Between a reminder of the unit's objectives and a time for cohesion and exchange, this first general meeting also provided an opportunity to highlight the unit's projects.

Laurent Beney, Director of UMR PAM, brought together the teams from Poligny and Dijon for this first general meeting, to remind them of the political and strategic challenges facing this new unit. Emblematic projects were presented, illustrating the four main research themes of the unit :

• New ingredients and new food sources for the development of new products.
• Activities of food ferments and microbial flora and control of their use in food and oenological contexts.
• Process of altering ingredients, food and wine to improve their stability and preservation.
• Better control of contaminants and traceability by understanding the determinants of contaminant behaviour in food matrices.

Laurent Beney emphasised the importance of the "chantiers d'excellence" (projects of excellence), which are markers of the quality of the work and research and enable the funding of tools, thus supporting the life of the unit. Finally, patents are the strong points of unit, ensuring to apply research for society.

He would also like to strengthen the PAM lab's communication activities to ensure that the results of its research are more widely disseminated, both to society and to the scientific community.

PAM lan in brief….

• 75 international publications per year
• Shanghai International Ranking (Food science & technology)
• 3 to 4 patents per year
• 3 start-ups
• 11 industrial contracts in progress
• 2 International Masters