The Joint Research Department “Tree-Microorganism Interactions” (IAM), associating INRAE and Université de Lorraine, was founded in January 2001 by merging the INRA Forest Microbiology Laboratory and the Université Henri Poincaré (Nancy I) Laboratory of Forest Biology. In January 2005, the INRA Laboratory of Forest Pathology joined the IAM Department. Since the merger in 2020 of INRA (the National Institute for Agricultural Research) and IRSTEA (the National Research Institute of Science and Technology for the Environment and Agriculture), the IAM Department is now a Joint Departement between INRAE (National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment) and Université de Lorraine.

The IAM Department is located on two sites located about 20 kilometers apart:

• At the Faculty of Sciences and Technology of Université de Lorraine in Vandoeuvre-lès-Nancy

• At the INRAE Grand Est Nancy campus in Champenoux

IAM’s functional structure organizes research into four teams; three are located in Champenoux while the fourth is situated in Vandoeuvre-lès-Nancy.

As of June 30th 2024, the IAM Department is comprised of 44 permanent staff members and of 31 non-permanent members including 7 post-doctoral positions, 16 PhD students and 6 technical non-permanent positions. In addition, around 10 Master students (M1 and M2) are welcomed per year into the unit. The students stay within the research teams during their internships of two months for the 1^st year master students and for at least 5 months for the 2^nd year students. During the last four years, we had the pleasure to host more than 50 international visiting researchers (PhD students, postdoctoral fellows, scientific sabbatical leaves) and have been involved in the organization of around 40 international conferences and/or scientific workshops.