ± 280 scientific articles published each year, 

• 62% of articles published between 2017 and 2020 available on an open access basis via HAL-AgroParisTech 

• 25 patents resulting from research carried out by units supervised by AgroParisTech filed between 2012 and 2020, 15 of which are directly managed by AgroParisTech (2 in 2020) 

• Between 50 and 100 research contracts signed each year both with private partners and within the framework of public funding 

• €7.5 million in contractual revenue in 2020, 40% of which in connection with projects undertaken with private partners 

• More than 100 businesses created since 2015, including 18 in 2020 

• 35 start-ups supported by the Food’InnLab alone since 2017 

• 12 start-ups or businesses supported by the Farm’InnLab (Grignon) since 2017