A partnership was set up at the initiative of the Republic and Canton of Jura (Switzerland) and the Jura General Council (France). The Archaeology and Palaeontology Section of the Office of Culture of the Canton of Jura and the Departmental Conservation Office of Natural History, Archaeology and Ethnology of the Jura Department put together the dossier of the project presented to the INTERREG IIIA programme. Submitted in December 2005, it was formally accepted in June 2006.


This partnership was formed following the discovery, in 2002, of the dinosaur tracks site of Courtedoux (Switzerland) then, in 2004, that of Coisia (France) and the ensuing exchanges of experience. Its aim is to highlight the palaeontological heritage of the Jura massif, a geographical, geological and palaeontological entity which today is arbitrarily divided by a border. The Jura has given its name to an important episode in the Secondary era. It was indeed due to the fossil-rich limestone of the Jura massif that Alexandre Brongniart proposed the name Jurassic in 1829.


In addition to the Canton of Jura and the Jura Department, this partnership associates:
- the Fribourg Natural History Museum,
- the Museum of Natural Sciences in Porrentruy,
- and the French National Forestry Commission (Jura agency, France).


It also benefits from the support of the universities of Fribourg and Lyon I, of the Swiss Jura Cooperation Service and the Jura delegation of the Loterie Romande (Swiss Lottery) (Switzerland).

The cooperation that has thus been engaged concerns the Jura Arc. This region could indeed prove crucial for the future of palaeontological research in Europe. This project, which is both uniting and innovative, benefits from the support of the European Union and the Swiss Confederation.

Important current events
2007-2008: the International Year of Planet Earth,
2009: celebration of the 180th anniversary of the naming of the Jurassic period from the Jura limestone,
2012: 3rd Cuvier symposium at Montbéliard.