With approximately 1,800 collaborators and researchers, INRAP is present throughout metropolitan France, as well as in French Guyana, Guadeloupe and Martinique. It is by far the largest and most important operator in preventive archaeology at work, in both rural and urban areas. With its nation-wide coverage, with the sheer numbers of its personnel and the diversity of their competence, INRAP is a research institute unlike any other in Europe and beyond.