IFREMER has encouraged for over 15 years the oceanographic modeling of sea waters all around the metropolitan French coasts in order to facilitate environmental coastal studies. In that context, the North-Western Mediterranean Sea confi guration (MENOR: 1.2 km – 60 vertical levels) has been introduced in the framework of Previmer operational forecasting system (http://www.previmer.org/en). This article gives an insight into the operational applications and scientific research using this MENOR configuration.