PURPAN structures its research activities around five departments and eight shared research platforms which have benefited from funding, notably from the Occitanie Region.
Based on these standout tools, the school pursues diverse multidisciplinary research which has led it to, among other things, define selection schemes adapted to the local production of high value-added stevia varieties (with L’Epi Salvagnacois and PepsiCo), develop alternatives to ozone-based phytosanitary products for crop protection and post-harvest treatment of fruit and vegetables (with BlueWhale, Compagnie fruitière, Absoger, etc.), improve animal production systems by focusing on microbial ecosystems and alternative additives (with Ajinomoto and Lallemand), study the feminization of the Occitan wine industry, and develop a local lactic starter culture for the Rocamadour PDO (with Les Fermiers du Rocamadour and Ferme des Champs-Bons).
This structuring enables the school to respond to the economic, societal, climatic and energy challenges facing the agricultural and agri-food sectors, and to support the agricultural world in its sociological (feminization, transmission, etc.), digital (robotization, remote sensing, etc.) and agroecological transitions.
The school can also assist companies with research funding schemes (research tax credits (CIR), industrial agreements for training through research (CIFRE)).
Summary
Plant Sciences and Agronomy Department
In the context of adapting to climate change, the department’s mission is to use agro-physiological approaches to support agroecological transition
Animal Science and Livestock Systems Department
The department’s research focuses on identifying agroecological levers for more sustainable livestock production, to the benefit of animal health and welfare
Agri-food and Nutrition Sciences Department
This department focuses on characterizing food products and assessing their quality and health benefits.
The aim is to provide knowledge, analyses, solutions and skills to characterize and develop agricultural raw materials, their finished products and their molecules of interest for healthy, high-quality, sustainable and fair food
Environmental and Digital Sciences Department
One of the department’s ambitions is to produce knowledge and tools to take biodiversity into account in public policy, forest management and company CSR policies.
Human, Economic and Social Sciences Department
The department is a multidisciplinary team made up of social science research professors from a range of disciplines (agro-economics, economics, management, geography, marketing and sociology) with a conventional university background and/or experience in the corporate world.
The challenge of describing, understanding and supporting the changes taking place in the agricultural and agri-food sectors is at the heart of all their work.
