At the CNRS INEE (Ecology and Environment Institute) unit managers’ day on 16 November 2022 in Paris, the “Rural Environment in Argonne” Workshop Zone (ZARG) was awarded official certification by the CNRS from 1 January 2023.

Workshop Zones are coordinated by the CNRS INEE and supervised by researchers or teaching researchers working at universities or EPST scientific and technological public establishments. The “ZARG” is the 15th INEE Workshop Zone (research infrastructure) of the CNRS.

Deployed around experimental observation zones known as “workshop sites”, chosen among contrasting representative locations in the Argonne, the ZARG will study the socioecological operations and pathways specific to that territory rich in history, biodiversity and remarkable geological singularities. A social aspect is implicitly part of the project with its thirty or so local, regional and national partners (local authorities, public bodies, companies, schools, associations etc.).

The ZARG is the result of cooperation between nearly 100 teaching researchers, researchers and auxiliary research staff from 24 laboratories at six universities, the Association Argonne PNR (National Regional Park) and local operators who pool their expertise in the domains of exact and natural sciences, human and social sciences, and health.

Certification of the ZARG allows the Argonne district to join the CNRS national network of Workshop Zones (RZA) and the European eLTER network (Integrated European Long-Term Ecosystem, critical zone and socio-ecological Research).

Finally, the ZARG will be a member of the DIPEE Grand Est (ecological and environmental partnership system of the CNRS INEE) currently being developed for its launch planned in 2023, together with the Moselle (ZAM) and Urban Environmental (ZAEU) Workshop Zones, LIEC research units: UL RU, LIVE (UniStra RU) and IPHC (Unistra RU) and ZAEU (Urban Environmental Workshop Zone).