Presentation

Once upon a time, Silvatech...

Silvatech is a french national facility dedicated to the analysis of forest ecosystems and wood, created in 2018 from the merger of two facilities supported by four research units. Its ambition is to provide the research community with innovative analytical and imaging technologies capable of deciphering the structures, properties, and functions of trees under multiple stress factors, from their natural ecosystems to wood as a material.

The facility’s goal is to organise and continually improve in order to best meet the needs of its scientific communities in understanding how trees and wood respond to the multiple constraints of their environment. To achieve this, Silvatech focuses on three main missions within the framework of an ISO 9001-certified quality management system:

• Providing analytical services to scientific communities
• Developing new methodologies to enhance its services and adapt to emerging needs
• Engaging in training, scientific culture transfer, and data sharing

Since 2019, Silvatech has been recognized as a Collective Scientific Infrastructure (DISC) by INRAE through the DISC, and as a Research Support Infrastructure by Lorraine Université d’Excellence (INFRA+). Both labelling processes are based on similar pillars: openness to research communities, development, and training.

Techniques and expertises.

The facility provides expertise and technological and methodological development capacity to partners in public research (in ecology, ecophysiology, biogeochemistry of forest, grassland, and aquatic ecosystems, dendrometry, wood anatomy and properties, structure–property relationships, wood sciences) as well as to private partners.

Silvatech develops methodologies based on cutting-edge technologies to support projects whose scientific objectives aim to:

1/ Understand the trade-offs between resource acquisition and allocation (C, N, water, nutrients) and their utilization :

• Assessment of tree physiological status through the measurement of carbon and nitrogen reserves 
• Tracing of C-N-O-H metabolic pathways and trophic networks through isotopic approaches 
• Efficiency of water, carbon, and nitrogen use by microorganisms and trees 
• Assessment of chemical fertility and nutrient bioavailability in the soil-tree continuum 

2/ Connect environmental determinants to the hydraulic and biomechanical properties of wood under multiple contexts (wind, drought, silviculture, uses) :

• Estimation of the dynamics of multi-scale wood formation and degradation and tree growth 
• Plasticity of anatomical structures in response to biotic and abiotic stresses 
• Evaluation of wood resistance to stress in various silvicultural models
• Estimation of wood quality through internal and external observation approaches, physical, mechanical, and chemical properties in relation to its uses
   

From a functional perspective, the Silvatech facility is organized into two main units: an Isotope-Chemistry (IC) unit and an Imaging and Multi-Modal Measurements (I3M) unit. These units develop shared methodological pathways that enable the scientific community to acquire combined multi-scale physico-chemical information.

These two units also rely on workshops for sample preparation (microtomy and cryomicrotomy, lyophilisation, metallisation, grinding, micro-weighing, extractions) and design (wood, mechanics, additive manufacturing).

Partners network...

SILVATECH has developed a network of collaborations with numerous public and private research entities (CIRAD, CNRS, IRD, ONF, IFN, FCBA, universities, CEA, companies, etc.) and aims to make its services available to a wide scientific community within the scope of its expertise and core topics.

Research ecosystem...

Silvatech is a shared facility between four research units, supporting their main research themes: UMR SILVA (multidisciplinary research on wood, trees, and forest socio-ecosystems in the context of climate change), UMR IAM (tree–microorganism interactions), UR BEF (biogeochemistry of forest ecosystems), USC LERMAB (studies and research on wood materials).

Through the supervisory bodies of its units, the facility is regionally integrated into the INRAE Grand-Est Nancy Center, the A2F hub of the University of Lorraine, and AgroParisTech. Since 2012, the site’s entities have benefited from a favourable regional research ecosystem through the LABEX ARBRE, which in 2025 was succeeded by a permanent interdisciplinary programme, ARTEMIS (Advanced Research and Education on the Biology, the Ecology, the Management and the BiomonItoring of Forest Ecosystems in a Changing World), within the framework of Lorraine Université d’Excellence. This dynamic regional research environment has enabled the development and success of three successive CPER projects (INRAE–Région GE–State–FEDER) — FORBOIS 1 (2012–2017), FORBOIS 2 (2017–2022), and IEFB (2022–2027) — which have greatly contributed to expanding the technological facilities of the Silvatech facility.

At the national scale, the facility is integrated into the INRAE ECODIV research department, contributing to its major scientific objectives: understanding organismal responses to multiple stressors, biodiversity organization, determinants in changing environments, and their links to ecosystem functioning. In a complementary but more limited way, Silvatech focuses on the assessment and management of multiple abiotic and biotic risks under uncertainty, and the analysis of ecosystem dynamics and trajectories under global change. Silvatech also contributes to the national research infrastructure IN-SYLVA and the LABEX CEBA. Within the ECODIV department, it complements the Phénobois facility, particularly regarding approaches for estimating wood hydraulic properties and microdensitometry. Silvatech benefits from the scientific momentum generated by the launch of the Priority Research Programs and Equipment (PEPR): FairCarboN (2022–2028), dedicated to studying key processes governing the carbon cycle, its coupling with other biogeochemical cycles (nitrogen, phosphorus, water), and their responses to global changes, and FORESTT (2024–2030), focused on the socio-ecological transition of temperate and tropical forest systems. The facility is also actively involved in, and benefits from, the dynamics of several national scientific and technological networks, including GDR Bois, ISCAD ECODIV, A2F facilities, LUE INFRA+ network, imaging and microscopy networks (RIME, CAZAC, GN MEBA, RµI), isotope networks (SFIS), and chemometrics networks (ChemHouse).

More recently, Silvatech has joined the initiative for submitting the IN-SYLVA Europe project to the ESFRI roadmap, bringing together 50 partners from 22 countries. The facility is positioned within the “in-lab” services offered by this infrastructure, which should enable new European collaborations through TransNational Access. Expert feedback on this project is expected by the end of 2025. Additionally, Silvatech has been identified as one of the infrastructures available for the upcoming European Forest Partnership, as part of WP4 Additional Activities, Task 4.3 Research Infrastructures, scheduled to start in 2026 for a ten-year period.