Dear Colleagues,

The European 7th Framework Program is funding a two-year design study on the development of distributed infrastructures for the Analysis and Experimentation on Ecosystems (ANAEE, Dr. Gilles Lemaire, coordinator), and one of the main goals of the ANAEE design study is to foster Research & Development on ecotron-type instruments and to promote their use in a long term, internationally concerted research enterprise.

Dr. Jacques Roy and Prof. Régis Ferrière are specifically in charge of developing scientific and technological ideas around containment infrastructures of the type of ecotrons and we would like to invite you to participate in a Working Group meant to identify the ground-breaking research directions that such infrastructures should serve and how to tackle the unprecedented scientific and technological challenges involved.

The model for such infrastructures is provided by a few “ecotrons” currently operated by, for example, Imperial College (London), Desert Research Institute in Reno, CNRS Montpellier and CNRS/Ecole Normale Superieure in Paris. An ecotron is a cluster of highly contained growth chambers for the manipulation and real-time measurement of complex ecological processes under controlled and replicated conditions. Ecotron-based experimental programs are interfaced tightly with computational modeling, biological molecular analysis, and large-scale monitoring of natural systems.

Ecotrons are conceived as unique tools to break scientific frontiers in ecological sciences and to provide the means for integrated experimental research beyond all that has been and remains possible with conventional approaches. ANAEE is the international forum for sharing scientific and technological experience and vision to outlining these scientific frontiers and paving the research way forward. With the ability of completely isolating fragments of real ecosystems and their physical and chemical environment, as well as assembling and evolving synthetic ecosystems in simulated and potentially extreme environments, ecotrons and the new generation of instruments that they spawn aim at tackling scientific challenges like the emergence of terrestrial ecosystems on the early Earth as well as the evolution of complex life structures on exoplanets. ANAEE needs a visionary Ecotron Working Group to develop further its perspectives on ground-breaking, integrative ecological science, and the ecotron-type “very large infrastructures” of unprecedented technology that will serve it.

Around a core of eminent empirical ecosystem biologists, the Ecotron Working Group will gather leaders in areas as diverse as ecological modelling and forecasting, molecular biology and biochemistry, immunology and epidemiology, geology and paleobiology, deep-sea research, and space observation and exploration; as well as world-class experts of controlled environmental facilities and experimental research under “ultra containment”. Jacques Roy and I believe that your contribution to the ANAEE Ecotron Working Group would be invaluable.

The ANAEE Ecotron Working Group will operate mostly as an electronic forum, coordinated by Jacques Roy and Regis Ferrière. Information and ideas exchanged between participants will nourrish the recommendations that we make by the end of 2009 to the EU FP7 Program for a multinational, European-wide commitment to the long term support of ANAEE Infrastructure. Jacques Roy and  Regis Ferrière are also aiming at materializing our exchanges in the form of “Idea and Perspective” scientific reports that could be disseminated by publication in high-profile journals.

To launch our forum, we will be holding an informal two-day meeting at the Montpellier Ecotron headquarters within the next few weeks. This will be the venue for a first round of open and provocative discussions around three core themes: ground-breaking research directions, the grand technological challenges, and the emergence of novel interfaces with other scientific fields. We are very hopeful that you will be interested and able to join this meeting.

Thank you very much for your consideration. We very much look forward to meeting you soon in Montpellier


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