Situated in the south of France in the
Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, the BIAM is a joint research center between the
Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA), the
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) and
Aix-Marseille Université. The BIAM brings together about 100 permanent collaborators, with 50 PhD, post-doctoral and undergraduate students, on two campuses, the CEA Cadarache center and the Luminy campus of
Aix-Marseille Université.
The BIAM proposes an ambitious strategic and scientific project "Green solutions for tomorrow" that concentrates excellent fundamental, technological research and innovation by bringing together leading research teams and economic partners (http://biam.cea.fr/drf/biam/english).
The project is organised around 2 fundamental research themes "energy bioconversion" and "the response and adaptation of living organisms to environmental constraints" that together address 4 major challenges:
- Harnessing microbial biodiversity for green chemistry, remediation and biotechnology;
- Overcoming the nutritional limits of plants and algae through sustainable approaches;
- Optimising photosynthesis for making it more robust, efficient and sustainable;
- Understanding and taking advantage of adaptation mechanisms and metabolism of microalgae, plants and bacteria to environmental constraints.
As of the summer of 2020, this ambitious scientific project will be housed in a new 8,000 m² building on the Cadarache campus. The building is situated in the "Cité des énergies" sector of Cadarache, dedicated to research and innovation in the alternative energy field. One wing of the building is dedicated to fundamental research and will bring together teams in an optimized work environment where equipment will be shared to promote collaboration and interdisciplinarity. The second wing is dedicated to research and development, and will centralize various platforms and areas for developing collaborations with industrial partners, product suppliers, equipment and/or services, in order to promote the technological maturation of projects and connect scientific discoveries to applications. On the Luminy university site, 1,000 m2 of renovated surface will be operational in early 2021. Through this functional and dynamic environment, our goal is to foster the emergence of talented scientists for the future and to promote our increasing success in the fields of energy bioconversion, life sciences and adaptation to environmental constraints, bioengineering, and biotechnology for energy and the environment.