CNRS Physics actively participates in the governance bodies of 4 research infrastructures (IR) and 6 very large research infrastructures (IR*). The organization at the European scale strengthens the dynamics of exchanges and the quality of instrumental developments for physics research.
According to the French National Strategy for Research Infrastructures, "A research infrastructure is characterized by essential, unique, facilities, resources, or services of national, or even European or international, scale, whose purpose is to conduct and support excellence in research. It includes scientific equipment, resources such as collections, archives, and scientific data, digital services and infrastructures, and any other essential tool to support top-level research and innovation."
Like other CNRS institutes, CNRS Physics participates in the governing bodies (board of directors or steering committee) of the research infrastructures for which it serves as the reference institution. This involvement includes defining their strategy in consultation with their management and other stakeholders, as applicable. CNRS Physics’s role is to ensure that French users of these IR and IR* infrastructures have access to state-of-the-art facilities and that these infrastructures remain at the highest international level.
The IR*, which replace the former "Très Grandes Infrastructures de Recherche" (TGIR), fall under national policy (including budgetary aspects). However, their scientific responsibility remains with the research operators. CNRS Physics participates in the governing bodies of 6 IR*.
APOLLON is a Very Large Research Infrastructure (IR)* under the supervision of the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) and École polytechnique. Designed to achieve exceptional multi-petawatt laser power, this IR* produces particle beams and radiation with unique parameters. To achieve such results, APOLLON is equipped with state-of-the-art experimental halls and instrumentation technologies, which began commissioning in 2019 and opened to users in 2020.
Localisation : Palaiseau
En cours de construction
The European Spallation Source (ESS) is a consortium for a European Research Infrastructure Consortium (ERIC). It is a multidisciplinary research center based on the world's most powerful neutron source. Its ambition is to build and operate a neutron source of exceptional brightness, powered by a 2 MW proton accelerator, to enable major scientific advancements in materials research, energy, health, and the environment, and to address some of the most pressing societal challenges of our time.
Localisation : Lund (Sweden)
ESRF-EBS – European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF), which completed its upgrade in 2020 to become an "Extremely Brilliant Source" (EBS), produces X-ray beams 10,000 trillion times brighter than medical X-rays. These X-rays, with exceptional properties, are generated by high-energy electrons (6 GeV) circulating in an 844-meter circumference accelerator. Each year, over 7,000 researchers come to Grenoble to conduct experiments on the 46 beamlines of the ESRF, equipped with cutting-edge instrumentation.
Localisation : Grenoble
European XFEL generates ultra-short X-ray pulses (on the order of femtoseconds), with instantaneous brightness a billion times greater than the best X-ray sources, including synchrotrons.
Thanks to these ultra-short X-ray pulses, scientists can map the atomic structure of proteins, capture 3D images of the nanoworld, film chemical reactions, and study processes under extreme temperature or pressure conditions—such as those deep inside planets—all with femtosecond temporal resolution.
Localisation : Hambourg (Germany)
The Institut Laue-Langevin (ILL) is an international research center at the forefront of neutron science and technology. A world leader in its field, the ILL provides scientists with extremely bright neutron beams, powering more than 40 state-of-the-art instruments, recently modernized through the ENDURANCE program. As a service institute, the ILL makes its facilities and expertise available to researchers worldwide.
Each year, around 1,400 scientists from over 40 countries come to the ILL to conduct some 1,000 experiments, probing the structure and dynamics of matter at the atomic scale and advancing knowledge in materials science, magnetism, nuclear physics, and life sciences.
Localisation : Grenoble
The French synchrotron radiation facility SOLEIL provides the national and international scientific community with instruments that use light of exceptional intensity and stability. SOLEIL is used annually by nearly 3,000 scientists, of whom 65% come from French laboratories and 33% from European laboratories.
This impressive infrastructure accelerates electrons to an energy of 2.75 GeV—slightly lower than at the ESRF—to produce lower-energy radiation, which complements that of the ESRF. With 29 beamlines arranged around the storage ring, this radiation enables scientists to conduct research in physics, biology, chemistry, astrophysics, environmental science, and Earth sciences.
Localisation : Palaiseau
The research teams of CNRS Physics are also key contributors and users of high-performance computing on machines located at the IDRIS in Orsay or within regional centers (mesocenters) in Grenoble, Toulouse, and Lyon.
Among research infrastructures, the IR category includes infrastructures whose scientific strategy and budgetary oversight are the responsibility of the research operators. CNRS Physics manages 4 of these research infrastructures on behalf of the CNRS.
EMIR&A is the French network of accelerators dedicated to the study of material and molecular irradiation and/or their analysis using ion beams. It brings together 15 ion and electron accelerators, coupled with unique in-situ instruments, installed across 11 platforms and 6 sites.
The facilities within EMIR&A are complementary in terms of the accelerated particles, available energies, and associated instrumentation.
Localisation : Caen, Orléans, Orsay, Palaiseau, Paris, Saclay
The National High Magnetic Field Laboratory (LNCMI) is a research infrastructure that welcomes all researchers requiring high magnetic fields and specialized experiments. It operates across two sites. Continuous magnetic fields, up to 42 T, are generated in Grenoble (LNCMI-G). Pulsed magnetic fields, which can exceed 100 T under certain conditions, are produced in Toulouse (LNCMI-T).
Localisation : Grenoble et Toulouse
METSA is a national network of 9 regional platforms that provides the French and international scientific community with access to 13 Transmission Electron Microscopes (TEM) and 3 atom probe tomography devices. It operates across four major activity axes: networking, hosting, training, and research (both scientific and instrumental).
Localisation : National network
The REFIMEVE infrastructure is a national research infrastructure managed by the Laboratoire de Physique des Lasers (LPL) and the Laboratoire Temps Espace (LTE), with support from RENATER. It enables the degradation-free transmission of ultra-stable frequency and time signals, developed by the LTE, to over 30 laboratories and infrastructures with precision beyond 10-18. The REFIMEVE network currently spans 9,000 km across the French territory.
Localisation : Réseau national
Sylvain Ravy
"Research Infrastructures" Deputy Scientific Director
Denis Morineau
"Large scientific instruments" Scientific Representatives
