ESA – École Supérieure d’Agricultures d’Angers Loire (Graduate School of Food, Agronomy and Agribusiness)
Historically based in western France, ESA is closely linked to the agricultural, food and environmental context of this region. Involved in the main higher-education networks, the institution has developed a national and international dimension. Its administrators, coming from the business world, focus their work on opening the school up to students from all backgrounds, to professionals and to society more generally. Accordingly, ESA develops targeted research and trains professionals who can address contemporary problems. Around the engineering school, ESA has developed a range of about 50 training courses for young people and adults, from Bac (key-stage 5 equivalent) to Bac + 5 (post-graduate level) where teaching is always closely linked with research.
ESA prioritises targeted and multidisciplinary research to support its teaching and training programmes and its international standing. Five research units, 90 research collaborators, including 41 research lecturers are engaged in research for the purpose of designing sustainable agricultural and food systems.
The collective identity of ESA’s research activities centres on the goal of supporting innovation and change for sustainable agricultural and food systems, through five main themes each driven by a research unit.