History of LEPSE

LEPSE: 30 Years of Ecophysiology Research Supporting Agricultural Adaptation

Over the past 33 years, more than 600 people have passed through LEPSE. The laboratory has trained more than 60 PhD graduates, who now work at INRAE, Institut Agro, CIRAD, CNRS, in private-sector research organizations, or in international institutions, notably in Germany, Switzerland, China, Argentina, and Australia.

Since its creation in 1993, LEPSE has built its reputation around two ambitions: to better understand how plants function within their environment and to develop tools for designing the agriculture of tomorrow. Its development has been marked by the creation of innovative plant phenotyping platforms and by its involvement in major research infrastructures, including PHENOME-EMPHASIS at the national level, EMPHASIS at the European level, and AgMIP at the international level.

Thanks to its experimental platforms, LEPSE is now recognized as one of the leading players in high-throughput plant phenotyping.

Beyond these infrastructures, LEPSE research teams have made major contributions to advances in plant ecophysiology. Their work has improved our understanding of how plants respond to environmental variations—including drought, temperature, radiation, and resource availability—from the scale of individual organs to that of the whole plant canopy.

The laboratory has also played a pioneering role in the development of mechanistic models integrating plant architecture, physiological functioning, and environmental conditions. These models are now used to analyze crop functioning, predict crop performance under climate change, and support the design of more resilient crop varieties and agricultural systems.

LEPSE in 10 Milestones: