The INRA, Grassland Ecosystem Research Unite at Clermont Ferrand, France, has an international expertise on biodiversity, biogeochemical cycles and global change for managed grasslands. The group investigates the role of plant and soil microbial diversity for the carbon and nitrogen cycles and for the productivity and quality of grasslands. The research interest’s cover climate change impacts, livestock and ecosystem services as well as GHG emissions and C storage of managed temperate grassland. The research unite has developed expertise in both experimental and mathematical modelling approaches to study the impacts of climate change and agricultural practices on ecosystem processes and soil C storage. These research activities have also led to large investments in a national long term environmental observation systems (SOERE-ACBB) also involved in infrastructure projects on the carbon cycle (ESFRI supported ICOS project) and in several European projects linked to soil monitoring and modelling