This piece of equipment (radius = 5.5m) is one of the biggest stars at the Nantes facility and almost always a highlight on the Center’s guided tour. Operational since 1985 within a specially-fitted 1100-m2 building, the geotechnical centrifuge - affectionately known as the "centrif" – makes it possible to study the behaviour of geotechnical structures, such as foundations, offshore anchorages, embankments or supports, using reduced-scale models. The scale-reduction factor of the models is equal to the centrifugal acceleration being applied, up to a maximum of 200xg. The loads are applied in flight using jacks or the robot, controlled from the centrifuge operator’s room. An earthquake simulator is also available for simulating, in flight, 1D horizontal shaking. The results obtained may then be directly transposed to the full-sized structures, or compared to numerical simulation.Thanks to the centrifuge team own workshops, all of the experimental phases can be conducted on site, from the assembling of test models to the processing of data collected during testing. The centrifuge team includes 10 permanent people.The geo-centrifuge, owned by Ifsttar, is accessible to academic research centers or private companies. This facility is involved in many regional, national, european or international projects, and reprensented in the Technical Committee TC104 of the International Society for Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering.The centrifuge may also be used for g-level qualification tests in the field of aeronautics or medicine.GARR participates in EC-funded R&D projects that are relevant to its mission and to requests received by its community. Funding by the EC is a small part of the GARR budget; however, EC projects are considered a very important opportunity to develop interoperable solutions for the benefit of the research and education community in Europe and worldwide.