On 20 June 2024, Catherine Lagneau, BRGM Chair and CEO, and Serge Grouard, Mayor of Orléans and Chairman of the Metropolitan Council, symbolically laid the foundation stone for the new laboratory building. It was in fact a straw brick, as the outer structure of this environmentally-friendly building will be made of wood with straw insulation.
© BRGM
On 20 June 2024, at BRGM's scientific centre in Orléans, the foundation stone for the new building housing the laboratories of the French geological survey was laid, in the presence of around forty guests including BRGM directors, the Mayor of Orléans and Chair of the Metropolitan Council, Serge Grouard, and a large number of employees.
Centralizing BRGM's analysis laboratories and bringing them closer to its experimental platforms
BRGM's current laboratories are over fifty years old. Since their founding, environmental issues and scientific methods have changed considerably. We now need to adapt our scientific facilities to this new context.
The future building, on which construction began a few months ago, is intended to house all BRGM's analysis laboratories, as well as the corresponding service and logistical activities.
Located as close as possible to BRGM's technology platforms (PRIME platform on soil and water decontamination, PLAT'INN for the processing of minerals and treatment of waste, etc.), it will facilitate continuity between analysis laboratories and experimental facilities.
We don't do science today the way we did fifty years ago, so we really need new laboratory spaces that are up to the job. The aim is to improve efficiency. Bringing the teams together in the same building will also encourage creativity and hence research.
Facilitating the future development of scientific equipment
The building will have a scalable configuration capable of integrating new equipment, innovative experiments and analytical developments in order to meet future scientific needs and in particular new challenges, such as emerging pollutants.
The new BRGM laboratory building, which will be heated and cooled by a geothermal doublet, will have a surface area of 4,700 m2 of which 1,800 m2 will be dedicated to laboratory activities. It is due to be inaugurated in the autumn of 2025.
© BRGM
