CEREEP – ECOTRON IDFENS CNRS UAR 3194

The unit is integrated into the ENS Department of Biology, which coordinates the research and teaching activities in the Life Sciences of the Ecole normale and which includes the Biology Institute (UMR 8197, IBENS). At the Ecole normale, we participate to the "PSL Environnement" program of Paris Sciences Lettres university, which aims to create an interdisciplinary research community in environmental sciences. At the national level, the centre is a member of the CNRS ReNSEE network (National Network of Experimental Ecology Stations) and of the CNRS Ecotrons Research Infrastructure in partnership with the Ecotron of Montpellier. The experimental devices of PLANAQUA and Ecotron IleDeFrance place us at the heart of the European ESFRI AnaEE (Analysis and Experimentation on Ecosystems) infrastructure. We actively participated since 2012 in the French component of this infrastructure, called AnaEE France and coordinated by CNRS and INRA. At the international level, the CNRS and the ENS have signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the University of Arizona in Tucson for our centre and IBENS as part of some collaborative research projects between Ecotron IleDeFrance and the Biosphere 2 research facility. Our PLANAQUA platforms are partners since 2017 of the European AQUACOSM network, followed by AQUACOSM plus since 2020, coordinated by the Leibniz-Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries in Berlin, Germany (ESFRI H2020 Integrated Infrastructure Initiative). This network dedicated to aquatic and continental aquatic mesocosms aims to develop collaborative research and development programs across environmental gradients in Europe and to promote transnational access to a network of mesocosms’ platforms.