Founded in 1971, the aim of the National institute of nuclear and particle physics (IN2P3) of the CNRS is to promote and unify research activities in the fields of nuclear physics, particle and astroparticle physics. It coordinates programmes within these fields on behalf of the CNRS and universities, in partnership with CEA. The goal of this research is to explore the physics of elementary particles, their fundamental interactions and the manner in which they assemble into atomic nuclei, to study the properties of these nuclei and to explo