In addition to the 7 research teams, BIOGECO is structured into 4 skill units (SUs) in which 29 permanent staff members (9 exclusively positioned in the SUs) and contractual staff are involved. These methodological and technical support structures strongly contribute to the unit's research work on a daily basis.

OEL : Observation Experimentation Laboratories (resp. Inge van-Halder)
COMPUTER SCIENCE: Informatique (resp. Frédéric Raspail)
PGTB : Genome Transcriptome Facility of Bordeaux (resp. Olivier Lepais & Erwan Guichoux)
PHENOBOIS : Phenotyping of wood and hydraulic properties of trees (resp. Régis Burlett & Sylvain Delzon)

The building blocks of SUs are:

• to promote the skills related to technical support and IT. This visibility facilitates the planning, construction and management of projects that call on several skills
• formalize communities of mutual aid and skill sharing through self-training, which can lead to versatility
• to ensure cross-cutting missions related to the SUs. For example: setting up a Data Management Plan within the unit, common management of equipments belonging to the same SU, access procedures to work space, equipment and know-how, etc...)
• to set aside time for technological developments
• to guide, train and supervise permanent and non-permanent staff
• to ensure the technical animation in the unit

The heads of the SUs participate actively in the steering of the unit by sitting on its two governing boards (steering committee and unit council).
From an organizational point of view, each SU determines the way it operates. The clearest difference is that PGTB and PHENOBOIS are certified facilities by Inrae and the University of Bordeaux, which requires them to provide services to scientific communities outside the unit as well as to socio-economic actors. These two SUs have largely benefited from the support of the Equipex XYLOFOREST from 2010-2019.