Philippe Baptiste, Minister for Research, visits BRGM in Orléans to inaugurate the new laboratories

Inauguration des nouveaux bâtiments de laboratoires du BRGM à Orléans le 10 juillet 2026.

Major societal, environmental and sovereignty challenges

BRGM inaugurated its new laboratory buildings in Orléans on 10 July 2026, in the presence of Philippe Baptiste, Minister for Research.

This visit from our main supervisory ministry acknowledges that BRGM, the French geological survey, is working on key national issues.

In particular, the following were presented to the Minister in the géothèque: the strategic National Geoscientific Repository project, which aims to create a dynamic numerical representation of the French subsurface, and BRGM’s work to secure France’s supply of mineral resources.

This was followed by an explanation of pollution control engineering on the Prime platform.

You are working on issues that are crucial for France’s strategic autonomy. BRGM, the French geological survey, plays a unique and vital role in scientific research and expert appraisal in France, on groundwater bodies, subsurface risks, geothermal energy, mineral resources and geological knowledge in general. The high standard of your research must be maintained.

Philippe Baptiste, Minister for Higher Education, Research and Space

BRGM’s new laboratories offer more sophisticated analytical and experimental capabilities

During his visit, Philippe Baptiste officially opened the new laboratories, which will modernise and enhance the BRGM’s analytical and experimental resources. BRGM had not built a building of this kind since the 1980s. The new facility has been eco-designed and is heated and cooled with geothermal energy.

Inauguration of BRGM’s new laboratory buildings in Orléans on 10 July 2026

Located next to the experimental platforms, these new laboratories form a complex that is quite unique in Europe, with active synergy between the laboratory scale and the platforms. The facilities are specifically designed to complement those of our partners, at the university’s and the CNRS’s sites in Orléans.

During the Minister’s visit to the laboratories, details were provided on the research being carried out into water quality and emerging pollutants (PFASs), as well as research into chlordecone in the French West Indies.

During his visit, Philippe Baptiste praised “the work of the BRGM teams, whose expertise is recognised far beyond our borders, as well as their commitment to promoting scientific literacy amongst the general public”.