This document contains the chapter devoted to the scientific description of the IPANEMA project submitted in 2006 for funding under the State–Region Île-de-France Project Contract (Contrat de projets État–Région Île-de-France) 2007–2013, and for which funding has been approved. IPANEMA is the Institut photonique d’analyse non-destructive européen des matériaux anciens (European photonic institute for the non-destructive analysis of ancient materials), based at the SOLEIL synchrotron facility on the Université Paris-Saclay campus. We are providing the original version of the text in French, as well as an English translation of the document. Minor errors and typos have been corrected. The bibliographical references in press at the time have been updated.