With Hydropolis, the water sciences community comes together
Drought, global warming, irrigation, contamination… The issue of water resources is a frequent topic in the media. In Montpellier, the new Hydropolis science park, dedicated to water, embodies the organized coming together of the water sciences community to pool the resources and expertise needed to address these challenges.
The inauguration of Hydropolis took place on March 30 amid a light, symbolic rain. Built on the campus of the Faculty of Pharmacy, the three-story building, which spans 3,130 square meters, required an investment of 10 million euros, funded by the European Regional Development Fund, the Occitanie Region, the University of Montpellier, the CNRS, and the IRD. Located in a prime spot in the heart of Montpellier, the Hydropolis building surrounds a tree-lined garden, offering a bucolic retreat for visitors and serving as a botanical resource for students from the Faculty of Pharmacy, whom one often encounters there during practical lab sessions.
This science park dedicated to water is unique in France: “At present, there are no facilities of this kind specifically dedicated to water,” explains Éric Servat, director of the UNESCO-ICIREWARD International Center. This new water sciences campus brings together the research laboratories dedicated to water—namely HydroSciences Montpellier and G-EAU (as part of the upcoming Hydropolis initiative at the INRAE campus in Lavalette)— as well as the UNESCO-ICIREWARD International Center and the Montpellier Environmental Research Observatory (OREME) and its state-of-the-art analytical geochemistry platform.
Dual purpose
While the Hydropolis building already houses research teams focused on water resources, contaminants, and health—particularly the chemical and microbiological characterization of water resources—a second building is set to be constructed at the Lavalette site, with a greater emphasis on water uses, particularly in agriculture. The site will not only host social scientists working on these issues but will also draw on existing infrastructure dedicated to agricultural experiments.
“In total, there are 400 scientists who make up Montpellier’s water research community,”notes the director of the UNESCO-ICIREWARD International Center, which initiated this innovative project,“which has always been supported by the University of Montpellier.” A project with a dual objective:“Hydropolis embodies and symbolizes the coming together of the water sciences community in Montpellier, but this project also aims to bring research teams and the business world closer together.” A collaboration that had previously been complicated by the geographical dispersion of the various research groups in the field of water.
Facilitate reconciliation
“The new Hydropolis building was conceived and designed to foster this collaboration through spaces specifically dedicated to hosting businesses and facilitating interactions with the business community.” Hydropolis will thus strengthen cooperation between industry and research teams to facilitate technology transfer, particularly in areas related to water quality and the reuse of treated wastewater.
The building will house, among other things, the headquarters of the Aqua-Valley Competitiveness Cluster, which counts nearly 250 companies among its members. To accommodate them, the building will feature dedicated offices as well as large, bright workspaces designed to host companies working on collaborative R&D projects and to facilitate the coming together of all stakeholders in the water sector.“The goal is to solidify Montpellier’s position in the broader field of water—not just in an academic sense,” emphasizes Eric Servat, who also highlights the importance of water issues in the Metropolis’s projects.
An important signal
“In this regard, Aqua-Valley’s arrival at our facilities is highly symbolic; it underscores our commitment here in Montpellier to addressing water issues on every level: scientific, economic, as well as social and societal.”For Éric Servat, the creation of Hydropolis is an important signal demonstrating that, in Montpellier, the water sciences community is organizing its scientific and technical resources to be able to respond to all types of requests.
Hydropolis allows Montpellier’s water community to be“more visible and more attractive,” emphasizes Éric Servat, and embodies the significance it has gained in recent years. This is a research topic that is more relevant than ever, and the scientific community gathered within Hydropolis offers “the ability to bring objective data to the debate in order to make the best possible decisions,” insists Éric Servat.