VivAgriLab: bringing agriculture and research into contact in the southwest Paris region

"Connecting city and life" is the aim of an initiative launched in 2021 in the southwest Paris region. Called VivAgriLab, the project extends from the Hurepoix plateau to the plain of Versailles, including the Saclay plateau. This vast territory, comprising 79 municipalities, is home to around 20,000 hectares of agricultural land, as well as 25% of France's agricultural research. What if these two worlds could work together to meet the challenges of climate change, biodiversity, ecology and the food transition? The VivAgriLab was the result of this shared desire.

"There was previously little in the way of interaction between research, farmers, local authorities and local players on the Saclay plateau," recalls Paul Leadley, professor of Ecology and lecturer at the Ecology, Systematics and Evolution laboratory (ESE - Univ. Paris-Saclay/CNRS/AgroParisTech) and coordinator of the C-BASC interdisciplinary project (Center for Interdisciplinary Studies on Biodiversity, Agroecology, Society and Climate) at Université Paris-Saclay. C-BASC co-hosts the VivAgriLab with the Terre & Cité association, which has been working since 2001 to preserve and promote the agricultural, natural and historical heritage of the Saclay plateau. "In 2013, together with Terre & Cité, we had the idea of organising the first interaction between farmers and researchers to build research projects together," explains Paul Leadley. The foundations were laid for a living lab, providing a forum for dialogue between agriculture and research. 

Three years later, in 2016, the experience was repeated with interactions on a larger scale: the Saclay workshops. "These workshops were fundamental for the emergence of VivAgriLab," explains Sophie Pradié, coordinator at Terre & Cité. "More than 50 local actors participated, working on territorial ecology." And that gave rise to the first study projects. "Among other things, they worked on the concept of territorial metabolism. The aim was to analyse incoming and outgoing flows of carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus and water on the Saclay plateau." The workshops highlighted the need to work on loop-flows around the region, but also to organise as a group to bring this about.
 

A first project to improve the sustainability of the territory

VivAgriLab finally took shape in 2021, extending its territory beyond the Saclay plateau thanks to 11 partners, including Université Paris-Saclay, the associations of the agri-urban territories of the Triangle Vert and the plain of Versailles, the Chamber of Agriculture of the Île-de-France region, and the Établissement Public d'Aménagement (Public Development Agency - EPA) Paris-Saclay. With its structure in place, the initiative managed to raise its first funds to support the project, Flux Local, designed to improve the sustainability of the territory, by promoting the production and consumption of local food and the use of locally produced organic waste to enrich the soil. 

To date, this living lab, for which a partnership agreement was signed in 2024, has almost 30 applied research projects in total, exploring various topics, including valorising urine as agricultural fertilizer. Indeed, human urine contains large quantities of nitrogen, which is essential for plant growth. Since 2021, work has been ongoing to study how to recover this waste, use it as fertilizer and ascertain the effects on agricultural production. Thanks to the collaboration with farmers, trials are being conducted on experimental plots of wheat and corn on two farms, resulting in "yields equivalent to those obtained with synthetic fertilizers," confirms Sophie Pradié. 

At the same time, the EPA Paris-Saclay is working on systems for collecting urine. Ultimately, these studies could lead to a complete urine valorisation sector being set up. "One of the objectives of the EPA Paris-Saclay is to ensure that the entire Corbeville district [on the Saclay plateau] has structures in place to collect urine at source," explains the coordinator. These would be used to recover up to 10,000 m3 of urine per year. 
 

An annual day on the theme of water

On 16 January 2025, VivAgriLab organised its annual water day. "With the substantial rainfall in 2024 and the floods that struck in October, there was strong demand to work on the theme of the evolution of water resources in agriculture in the face of climate change," explains Sophie Pradié. Whether it's drought or excess water, what reflections and actions need to be taken at local level? To answer this question, over 150 people attended the event, along with some 30 speakers, as well as farmers including Nicolas Revol from the Gisy farm in Bièvres. 

"Over 1,000 millimetres of rain fell this year, compared with the usual 500 or so. Many of our plots were flooded and we lost 30% of our vegetables," confirmed the market gardener at the first round-table. Local actors were also on hand to give their feedback on this unusual year, including the Syndicat Intercommunal pour l'Assainissement de la Vallée de la Bièvre (Vallée de la Bièvre Wastewater Treatment Authority - SIAVB). Another round-table discussion then gave researchers the opportunity to present their work on adapting ecosystems to changes in agricultural water resources. 

Finally, the afternoon was dedicated to 8 co-construction workshops on various topics, from crop diversification to a hedge planting project and recycling organic matter in soils. "This day is highly representative of the way VivAgriLab works. With this principle of co-construction, we want to get the discussions underway. The aim of our meetings is not to solve the problem straight away, but to see who can do what, and how we can then work together on these issues," concludes Paul Leadley.
 

• Learn more about VivAgriLab on the official website : https://livinglab.terreetcite.org/