The Scientific Interest Group (GIS) established between INRA, SEITA and ARN was aimed at placing a formal frame around long-standing interactions between various INRA teams working on the tobacco model plant and research teams at the Bergerac Tobacco Institute (ITB, SEITA, presently Imperial Tobacco Group). Collaborative projects within the GIS frame are implemented through funding contracts allowing, among others, the hiring of young scientists (PhD students or postdoctoral fellows). The major research topics are focused, on one hand on improving tobacco resistance to pathogens and on the study of plant-pathogen interactions, in the aim of reducing pesticide uses, and on the other on improving tobacco chemical characteristics, notably by reducing toxic compounds. Other research topics have focused on the development of breeding tools and on studies of the tobacco genome, and on the set up of targeted mutagenesis strategies as alternatives to transgenesis. Between 1989 and 2008, researches performed in the GIS frame have allowed the formation of 16 PhD students and 8 young postdoctoral fellows, and have been integrated in several national or international projects. They have also produced 26 scientific publications in peer-reviewed international journals, and several patents. The scientific interactions established within the GIS have allowed the development of new tools for tobacco breeding in response to ITB needs, and researches aimed at better understanding plant response to pathogens, as well as plant physiology, metabolism and genome. All together, these interactions have established a privileged scientific network around the tobacco plant model, network in which the partners act in synergy and for a mutual benefit.