1 Introduction History and geographical location of the unit

The team is located in Lille, and depends on the two Lille Universities (Lille 1 and Lille 2). It is the result of a fusion of 4 teams focusing essentially on pediatrics and neonatalogy with the major theme being 'perinatal care'. This geographical bi-localisation is a potential source of problems in terms of organisation but this appears to be well managed. For the moment, the direction has been able to induce a cross-competency synergy, limiting these problems, especially through weekly lab meetings that allow information to circulate efficiently between the groups.

Management team

The management is carried out by the director and a deputy-director. The team is built on important medical concerns related to the programming of adult diseases from prenatal or perinatal sub-optimal expositions. The team has developed good novel animal models that it has characterized well at the whole body level. The localization in the North of France is a very good location in terms of regional epidemiological characteristics, since it is one of the regions most affected by obesity and cardiovascular diseases, which allows a very productive interfacing with clinicians and facilitates patient recruitment in the perinatal and mother-infant field. Another strength of the team has been the development of innovative industrial equipment especially in terms of pain detection and management. Finally, the local structures (university, hospital) are very supportive and willing strongly to help to develop and maintain this research team. In addition, several members of the team are strongly involved in teaching and research training.

Unit workforce

Unit workforce

Weaknesses and threats related to the context

The team is located on two different distant sites, necessitating at least 10 minutes transportation for moving from one to the other. There are no full time researchers, the only scientists being university professors and clinicians who have many draws on their time, since they are very busy with teaching and/or hospital duties. There is for the moment insufficient internal research drive and expertise to provide mechanistic insights, which relies on recently started external cooperation. From discussion with the researchers and students, it appears that they have relatively insufficient circulating information on seminars and general scientific high-level information within the institution. To note, the technical staff are shared with other teams of the university, that could eventually lead to organizational problems.

Recommendations

None of the weak points are unsolvable, even though some aspects of the solution may be a bit difficult to implement. An important issue would be to recruit one full time high-level researcher (high scientific profile, organizational capabilities) who could be attracted by the possibility of developing freely his own research group, highly connected to the clinic with the possibility of using animal models; a package could be proposed, since the University appears very eager to maintain and develop the research structure. Another issue would be to develop the DoHAD (Developmental origin Of Health and Disease) topic under the angle of epigenetic analysis (high throughput methylation analysis, ChIP-seq with epigenetic marks, mi-RNA profiling) and the development of cell models to validate and manipulate the environmental conditions (hypoxia, serum-deprivation, serum excess could be tested in cell cultures from tissue-derived cell lines, in vivo validation of miRNA putative targets). Conjointly there is of course an immediate need to develop bioinformatic capabilities locally.

Other minor points could be easily improved, such as a widening of the competencies of the students through external conferences.

 Detailed assessments Assessment of scientific quality and outputs

The scientific production is quite abundant, in a field for which few research teams are involved in France despite its extreme importance in terms of the programming of metabolic epidemies (cardiovascular diseases, obesity, type 2 diabetes). Between 2008 and 2013, 58 articles have been published with a direct connection to members of the team. Besides, one of the members through providing DNA samples for genotyping in programs linked to metabolic diseases developed mainly by another team in Lille, was a co-author of several articles in top scientific journals (Science, NEJM, Nature Genetics). The production originating directly from the work of the team is published in a priori lower impact factor journals. However, precise tracking of the articles reveals clearly their importance, at least for some of them (for instance "Maternal perinatal undernutrition drastically reduces postnatal leptin surge and affects the development of arcuate nucleus proopiomelanocortin neurons in neonatal male rat pups", published in 2008 in Endocrinology has been quoted 86 times, i.e. 15 times per year; "Sex-and Diet-Specific Changes of Imprinted Gene Expression and DNA Methylation in Mouse Placenta under a High-Fat Diet", published in PlosONE in 2010, has been cited 33 times (almost 9 times per year); "Maternal stress alters endocrine function of the feto-placental unit in rats" published in 2007 in American Journal of Physiology, has been cited 74 times, more than 10 times a year) without decrease in the number of citations in the period under evaluation, even though this article was published one year before. These examples clearly demonstrate the scientific relevance and recognition of the team's work in the field of perinatal and endocrine programming. To note in the field of pain management, the team obtained a ANR funding for the development of a pain monitoring device focused on new born infant applications. This device is protected by 2 international patents (classically considered as comparable to top publications).

Assessment of the unit's academic reputation and appeal

Several members of the team are regularly invited to international conferences around the thematic of neonatal/fetal pain and stress, as well as sub-normal maternal nutrition during pregnancy. Mr Laurent STORME is the president of the organizing committee of the 'Journées Francophones de la Recherche en Néonatologie'.

Assessment of the unit's interaction with the social, economic and cultural environment

The geographic situation and the composition of the team gives access to a collection of maternal samples that could be assigned to different 'metabolic status (BMI, precarity,…)'. There are also very good facilities for implementing alterations of maternal diets in animal models. These models are available for the clinical teams, in particular obstetric surgeons and pediatricians. This situation is not very frequent in France, where such possibilities are available only in a handful of places.

The visit revealed a team working in a good environment, with useful facilities, a good support of the university, a strong investment in teaching activities and training PhD students. The thematic are very coherent around the accumulation of knowledge linked to consequences of alterations of the perinatal environment. The use of this knowledge as a translational research tool is easy to set up given the natural link of many members of the team with patients to release information. The implementation in the north of France, where nutritional disorders, poverty, obesity are the most frequent is especially logical, and could contribute to decrease societal costs.

In connection with the management of pain and stress in fetuses and neonates, the committee was impressed by the industrial development of a tool for pain assessment, and by the success in selling this equipment throughout the world.

Assessment of the unit's organisation and life

In terms of "A" category staff (researchers, either from university or clinicians or research institutes), EA 4489 is a research team composed of university professors, assistant professors and clinicians, but without full time researchers from national research institutes. In the "B" category staff (corresponding to technicians, engineers and administrative personal), there are 5 technicians and engineers, but only one full-time in the team. A difficulty is the fact that most of the technical staff are on a half-time basis, which may make it difficult for concentrating on specific topics and to focus the forces on a given hot-topic at a certain moment of time. In the field of staff, the committee felt strongly that the absence of fulltime researchers was a problem that should be addressed as soon as possible, since it was felt that it is the only way to develop more ambitious research programs going deeply into the mechanisms at work in terms of programming of adult disease following injuries of the early life.

There are also weaknesses that are observable in terms of structure and in terms of scientific project. In terms of structure, being divided into two sites is clearly difficult to cope with on a daily basis, and could increase significantly the difficulty of making regular contacts among the team members.

Assessment of the unit's involvement in training through research

There are many professors in the staff and the involvement in teaching is outstanding at the levels of L3, M1, M2 and very interestingly, a European Master is in preparation around the DoHAD concept. It was also noted by the committee after discussing with the students, that while they were overall very satisfied with the daily life of the team, they appeared a bit disconnected from seminars of general interest that could help them to evolve in their scientific formation. The first point is demonstrated by the absence of detectable conflicts, meaning that the management is very well done. In addition, the direction systematically provides the means for the students to participate to international and national meetings. Encouraging the students and the direction to generate a 'journal club' structure could be one of the numerous ways of improving this situation.

Assessment of the strategy and the five-year plan

There are two major projects that are the logical follow-up of the previous research topics: one deals with suboptimal nutrition, and the other with pain/stress management in newborns and fetuses. The committee observed that there are clearly strong forces in the team to describe the processes of suboptimal nutrition, but not to go further in terms of mechanisms. This project in its present form, do not encompass the use of epigenetic tools as a way of understanding the health problems possibly induced in the progeny. The committee unanimously felt that the team should engage itself in the 'in situ' creation of an 'epigenetic' know-how, not only based upon external collaborations. That way, the team may be able to give an important mechanistic bonus to its physiological observation and thus to publish in journals of much higher impact. This should increase their international recognition and visibility. Another important point would be to develop bioinformatic capacities in situ.

For the project of pain and stress, as mentioned above, the committee was impressed by the industrial development of a tool for pain assessment, and by the success in selling this equipment throughout the world. This success would be even more complete if some scientific understanding of the mechanisms at work, or some epidemiological assessment of the tool benefit could be developed in the next five-year period. Part of the project could be to concentrate on that issue.

The feeling of the committee was overall that the team has a very interesting potential for development, in terms of tools, of medical problem addressed.

Another feeling of the committee was that the team would benefit from discussing special issues of their protocols on a wider scale with external teams. Among these protocols/project, 1. The denutrition model in rats with the periods of application could be re-thought in order to dissociate the prenatal and post-natal effects (mediated for instance by milk composition).

2. The injection of opioid drugs in the amniotic liquid and their possible long-term consequences should be carefully assessed in animal models. For instance the methylation of genes encoding receptors could be analyzed.

3. There is a need to open the scientific communication to other fields and other competencies, available in Lille or elsewhere. Locally a better advertising on conferences could be achieved quite easily.

  Permanent researchers from Institutions and similar positions N3: Other permanent staff (without research duties) N4: Other professors (Emeritus Professor, on-contract Professor, etc.) N5: Other researchers from Institutions (Emeritus Research Director, Postdoctoral students, visitors, etc.) spent at least 12 months in the unit* 3 Number of Research Supervisor Qualifications (HDR) taken 1 Qualified research supervisors (with an HDR) or similar positions 11 2 Overall assessment of the interdisciplinary unit Strengths and opportunities related to the context

 Supervising bodies' general comments

The visit was conducted entirely throuhg seminars in the university Conference Room, as well as three consecutive meetings with 1) the students, 2) the techncial and administrative staff and 3) the researchers.


president  Mr Didier Houssin

Pierre

 Introduction History and geographical location of the unit

The research unit MoSAR (for Modélisation Systémique Appliquée aux Ruminants) was created on January 1 st , 2010 under the supervision of AgroParisTech and INRA.

Previously, it was called PNA (Physiologie de la Nutrition et de l'Alimentation). PNA has long experience in ruminant nutrition physiology and alimentation, mainly with goats. It has also developed a strong expertise in animal systemic modelling.

The change of name in 2010 corresponds to a scientific evolution, stressing animal modelling and focusing on phenotypic variation in the acquisition, transformation and allocation of nutrients to the different life functions.

MoSAR is situated in AgroParisTech (Paris). It has an experimental farm (120 dairy goats and young stock) at Grignon (40 km West of Paris; 50 minutes at the best).

Management team

The creation of MoSAR in 2010 was accompanied by a change in the management team; Mr Nicolas FRIGGENS (directeur de recherche, INRA) became director and Ms Christine DUVAUX PONTER (Professeur, AgroParisTech), deputy director. 2  Assessment of the unit

AERES nomenclature

SVE2_LS9

Unit workforce

Unit workforce

Global assessment

MoSAR is a small unit which is in a positive dynamics and has some assets for the next period: the scientific outputs are in an upward trajectory, in quantity and especially in quality; the level of academic recognition and reputation is good and seems to be increasing, both nationally and internationally; the number of funded projects is going upward; the experimental farm is a good support to develop the scientific activity and to sustain relationships with the economic sector.

The scientific project, which was reshaped at the beginning of the reference period for assement, is now redefined around the relationships between productive and non-productive functions of the animal, from short term processes to animal lifespan. It is original, it reveals a clear scientific strategy and suits very well with current issues in ruminant livestock domain. However, it covers a very wide field and the committee recommands to break it down in operational works and prioritized research objectives, types of output (research models, decision support tools,…), and steps to be performed.

Considering doctoral education, the MoSAR involvement is quite good, but can still be enhanced with a higher number of HDR, which is a major point to increase the number of doctoral supervisions.

The group is functionning in a good ambience but this should not dispense to improve the formalization of the unit governance. This lack of formalization could be a potential weakness in case of tensions with in the unit.

The unit, and its supervising institutions, should take care of the renewal of the competences (due to retirements), mainly in modellling (scientists) and laboratories (technicians).

In conclusion, the committee encourages the unit to continue its efforts to structure the project and to improve its results, and wishes its recommendations could help to reach this goal.

Strengths and opportunities related to the context

The main strength of MoSAR is the positive dynamics installed during the reference period for assessment: significant increase in scientific production in quantity and quality, success in calls for national and European projects, and development of transfer activity. This period allowed the integration, in a new scientific project, of the guidelines that were given at the beginning of the reference period, namely to strengthen modelling and phenotyping activities.

The small size of MoSAR can be considered as a strength, given that: i) it is organized around an animal model, the lactating goat, supported by the facilities of its experimental farm and laboratories and ii) it focuses its researches on clearly defined issues. The experts committee considers this as an advantage because it facilitates the flow of information between researchers, the allows complementarity of approaches and the possibilities for upscaling and downscaling (rumen, herd, whole animal).

MoSAR has an established reputation in meta-analysis skills, system modelling combined with experimentation, and feeding behaviour. Based on multidisciplinary approaches (physiology, nutrition, ethology, mathematics), these skills are an advantage for the unit's coherence, as well in the realization of its aims, as for its attractiveness (for students, for recruitment).

The investment unit in phenotyping is an opportunity to develop collaborations with animal genetics which should be exploited.

The unit is favorably viewed in the professional sector (goat breeding, animal feed industry, expertise for administration as the French Ministery of Agriculture or the French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health & Safety (ANSES). Moreover, it is involved, in collaboration, in the transfer of its results through contributions to the evaluation of the nutritional value of feed for ruminants (Systali -an INRA project to update the feed unit system for ruminants) and dissemination of standard values for many plant products used worldwide (Feedipedia -an online animal feed resources information system).

MoSAR has a strong project which both suits with the unit's skills and adresses very well some major interests in the ruminant sector (livestock precision farming, animal welfare,…).

Finally, MoSAR's aims and objectives fit very well into the programs of the institutions and research bodies (Phase (Physiologie Animale et Systèmes d'Elevage) department of INRA and AgroParisTech). The unit has the support of the authorities.

Weaknesses and threats related to the context

Governance in the unit is based on the quality of exchanges between its members and seems to work well without actual formalization of modes of organization and decision rules. The committee emphasizes that, in case of relational difficulties, this lack of formalization could be a weakness for the management of the unit.

The modelling activity, which is central to the MoSAR project, requires attention in two respects. The first concerns the skills that will disappear (retirement) in the coming years and the renewal of them is a key point for the success of the project. The second is in the risk of making modelling an end in itself, that is to say, to build models without formalizing the purpose for which they will be put, for example by industry.

The project presented by the unit encompasses ingestion -digestion -metabolism -partition in dairy goats. It is based on multiple experimental approaches, phenotyping and modelling at the animal and herd levels. This project seems very broad and requires prioritization. Some parts are likely to need to be better explained, especially the interface between questions of partition of energy and animal behavior.

The unit has experienced and continues to experience a significant erosion of its technical laboratory staff. It seems to have managed to cope with it so far. However, it is a real threat to certain activities of the unit.

Finally, if the modeling activities seem to be a good opportunity to succeed at national and European calls for projects, there is certain fragility in financing other activities.

Recommendations

Beyond maintaining the positive dynamic of the unit (scientific production, funding, ...) and its quality of life, some recommendations can be made by the evaluation committee.

It recommends that the unit conducts a precise definition of work objectives it assigns to its modelling activity, in terms of outcomes (for research or breeding or industry). The goal should be to produce models which can be evaluated accordingly.

Thought should be given to whether addressing individual variability can make an economic contribution to precision farming.

In the context of quality assurance, it seems necessary to formalize and to collectively validate the methods of decision making and debate within the unit ; in other words, to explicitly define the operation of governance unit which is currently based largely on good relations between its members.

In terms of personnel management, with the support of AgroParisTech and INRA, MoSAR must be careful to maintain and renew its skills. Two areas may be under threat the coming years: modelling (research) and technical skills (laboratory).

MoSAR could further strengthen its partnerships with other research units, either in complementary areas such as animal genetics (in connection with the phenotyping activity) or on its own themes -modelling of the vital functions of the animal, animal behavior -applied to other species.

Finally, the disaffection of AgroParisTech students in animal specializations seems to be a point requiring vigilance by MoSAR. Indeed, the renewal of teachers' positions in the medium term is probably not independent of changes in the number of students in training. It is probably difficult to oppose this trend which comes from deep movements in society, but some popularisation of issues around livestock farming and its importance in rural development should certainly possible.

 Detailed assessments

Assessment of scientific quality and outputs

The evaluation committee notes that MoSAR is on a favorable trajectory in quantity and quality for its scientific production. The number of publications in peer-reviewed journals, increased from 85 (previous period) to 129 (current period) corresponding to an average of about 3 papers per Research Full Time Equivalent per year, is considered to be a good result by the evaluation committee. The part of these publications in journals considered as excellent increased from 33 % to 73 %. Nevertheless, we believe that quality could be improved further by targeting higher-ranking animal science journals.

This output has real originality, particularly in regard to modelling whole-life animal function and rumen modelling (for instance the "GARUNS" model which quantifies animal performance as a function of nutrition ressources but also as a function of animal priorities throughout its whole life), although the applicability of the results is still more potential than actual.

Assessment of the unit's academic reputation and appeal

Many indicators show a good level of academic recognition and reputation of the unit, both nationally and internationally. Researchers in MoSAR are regularly asked to engage in projects funded at national (ANR, IDEX) and European level, mainly in the field of modelling (MoSAR searchers are involved in 5 organisation or co-organisation of national or international collaborative research projects). Several researchers are members of international and national organizations (MoSAR is a focal point of the French Association for Animal Production), scientific committees of international conferences and editorial boards of scientific journals in animal production. The unit was organizing an international symposium.

The attractiveness, especially for foreign researchers (5 researchers or post-docs with an average length of stay of 8 weeks) received during the period, is due to the reputation of the unit. Steps should be taken to maintain this.

Assessment of the unit's interaction with the social, economic and cultural environment

MoSAR has developed numerous interactions with industry and has invested in major projects to transfer knowledge of ruminant feed (Feedipedia, Systali). The experimental farm is an advantage for the relationship with industry. The unit maintains relationships with industry, including the feed industry, which has a good impact on financing contracts and CIFRE theses, and with professional bodies (Institut de l'Élevage, Unciea (Union Nationale des Coopératives Agricoles d'Élevage et d'Insémination Animale),…). Several members of MoSAR participate in expert committees for professional organizations.

During the period, the articles in magazines or books for professionals (n = 25) is also a good sign of this involvement oriented to the economic world.

The committee also notes the responsibility of MoSAR researchers in expert groups to advise the authorities at national level in the field of animal nutrition (ANSES) and of animal welfare (Ministry of Agriculture).

On the involvement of the unit in the dissemination of scientific culture to the general public, the report produced by the unit only shows very little action. This is a point to watch and maybe is linked with the risks due to the erosion in the number of students who wish to engage in the ways of animal production.

Assessment of the unit's organisation and life

MoSAR is a quite small unit and it is not organised into several teams. As much as possible, decisions are discussed in fortnightly group meetings involving all unit members. Alternatively, a subgroup of three persons (director, deputy director and the director of the teaching unit) deals with the issues that are not suitable to be dicussed with the full group.

During the visit, especially in the meetings with different categories of staff and PhD students, the unit appeared as close-knit and motivated about the project, despite the current and future causes of concern (eg.: decreased current workforce of technical staff, expected moving of AgroParisTech to Saclay). This motivation is certainly connected, in a virtuous circle, to the positive dynamics menitoned in the field of scientific production and reputation. Exchanges between staff and managers are frequent and decisions are transparent.

However, the committee emphasizes that functioning in a good ambience, combined with the small size of MoSAR, could have allowed to occur a lack of formalization of the organization unit. This does not seem to be a problem now, but could become one if internal or external conflicts need to be resolved. The choice of avoiding to split the unit in several teams seems justified. However, a functional organizational chart of the unit (identifying the different functions of agents and their responsibilities) is essential. Similarly, procedures for decision-making and arbitration should be written, as well as process management (quality manual is far from being completed).

Assessment of the unit's involvement in training through research

Nine PhD students are currently supervised by MoSAR researchers, including five for whom the unit is the main research group. Members of MoSAR are significantly involved in the supervision of PhD students joined in partnership with other units and contribute to many theses and HDR committees. Sixteen theses were defended during the reference period, including 9 in the unit as main research group. Three theses are co-supervised with researchers from foreign organizations. The involvement of the students in the life of the unit seemed very satisfactory, as well as their management (internal and external presentations, conferences, publications, an average length of 40 months per thesis, PhD are all funded). Career opportunities for MoSAR ex-PhD students are good and in accordance with their training, primarily in higher education and public and private research. The unit is also engaged in the training conducted by the Doctoral School n°435 (ABIES).

These results are rated as satisfactory by the committee, which encourages the unit to continue to engage in doctoral supervision, primarily by recruiting more PhD students and by increasing its leadership capacity (5 HDR currently) by means of support to the staff members in position to defend an habilitation.

Assessment of the strategy and the five-year plan

The unit project is based, generally, around the relationships between, on the one hand, productive and nonproductive functions of the animal, and on the other hand, between short term and long term (ingestion/digestion → whole animal life). It is underpinned by the idea that optimal balance between these functions can be found in order to increase the long-term efficiency of the system, while improving the welfare of animals. This project suits very well with current issues in ruminant livestock domain and should fit easily into research funding schemes and should offer opportunities for developping collaborative projects.

In scientific terms, this project is divided into two sub-projects:

-The first is centered on the acquisition of resources (behavior -ingestion -digestion). It aims at modelling the interactions determining the acquisition, at phenotyping animals according to parameters associated with this acquisition phase and at developing tools for early detection of problems occurring during this phase ; -The second concerns the allocation of resources, and their inter-individual variability throughout life (whole life phenotyping), by studying the regulation of resource (energy) partition to the various functions of the animal, distinguishing between productive and non-productive functions, with the general aim to gradually build a systemic model of energy metabolism of lactating females.

For the committee, this project shows the clear global strategy of the unit. However, it covers a very wide field, combining different approaches (behaviour, physiology, modelling, ...), with nested levels of organization (rumen including microorganisms, animal, herd), considered on very different time scales (from duration of ingestion to the whole life span of the animal). It would be helpful if this vision were articulated in terms of the research outcomes that would make the most significant contributions to livestock production. The project should be broken down in operational works and prioritized research objectives, types of output (research models, decision support tools,…), and steps to be performed.

Finally, the MoSAR project, in the way it was presented, mainly deals with scientific perspectives (in accordance with AERES demand); the Evaluation committee nevertheless invites the unit to incorporate in its reflection synergies between the scientific project and all of the benefits it has shown in its global results, for example its involvement in professional livestock farming sector and in higher education. We would like to thank the jury for the evaluation of our Unit, MoSAR, which we find to be both perceptive and helpful.

With respect to the strengths of MoSAR, we are pleased that the jury shares our view of a positive dynamic in the reporting period with a significant increase in scientific production and success in calls for national and European projects. The highlighting of MoSAR's strengths in systemic modelling combined with experimentation on resource acquisition and resource allocation is also appreciated.

We also recognise the recommendations of the jury and have already initiated processes to further focus the short-term objectives within the Unit's scientific strategy, and to reinforce the new Unit structure by further defining the internal organisation of exchange and decision making. We share the jury's concerns about the erosion of the Unit's technical staff and continue to actively seek posts to reverse this trend.

Nicolas FRIGGENS MoSAR Director

With the agreement with the supervising institutions



  Bernard, 75231 Paris Conduct or programme of visit: 8:00 am Welcome & Closed-door Meeting of Visiting committee with AERES Scientific Advisor 8:40 am Introduction of Plenary Session: AERES Role & Procedures: AERES Scientific Advisor 9:00 am General Presentation of UMR-MoSAR & Discussion; Director of the Unit 9Supervising bodies' general comments Réf. : rapport d'évaluation AERES S2PUR150007825 -Modélisation systémique appliquée aux ruminants (MoSAR) -0753465J UMR 0791 MoSAR response to AERES report

1 ,  Mr.


2  Assessment of the unit

The center has been evaluated by AERES in 2013. The evaluation of the center as a whole was not part of the mission of the visit. The team has published 106 articles in peer reviewed journals, 38% in the top 10% of the JCR categories. These articles were mainly published in the specialty journals (J Pediatr, Am J Clin Nutr, Epidemiology). Fifty nine invited lectures have been given in national and international meetings. The research is in a valuable area, but in order to have a greater impact the group should attempt to publish more often in journals with a broader readership in terms of scientific discipline. The work on developing cohorts for research is of considerable value and has been very much time-consuming.

Assessment of the unit's academic reputation and appeal

The importance of early exposures is recognised in the aetiology of several important (in terms of public health impact) diseases and thus the focus of this team is within an area of value. This is complemented to a certain extent by a life-course view of subsequent risk accumulation. A strong indication of their reputation and appeal is through their success in attracting additional scientists of notable standing (two senior and two junior researchers). They have a good level of collaboration, but might also consider increasing the amount of international collaboration they participate in. The work on developing cohorts will continue to enhance the team's reputation and appeal to other researchers.

Assessment of the unit's interaction with the social, economic and cultural environment Some projects have been conducted with industrial partners and results have been used for the French Ministry of Health, as well as a project working with the French Society of Paediatrics to improve nutrition in mothers and infants. Evaluations are conducted by this group and are an important impact activity for academic researchers. Work of note on a national level includes advising on standard growth curves and on breast feeding.

Assessment of the unit's involvement in training through research

They appear to offer a high level of student support for their postgraduate students. Some six doctoral students have completed and five further students are continuing. They participate in teaching but do not run an entire course themselves. The have been involved in the development of a module on a course for Master of Public Health and a course on developmental epidemiology.

Assessment of the strategy and the five-year plan

The increasing use and development of research resources (cohort studies) promise valuable findings through the team's own research and through collaboration. The development of early life measures is of notable interest in France, but also of international relevance. However some of the planned research (for example on specific exposures) would benefit from a broader but also integrated theoretical approach. This should include a broader view of complementary or competing theories of mechanisms. To aid this, a more interdisciplinary or at least multidisciplinary approach (within the team and through collaboration) would be a benefit.

Conclusion

This is a developing group, able to attract new members of staff, that has to balance development of scientific profile and outputs with data collection and raising funds. There is great promise in the area of research and the development of research resources for their own use and collaborators. Publishing for a more general scientific audience would be beneficial, as would add a more interdisciplinary approach to possible biological mechanisms leading to the outcomes of interest.

 Strengths and opportunities:

This group has the opportunity to use new cohort resources of their own and through collaboration. Through appointments and collaborations they should be sufficiently attractive to attract researchers and collaboration to allow research of a more interdisciplinary nature. This could facilitate the elucidation of biological pathways, including through use of genetic and epigenetic mechanisms, as biological material will be collected.

 Weaknesses and threats:

So far the group has not had the opportunity to investigate more specific biological pathways that explain the associations that they are examining. There is a danger that associations between early exposures and later disease are explained by an accumulation of unrecorded risks (the associations between low birth weight and raft of socially mediated outcomes for example). The group should ensure that a genuinely life-course approach is indeed adopted to identify causal pathways. Similarly, there is a rather narrow view of some potential mechanisms and a more interdisciplinary approach should be adopted: for example breast feeding may influence child development, not just through nutrition but also though physical contact during breast feeding. Overall, the team members themselves should consider a more expanded and integrated framework for biological processes. The valuable cohort work can be extremely time-consuming, with a tension between raising funds, data collection/planning and scientific output. The value of a cohort can be undermined if there is a loss of continuity in funding, thus adding to the pressure to focus on raising funds.

 Recommendations:

The group should adopt a more interdisciplinary approach in developing sophisticated and complementary hypotheses for the biological mechanisms involved in mediating disease risk.

The dissemination and scientific strategy should aim to publish more of the team's own work in scientific journals for a more general readership, rather than being limited to more specialised journals.

It will be important to balance carefully activities involving development of resources (and funding) with scientific production.

Team 2 :

Epidemiology of childhood and adolescent cancers (EPICEA) Name of team leader: Ms Jacqueline CLAVEL To date, the team scientific output is of importance in the field of the etiology of childhood leukemia, reenforcing the hypothesis of the role of early immune system stimulations, and showing the role of proximity to major roads, gas stations, high-voltage power lines. This has been achieved by the implementation of geographical analysis methods. Another notable finding is the role of the polymorphisms of the genes involved on lymphomatopoiesis. The team also provides the statistics on incidence and survival for all childhood cancer site in France. It seems that some of their observations from these descriptive data could suggest etiological hypothesis. In adults, they also demonstrated the link between lymphoma and light-skin phenotypes (but not with UV radiation exposure), between lymphoid blood disease and occupational exposure to pesticides and with a family history of malignant blood disease.

Workforce

Between 01/01/2008 and 31/12/2012, the group published 40 articles in peer-reviewed international journals, almost exclusively signed as lead or co-lead author (82% as first or last author). They report 50% of the articles are in the top 20% and 33% in the top 10% of the most cited articles. Two thirds of the articles are in the top 20% of the best journals in the field (defined from the IF rank in the JCR category). The journals in which they have published are mainly high-quality journals for cancer (Cancer Causes and Control, Cancer Epidemiology, Annals of Oncology, International Journal of Cancer, Br J Cancer, Cancer, Eur J Cancer) occupational and environmental health (Occup Environ Med, Environ Health persp, JESEE), and hematology (Blood, Pediatric Blood Cancer, Leukemia).

They have also written books and book chapters and several expert reports.

Assessment of the unit's academic reputation and appeal

Two senior team members are internationally recognized experts in environmental cancer epidemiology and they have been among the first researchers in France to invest in the field of childhood cancer. They are leaders of several international consortium and members of international networks.They are members of several scientific boards in the field of cancer or public health. Evidence of the group's academic reputation and appeal is also provided by the number of students attracted by the team.

Assessment of the unit's interaction with the social, economic and cultural environment

In the field of childhood cancer, their expertise is frequently required by Health authorities. This is demonstrated by their investigation of cancer clusters, which require substantial interaction with the public and patients to explain the results and conclusions. This can be very time-consuming and is an important public health service. They author and contribute to general public books and documentaries on the topic of childhood cancers. Team members participate in working groups of experts from the National Agencies. The team regularly obtains public, association and industrial fundings for their researches.

Assessment of the unit's involvement in training through research

The researchers have contributed greatly to the training of young researchers and to the development of the field through academic teaching (management of a Master in Public Health (DEA of Paris-Sud). The team is involved in training through research and has attributed 40% of their time to this task in the document. They have trained 10 masters students; 6 doctoral students (plus 6 ongoing), 3 medical theses (MD) over the previous period. They are also involved in the supervision of first-cycle courses (DUT, master 1, DIU, pediatric oncology) and in the formation of Public Health residents. All the doctoral students have published their work as first authors.

Assessment of the strategy and the five-year plan

There is no other team in France devoted to childhood cancer and the members of the team have already a recognized and international expertise in the field. There could be important synergies with teams in the new center that deal with pediatric health and related fields.

A major strength of the project is the successful efforts that have been made to build solid and high-quality databases that will help in exploring etiological hypothesis on childhood cancers. These databases are reinforced by the development of the so-called "platforme" which should add biological and clinical data to the epidemiological collection. The international cooperations that have been built also sound critical, because childhood cancers are not frequent entities and that there is a need for exploring even the less frequent of them.

Concerning the etiological research, the team has fully demonstrated its capacity to analyse risk factors and to generate important discoveries. However, it is not completely clear how they will assess the exposures of interest. Exposure assessment requiring industrial hygiene expertise is needed to characterize jobs whether for the adult's cancer risk or the offspring's. Research plans exist for linking geocoded residential histories to environmental exposures. Some external collaborations are listed but it is unclear how they will be able to deal with all the exposures of interest.

The platform for childhood cancer is a new direction in the research program of the team. It not clear how do the members practically intend to switch from etiological epidemiology towards clinical epidemiology. Similarly, the questions that clinicians or researchers have suggested to be prioritary in the five next years are not clearly stated. Another issue is the coordination of such a large platform. The functioning is not completely described presently.

The team proposes to study all the childhood cancers but their work to date have been focused on leukemia. There are great opportunities to study rare and poorly studied childhood cancers but the way this will be perfomed is not precisely described.

Conclusion  Strength and opportunities:

-members of the team are internationally well-recognized experts in the field;

-the team has made important and successful efforts in the collection of high quality databases, reinforced by the development of the clinical and biological platforme;

-the team has great opportunities for important research on poorly studied issues and cancers.

 Weaknesses and threats:

-the capacity for supervising young researchers and students appears low; -the role of a new researcher needs to be clarified since she is a molecular biophysicist but is presented as joining the study of health care pathways; -the team needs collaboration with experts in the field of environmental and occupational exposures; -the plans concerning the functioning and scientific strategy of the plateform are not developed; -the hypotheses and scientific strategy for studying non-leukemia childhood cancers and adolescent cancers in the next mandate is not presented.

 Recommendations:

-on the beginning of the term, there are only two senior researchers in the team (one of whom is applying for an emeritus position). For this reason, there is a need for strenghtening the team with additional researchers, as mentioned, some of them could be qualified in pediatric oncology. It is not completely clear how the recruitment of the new scientist will reinforce the team. Her training and experience in heatlh physics are valuable, but training in social inequalities was not clear. Another difficulty concerning the composition of the team is the large number of technical staff which will oblige the senior researchers to expend considerable effort finding research support for the staff;

-the team needs collaboration with experts in the field of retrospective assessment of environmental and occupational exposures; -detailed plans concerning the strategy of the childhood cancer plateforme are needed;

the hypotheses and scientific strategy for studying non-leukemia childhood cancers and adolescent cancers in the next mandate need to be developed. Our team develops a project within the general framework of the developmental origin of adult health and diseases. The evaluation committee acknowledged that this is a valuable research area with potential important impact for public health. The development of this epidemiological research area in France has needed and still needs long-term investment in birth cohorts setting and coordination. We are glad that the committee has stressed the value of this work. It is indeed time consuming but the investment is worth it for the future research of our team and of many others. We would like to correct the paragraph on the team involvement in teaching. Indeed, as we have already mentioned one of the team members is a lecturer. He has created de novo and runs from 2012 an entire 24 hr course (50% lectures and 50% tutorials) in epidemiology for students in their 3 rd year in the faculty of pharmacy; He is also coresponsible for a course created in 2014 on statistical method in pharmaceutical industry (16h for himself) for students in their 4 th year. Besides, team members have developed in 2012 and run every year a 6hr module in developmental epidemiology as part of a broader program. In addition, two of our doctoral students have been involved in the development of a new MOOC in statistics.

Interdisciplinary approach

The evaluation committee recommends a more interdisciplinary approach. We totally agree that interdisciplinary collaboration is key for success in research in general and particularly in epidemiology. We probably have not insisted enough on all our collaborations in multiple disciplines other than epidemiology during our oral presentation. These multiple collaborations are listed below by domains with the corresponding institutions

Integrated approach

W/T :The group should ensure that a genuinely life-course approach is indeed adopted to identify causal pathways. Similarly, there is a rather narrow view of some potential mechanisms and a more interdisciplinary approach should be adopted: for example breast feeding may influence child development, not just through nutrition but also though physical contact during breast feeding. R The group should adopt a more interdisciplinary approach in developing sophisticated and complementary hypotheses for the biological mechanisms involved in mediating disease risk.

We have made the choice to work on the child's health and development with recent data relevant for the French context. Our research output relies on the data from two French cohorts available for analysis. Over the past mandate, we had mainly data covering pregnancy and the first year of life to work on. Our strategy has been a detailed and one by one analysis of the complex relationships that arise between the maternal and/or infant nutritional status and the later child development always relying on biological plausible relationships. We feel that this was and still is a necessary step before 1) addressing more deeply biological mechanisms that may underlie the clinical observations 2) building a more integrated view of the importance of early life factors for later health in the 21 st century in France, which is obviously our final general objective. We are well aware that although early life is a very sensitive period to environmental exposures, the pathway to adult chronic diseases relies on a life course accumulation of additive and interactive factors. Our interest has been and will remain for the next mandate a thorough description of the early life factors. However, with the expanding follow-up of our cohorts, we will also be able to develop a "life course approach" integrating early life and later exposures in relation to childhood diseases. The Elfe cohort, which involves around 100 researchers from social sciences, health and environmental teams in a truly multidisciplinary way (http://www.elfefrance.fr/index.php/en/research/three-main-research-themes) will allow us to take into account a larger range of factors that what is done in most epidemiological cohorts, although they will be measured directly with less details than in more focused cohorts.

Biological mechanisms W/T Overall,So far the group has not had the opportunity to investigate more specific biological pathways that explain the associations that they are examining. There is a danger that associations between early exposures and later disease are explained by an accumulation of unrecorded risks (the associations between low birth weight and raft of socially mediated outcomes for example).The team members themselves should consider a more expanded and integrated framework for biological processes.

The evaluation committee insists on more implication to investigate biological pathways. This is indeed one of our goals for the next mandate, in collaboration with specialised teams in biology. We have already started such collaborations in nutrition, genetics, epigenetics, and toxicology (listed above). However, it has to be reminded that biological samples increase their value with longer follow-up of cohort participants. This one of the more complex strategic point in cohort management to decide when and for which research question use part of the expendable biological collection. This, in part, explains why we have not developed this approach more largely during the past mandate.

Balance between activities involving development of resources and scientific production W/T The valuable cohort work can be extremely time-consuming, with a tension between raising funds, data collection/planning and scientific output. The value of a cohort can be undermined if there is a loss of continuity in funding, thus adding to the pressure to focus on raising funds. R It will be important to balance carefully activities involving development of resources (and funding) with scientific production.

Certainly, the time devoted to birth cohort coordination has been competing with the time needed for other research tasks. It is one of the contradiction of the French system due to the lack of engineer and technician positions to run the cohort that impose heavy loads on researcher's time. However, coordination of birth cohorts also exposes to a range of different approaches and research questions, which is needed for the development of collaborative multidisciplinary projects. With the recent arrival of new team members and the end of the follow-up of the EDEN cohort in two years time, we feel that we will be able to reach, at the team level, a more balanced situation between the person-time devoted to the development of resources and to the scientific output.

General readership journals

R The dissemination and scientific strategy should aim to publish more of the team's own work in scientific journals for a more general readership, rather than being limited to more specialised journals.

Publication in journal with a broader readership will be easier in the future when the longer follow-up of the cohorts will allow to concentrate further on childhood diseases or recognised intermediate markers of adult diseases. The team has shown its capability to publish in such journals with a recent publication in the BMJ, and we agree that we should try to submit more articles to such journals in the future.

Team 2 EPICEA research team on epidemiology of childhood and adolescent cancer (0755364Y), Jacqueline Clavel

The team workforce

W/T the capacity for supervising young researchers and students appears low;

R on the beginning of the term, there are only two senior researchers in the team (one of whom is applying for an emeritus position). For this reason, there is a need for strengthening the team with additional researchers, as mentioned, some of them could be qualified in pediatric oncology.

The team has a strong strategy of training students and young researchers: as mentioned by the committee, we have "trained 10 masters students; 6 doctoral students (plus 6 ongoing), 3 medical theses (MD) over the previous period" and "Evidence of the group's academic reputation and appeal is also provided by the number of students attracted by the team"). This strategic activity will be pursued over the next mandate, including by strengthening our capacity for supervision in the future. The team will start its 2015-2018 mandate with 2 research directors and 1 research associate who has a real background in epidemiology (see below) and a HDR. Besides, the statisticians of the team have got a PhD several years ago under our supervision and are now able to contribute actively to the supervision of students.

In line with the committee, we consider of key importance for our large-scale program (1) to strengthen the team for the future: we have trained 2 young researchers, one of whom is already candidate for a permanent position in Inserm, the other one being currently in postdoc;

(2) to strengthen the present potential of the team for research: the works of the new permanent researcher will finally be devoted to etiological research (see § 1.2 below); (3) to strengthen the capacity of the team to contribute to observational clinical research: 1 hospital practitioner specialized in public health and 2 hospital practitioners specialized in pediatric oncology will part-time join the team for the next mandate.

From this point of view, we are convinced that our very strong investment in large innovating and powerful databases, constructed to address various complementary hypotheses and connected with international collaborations, will be very attractive for young scientists, including, PhD students, post-doc fellows and candidate for permanent position in Inserm or University.

W/T

The role of a new researcher needs to be clarified since she is a molecular biophysicist but is presented as joining the study of health care pathways; R It is not completely clear how the recruitment of the new scientist will reinforce the team. Her training and experience in health physics are valuable, but training in social inequalities was not clear.

Meanwhile, we had independently reached a similar conclusion after having taken time to discuss the future program of this researcher, and have reoriented it towards research on childhood brain tumors risk factors. This new direction is better suited to her experience and skills. After 12 years of biophysicist activity devoted to anticancer therapy and biological mechanisms of carcinogenesis, she converted to cancer epidemiology and has worked for 7 years on environmental risk factors of cancer and on long-term effect of radiotherapy in childhood cancer long-term survivors. On childhood brain cancers, she will benefit from the 2 large case-control studies we recently finished to collect, with interview data and constitutional DNA. Besides, the works on care pathways and possible social inequalities will be developed by the hospital practitioners in public health and pediatric oncology, and in collaboration with teams specialized in this field. We will also benefit from exchanges with the EPOPE team, in the CRESS.

R Another difficulty concerning the composition of the team is the large number of technical staff

which will oblige the senior researchers to expend considerable effort finding research support for the staff;

We are grateful to the committee for its acknowledgement of the considerable effort needed to build large highquality database and to find the corresponding funds. We have learnt from 2 decades of creation and management of the national registry that such a project deserves this effort, given the richness and diversity of the resulting data and their interest for research. It is crucial to invest in the training and managing of a skilled team, having a solid knowledge of the data, of the quality requirements, of the network organization, of the partners' rules and of the regulatory needs, with the permanent preoccupation of timesaving. Therefore, the members of the team who runs the components of the Platform are to date highly qualified and have gained more and more autonomy. Our financial burden has been softened recently thanks to the attribution of the first permanent Inserm position for the registry. Also, the recurrent support of the registry and our ANR grant Investment for the future provides the funds necessary to the positions, 2 of them being long-term contracts "CDI". We are aware that is a real challenge to conduct such a project with one third of the budget initially submitted, to emerge and stabilize the structure within 10 years, and to manage positions for perennial missions with short-time contracts. However, we know that we are the only French team who could reasonably take the risk of this commitment in this strategic long-term project.

Collaborations with experts

W/T the team needs collaboration with experts in the field of environmental and occupational exposures; R the team needs collaboration with experts in the field of retrospective assessment of environmental and occupational exposures;

Actually, we work systematically with experts in the field of environmental and occupational exposures. In addition, we consider it of utmost importance to standardize the assessment of exposures by experts, blindly to case-control status, and to use transparent rules and validated published methods prior to any case-control comparisons. These principles guide us in developing the relevant specific collaborations with experts for each type of environmental exposure under study, and in finding the best available databases (e.g. precise map of the sources of exposures, measurement campaigns, job exposure matrices) and models. We have worked, and still work, with teams specialized in dosimetry, metrology and modeling of exposures to radiation within the IRSN (residential exposures to ionizing radiation due to nuclear plants, and to exposure to radon and telluric gamma radiation); we are working with RTE (company responsible for electricity transport) engineers for individual model-based estimates of residential exposure to ELF-EMF magnetic fields due to proximity to high-voltage power lines, and with experts specialized in the evaluation of atmospheric pollution measurements and modeling within the French Institute for Public Health Surveillance, InVS (Gazel'Air program), AirParif and U1085 (traffic-related benzene exposure and to indicators of air pollution). Similarly, we have started to develop collaborations on environmental exposure to pesticides used for farming, some of them being new, some other prolonging our previous collaborations on occupational exposures. Choosing markers of socioeconomic status, and indicators or health care trajectory relies on the same need of skilled collaborations.

In our works on adult lymphomas (and now in the Interlymph consortium), we have pursued our general strategy of task-standardized case-by-case expert assessment, and we worked with ACTA (agricultural technical coordinating association) and MSA (farmers insurance) experts. We contributed at that time to set up the industrial hygienist team of the InVS health-occupation department and to the 3-year training of one of its first young industrial hygienist on pesticides and solvents exposures. In children, parental occupational exposures are mostly investigated at the international level, because of small numbers, and international expertise contributions for JEM are currently coordinated by the International Agency for research on cancer, IARC. However, our experience in occupational epidemiology was determinant in the construction of our questionnaires on parental occupation (currently for childhood leukemias and brain tumors).

Strategy for the Platform

W/T the plans concerning the functioning and scientific strategy of the plateform are not developed; R detailed plans concerning the strategy of the childhood cancer plateform are needed;

The Platform is a developing multidisciplinary nationwide infrastructure, which is driven by the willing of supporting a large range of projects in observational clinical research, translational research and epidemiological research, in line with the objectives of the Investments for the future. Our strategy for during the next mandate is to make the infrastructure able to function and serve high quality research projects. This means to ensure the long term feasibility of standardized data collection complying with high quality criteria, and to set up an adequate governance for data sharing, all this at lowest cost.

After having consolidated the technical bases of the platform and the rules of partnership and data sharing, we will emit calls for expression of interest twice a year, so that teams (including ours) will be able to prepare collaborative projects to access follow-up data and biospecimens stored in the hospital biobanks with standardized annotations from the national registry, and to send questionnaires to the cohort members. The governance has to manage the questions of data sharing and possible conflicts of interest, and to check that a scientific evaluation has been done, and to encourage new external collaborations. Therefore, the bodies of governance include the President of the French society of pediatric oncology, the epidemiologists responsible for the concerned databases and representatives of pediatric oncologists, pathologists, biologists and radiotherapists. The first call should take place next year. A strength of the Platform is that it will make it possible to address serious questions like early toxic effects or long-term side effects of treatments independently from the inclusion in trials and transversally with respect to the types of tumor, it will help to access to tumor material on several criteria even if tumors are spread in several centers over the territory. Our research projects will also directly benefit from the platform through additional questions on individual parental SES or residential history and possibly by better clinical and biological characterizations of the cases. Our objective is that the Platform be ready, with relevant data, quality criteria and adequate governance, when new hypotheses emerge.

Etiology of solid tumors

W/T the hypotheses and scientific strategy for studying non-leukemia childhood cancers and adolescent cancers in the next mandate is not presented. R the hypotheses and scientific strategy for studying non-leukemia childhood cancers and adolescent cancers in the next mandate need to be developed

Our strategy for the etiology of solid tumors is very similar to that of leukemias, but our step of research is different. The numbers are smaller, and for some cancers, classifications have very much evolved, pointing topographic, histological, cytological and molecular subtypes with different prognoses, susceptible to reflect as well some etiological heterogeneity.

Therefore we have waited the completion of our latest individual case-control study, which can be pooled to the previous one so that we can work under better conditions of statistical power. Also we needed to have expanded our registry-based national program, which uses geographic information systems to study specific sources of environmental exposures. We have begun to work on childhood brain tumors. Some of our hypotheses concern genetic factors, through family history of cancer, personal history of birth defects, and search of predisposing polymorphisms, perinatal factors, particularly fetal growth and breastfeeding, and environmental exposures, particularly prenatal exposure to pesticides and parental smoking. Since the Committee visit, we have applied with an US and an Australian team for a grant supporting the creation of an international consortium on brain tumors, and with a UK team for support in GWAS funding. On lymphoma and their different subtypes, we have started the analysis of history of early infections. Finally, our works on adolescent are still at a descriptive stage, with the very recent extension of the registration up to the age of 18.

Directeur du

  Epidemiology and biostatistics Sorbonne Paris Cité, INSERM, Université Paris Descartes, INED, Mr Philippe RAVAUD 6 3  Team-by-team analysis Team 1 : Early Origin of the child's health and development (ORCHAD) Name of team leader: Ms Marie-Aline CHARLES

  Epidemiology and biostatistics Sorbonne Paris Cité, INSERM, Université Paris Descartes, INED, Mr Philippe RAVAUD 12 unit project: Mr Philippe RAVAUD Attending: Committee members, AERES scientific delegate, representatives of Institutions and unit members 9:30 Scientific Presentation Team 1 Attending: Committee members, AERES scientific delegate, representatives of Institutions and unit members 10:30 Scientific Presentation Team 2 Attending: Committee members, AERES scientific delegate, representatives of Institutions and unit members 3. Meeting with researchers, technicians, doctoral students and postand post-doctoral fellows Attending: Committee members, AERES scientific delegate, without representative of institution, without the direction of the unit and without team leaders 4. Lunch with representatives of Institutions 12:30 Discussion with committee members Attending: Committee members, AERES scientific delegate, representatives of Université Paris Descartes (Mr Arnaud DUCRUIX), and of INSERM (Ms Christine GUILLARD), without the direction of the unit and without team leaders 5. Meeting with head of unit Mr Philippe RAVAUD 13:20 Session with the committee 6. Close-door meeting of the site visit committee with AERES scientific Origin of the Child's health and development team, Marie-Aline Charles

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  Sensory science and eating behaviour: INRA-University of Burgundy; Wageningen University • Cognitive science: Ecole NormaleSupérieure • Neuroscience: Lyon I University • Psychology: University College London; University of Leeds; Copenhagen University; Nanterre University; • Sociology of eating behaviour: INRA • Sociology of education: CNRS-University of Picardie • Demography: Ined • Microbiology: Paris Descartes University • Epigenetics: Inserm-Paris Descartes University • Genetics: MRC-University of Cambridge; • Toxicology: Inserm-Paris Descartes University; Anses • Nutritional biology: CNRS-Aix-Marseille University • Paediatric endocrinology, MRC-University of Cambridge; University of Barcelona; Inserm-Paris Descartes University • General paediatrics: University of Poitiers, • Clinical nutrition and physical activity: Pierre et Marie Curie University; Inserm-Lyon University • Sleep disorders: Lyon I University, University of Chigago, University of Montreal

Team workforce Number as at 30/06/2013 Number as at 01/01/2015 N1: Permanent professors and similar positions

	N2: Permanent EPST or EPIC researchers and similar positions	2	3
	N3: Other permanent staff (without research duties)	4	8
	N4: Other professors (PREM, ECC, etc.)
	N5: Other EPST or EPIC researchers (DREM, Postdoctoral students, visitors, etc.)	1	1
	N6: Other contractual staff (without research duties)	9	9
	TOTAL

N1 to N6 16 21 Team workforce Number as at 30/06/2013 Number as at 01/01/2015

	 Detailed assessments
	Assessment of scientific quality and outputs
	Doctoral students	6
	Theses defended	8
	Postdoctoral students having spent at least 12 months in the unit
	Number of Research Supervisor Qualifications (HDR) taken
	Qualified research supervisors (with an HDR) or similar positions	2	3

 Supervising bodies' general comments

has been evaluated by the AERES in 2013. Please refer to the AERES report for unit description. The present report is only related to the evaluation of two teams that used to be part of the INSERM U1018 (CESP)