OpenAlea: Open software platform for plant modelling at different scales

: The aim of the Openalea project is to develop an open source platform for plant modeling at different scales and an international scientific community around this platform to enhance collaborative development between research teams and increase the diffusion of computational plant models at a national and international level. During this project, several achievements have been done, both to develop the OpenAlea software platform and the international community around the software. In France, OpenAlea is a national FSPM modeling platform at INRA and also the modeling platform of the Rhizopolis project. The main actions have been the development of the infrastructure and the integration of functional and structural models , the definition of standard data-structure, and the development of acquisition methods for medium and high-throughput phenotyping. Connexion with other international modeling platforms have been developed like LStudio/VLab (U. Calgary), GroImp (U. Goettingen) and RECORD (Inra Toulouse). These results have been presented in international conferences and in journals and a national scientific comity has been created. Currently, OpenAlea is also used to teach science (biology and mathematic) in high-school and in university.