Université-Bordeaux-CNRSAusonius is a research institute of the CNRS and the University of Bordeaux 3 (UMR) that brings together researchers from the domains of Antiquity and the Middle Ages. A fruitful collaboration between archaeologists, historians (among them epigraphists and numismatists), art historians and philologists (Latinists and Hellenists), the Institute’s staff is comprised of 147 persons, including 12 full professors, 21 associate professors (maîtres de conferènces), 6 researchers from the CNRS and 71 PhD students.

The scientific activity of the institute is structured around 7 interest centres, each of which is comprised of  between two and seven of the following programs: 1. Aquitaine; 2. Iberian Peninsula; 3. Asia Minor; 4. Economy and Society; 5. Ancient Literature and History of Texts; 6. Mediterranean East and West, and; 7. Virtual Reality in Archaeology. The regions covered by the researchers of the institute include the South-West of France, the Iberian Peninsula, Asia Minor (especially Caria), Lycia and Phrygia, Tunisia, Croatia, Syria, Jordan, and the Northern Black Sea (Romania, Ukraine, Russia and Georgia).

If this scientific programme is the fruit of an elaborated and sustained long-term policy, it is also the result of the laboratory’s capacity to engage in short-to-medium-term projects with non-perennial funding; since 2007, Ausonius has successfully responded (as project manager) to 14 applications from the ANR (Agence Nationale de la recherche) and the Conseil Régional d’Aquitaine (CRA), not to mention the other research contracts in which it participates as a partner. This institute is a leading research establishment in the field of archaeology and epigraphy in France. In 2011, the joint entity consisting of Ausonius and its two partners was designated as a “Laboratory of excellence” (the only archaeological research centre in France) in the context of a new programme initiated by the French government known as “Investissements d’avenir”.

The research library of the institute includes 50,000 monographs, 800 periodicals (340 of which 340 are currently published), and exchanges with 120 French and foreign partners. The institute has its own publication department Ausonius Editions, which boasts 10 collections, and sold 2,816 books in 2010.

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