An innovative blueprint for historical heritage and collections

[Article] - Published on September 4, 2025 in Heritage

Although the historical heritage of the University of Montpellier is recognized for its exceptional character, it remains largely unknown to the academic community and the general public. To make it more accessible to all, restore it, and promote it, UM has just adopted a master plan for heritage and collections.

From the historic medical building to the Jardin des Plantes and its grounds, via the Institute of Botany and the Faculty of Law, to the marine station in Sète, the University of Montpellier boasts a remarkable real estate heritage. This historical heritage extends beyond buildings to include exceptional collections, remarkable both for their quality and diversity:  nearly 13,000 anatomical specimens, 6 million herbarium plates, 6,000 drawings and prints at the Atger Museum, not to mention millions of fossils, zoological and geological specimens, physics and astronomy objects, apothecary jars and pharmaceutical objects, educational materials, and documentary heritage.

 All in all, it is an invaluable historical heritage that stands proudly in the city or lies hidden on shelves. To better protect, promote, and make it accessible, the University of Montpellier has adopted its very first master plan for historical heritage and collections, which was approved by the board of directors on July 15, 2025. This strategic and operational document sets out the guidelines and roadmap for actions relating to historical heritage to be implemented in line with the institution's strategy.

Centuries-old heritage

And in Montpellier more than anywhere else, this master plan is of major importance."You don't govern a historic university founded 800 years ago with centuries of heritage in the same way as a university founded in^{the 21st} century,"emphasizes Gérald Chanques, UM Vice President for Historical Heritage, who believes that one-off initiatives are not enough to showcase these scientific and educational treasures. That is why the 2021-2026 multi-year contract has given impetus to this innovative plan to develop a comprehensive vision for promoting the university's historical real estate and movable heritage.

"We needed a long-term plan that would unite the teaching and research community, students, administration, various central services, and departments, while also providing clarity for funders such as the state, the metropolitan area, and the region," explains Gérald Chanques. This ambitious project began with a crucial phase: an assessment of the existing situation, which was carried out in 2023 and 2024 with the full involvement of the Department of Scientific Culture and Historical Heritage and its deputy vice presidents, Thierry Lavabre-Bertrand, then Gérald Chanques and Isabelle Parrot, as well as the real estate heritage department, Yves Correc and Maxime Pouget, and its vice president, Bernard Maurin, who worked on this plan coordinated by a project manager, Céline Dumas at the DCSPH, headed by Caroline Ducoureau. This work was carried out in collaboration with the SCD, the DCOM, the DVC (art & culture department), the SCUIO-IP, the DAGI, the DSIN, and the DLO.

"This project provided an opportunity to compile as comprehensive an inventory as possible, a painstaking task that requires the mobilization of significant human resources," explains the vice president. From the corridors of the Institute of Botany to the basements of the Triolet campus buildings, the collections are spread across almost all of the institution's sites, which can be a disadvantage when it comes to optimizing their management.

Essential digitization

Once the inventory has been completed, the question of digitization arises, whichis "essential for preserving resources but also for making them accessible to as many people as possible, including Professors, researchers, and the general public." While a large part of the UM's documentary heritage collections have been digitized, only 35% of its movable heritage has been digitized to date, including some 1.4 million herbarium sheets digitized as part of the e-Recolnat project. Many specimens from the natural history collections will soon be added to this as part of the E-col+ project, recently launched with the aim of producing high-resolution 3D anatomical data and making it available to everyone. " To support this growing volume of data, the UM has acquired collection management software that will centralize all of its heritage," explains Gérald Chanques.

All these collections are not only of heritage interest. "They were designed from the outset as tools for teaching and research," recalls the vice president. They still fulfill this role today, as exemplified by the mineralogy collections used in the training of geoscience students, and the zoology and paleontology collections at Triolet. And to strengthen this close link between heritage, research, and education, the Vice President for Historical Heritage emphasizes the importance of better informing Professors, researchers, and students about the existence of these collections and the diversity of their uses.

Moreover, the academic community is not the only target audience for this increased visibility; this unique heritage must be made accessible to all audiences, including schoolchildren. To achieve this, the master plan is developing a unique project to promote the collections: ForUM.

Museum tour

This ambitious project defines a new scope for presenting university collections, centered around four iconic sites whose renovation is being financed by ongoing state-region planning contracts: the Institute of Botany, the Jardin des Plantes, the Jardin des Plantes administration building, and the historic Faculty of Medicine building. Located in the heart of the city, ForUM aims to be a true crossroads of knowledge, at the intersection of science, medicine, pharmacy, botany, and the environment, close to the Faculty of Law and therefore at the heart of Montpellier's university history, and in close proximity to other campuses served by three intersecting tram lines by the end of the year. This urban heritage coverage, open to the city, will enable perfect coordination in terms of mediation with the Science with and for Society label obtained in 2024 by the UM for the "UM VIA des Sciences " project, co-developed with the Montpellier Metropolis.

ForUM will offer visitors a genuine journey through interconnected museum spaces, starting with a large room measuring over 200 m² at the Institute of Botany, a veritable showcase for the University's collections. Visitors will then continue their discovery of the heritage by heading to the various ForUM sites in the immediate vicinity, or by taking the tram to the University's other sites to better discover the exceptional heritage of the UM,"emphasizes Gérald Chanques, who also points out the importance of this project in "giving financiers a clearer picture of this unique heritage."

A large-scale project that will restore visibility to this ever-evolving heritage. "A witness to a community's past, it has been built up over the centuries, but it is also being enriched and constructed in real time. This university heritage should not be preserved in formaldehyde; it is a living heritage that wecertainly want to protect, but also to continue to nurture and develop for the current university generation."

Consult the master plan for historical heritage and collections

Keywords: Heritage, University