A world-class plant biological resources centre gets off the ground

At the Lavalette campus in Montpellier, the ARCAD Resource Center for Crop Conservation, Adaptation and Diversity is entering its final construction phase. Established in 2009 through a partnership between several research teams, the center brings together seed collections, technical platforms, and research teams in one location, with the aim of becoming the reference center for Mediterranean and tropical plant biological resources. Initiated by the Region and supported by the European Union, the State, Montpellier Mediterranee Metropole, and the Agropolis Foundation, the ARCAD project relies on several scientific partners (INRA, CIRAD, Montpellier SupAgro, IRD) to build one of the first banks in the world for cultivated plant genetic resources, from seed to DNA. Equipped with the latest cutting-edge technologies in plant genetics and genomics, its mission is the conservation and study of plant biodiversity of cultivated species and their adaptability. It will bring together 90 researchers and genetic resource managers.

The ARCAD project is made up of three subsets: a scientific project, a real estate project, and scientific equipment. Initially focused on scientific projects that strongly reinforced team cohesion, it then continued with an equipment component and is now addressing its real estate component. The building, in the shape of an H, is built around the seed conservation platform (500 m²), with a unique transtocker robot in Europe at the heart of the system. The administrative platform and laboratories are located around it. This building is expected to be operational in the first half of 2019.