The BIOGEOSCIENCES research unit is a research community currently comprising more than 100 members, including full-time researchers from the CNRS (French national centre for scientific research), assistant professors and professors from the University of Burgundy and from the EPHE (École pratique des hautes études), technical staff, post-doctoral fellows, PhD students and invited researchers.

BIOGEOSCIENCES is built around five interacting research teams whose scientific activities are deeply anchored into the fields of sedimentology, environmental sciences, climatology, palaeontology and evolutionary ecology/biology. These teams are helped by a multitude of analytical, administrative and logistical services.

BIOGEOSCIENCES is a multi- and inter-disciplinary research unit dedicated to the study of big scientific questions such as: How do biological processes interact with geological and environmental processes? What are the relevant spatial and temporal scales at which these processes operate? What are the links between ecology and evolution? What are the multi-scale effects of global change? How does the latter compare with what occurred in the past? These questions are studied with a wide array of extant and past organisms and environments. The levels of biological integration range from the individual to the entire biosphere, whereas the studied environments range in scale from local plots to the entire planet.