About the school

Oniris is an institute in higher education and research that operates under the aegis of France’s ministry of agriculture and food sovereignty.

Its work covers a broad spectrum of subjects that includes animal health and public health, clinical and biomedical studies, food science, and process engineering.

Oniris aims to be a player in the food industry and in animal and human health by actively contributing to the concept of ‘one medicine, one health’.

Oniris teaches around 1,200 students and offers training courses that are designed for:

• Veterinary careers (veterinary surgeon diploma): the particularity of this course, which is for pathologists and biologists, is that the aptitudes acquired from clinical training, especially in a European hospital, are combined with the aptitudes acquired from research-based training.
• Engineering careers (engineer diploma) in the fields of agrifood and nutrition.

The in-depth third-year studies on Oniris’s engineering course offers an immersion in an industrial setting and specific tools conducive to innovation, like a technological equipment building that recreates the real-world conditions of industry.

The veterinary and engineering courses each have their own particularities, but they both offer students added value with a view to working in a diverse range of jobs and increasing employability.

One of Oniris’s specific strengths in terms of food and innovation in food is to incorporate health and safety issues into industrial processes, nutrition, well-being, and health and social sciences.

Oniris aims to train professionals who can rise to major global challenges in health and food.

Students are also given opportunities in social responsibility, for example through initiatives supporting equal opportunities in education and careers for disadvantaged pupils.

Oniris is accredited for issuing PhDs and offers a range of master’s degrees, so it has a very attractive programme in teaching and research that operates alongside different French research institutes, including INRAE (national institute for research in agriculture, food and the environment), INSERM (national institute for health and medical research), CNRS (national centre for scientific research), IFREMER (national institute for marine science research) and ANSES (national institute for health and safety in food, the environment and work).

Four themes summarise Oniris, mainly through its research units:

• The theme ‘Controlling the health of farm animals’ tackles the issue of food security through prevention and crisis management in animal health and tackles the issue of human health through the prevention of biological and chemical risks in the food chain.
• The theme ‘Food safety and quality’ helps produce knowledge and methods that can be used to make food of a high quality in regard to health, nutrition and the senses.
• The theme ‘Food processes, management and sustainable development’ helps design and assess innovative and sustainable agrifood procedures to make food that meets the needs of industrial strategies and the expectations of consumers.
• The theme ‘Human health and clinical, biomedical and translational research’;helps understand pathological mechanisms and helps produce innovative treatments for diseases in animals and humans – work that involves close interaction with regional health authorities.