The IRD around the world
Sweden
@
Belgium
@
Spain
Switzerland
@
@
@
Algeria
MoroccoAlgéria
@
Tunisia
Mali
Syria
Lebanon
Niger
Laos
Egypt
Senegal
India
@
Burkina Faso
Benin
Mexico
Martinique
Colombia
Ecuador
@
French
Guiana
@
Guinea @
Cameroon
Thailand
@
Togo
Côte d’Ivoire
Gabon
Seychelles
Congo
@
Vietnam
@
Kenya
Indonesia
Peru
Madagascar
Bolivia
Brazil
Zimbabwe
Chile
French
Polynesia
@
@
La Réunion
@
New Caledonia
Australia
Argentina
South Africa
See page 60 for list of IRD centres worldwide
Other assignments
IRD centres
Local staff
Staff on assignment*
*tenured, expatriate, doctoral students, volunteers
1-3 4-6 7-12 13-25 26-50 51-62
105
133
@
@
1
2
@ @
3
8
Distribution of budgeted staff at 31/12/05
3
EditOrial
For the IRD, 2005 was a year of continued hard work in pursuit of its established priorities.
Scientific output increased and new projects, in line geographical priorities, began. There were also
some crucial strategic changes.
On the research side, there was more than one publication per researcher - the rate has been increasing
by 7% a year for three years - and some widely noted results, such as the discovery of an Ebola virus
reservoir in bats in Gabon. Two campaigns, Amadeus and Esmeraldas, explored major earthquake zone off
the coasts of Peru, Ecuador and Colombia.
As regards international research programmes in priority geographical areas, the Institute was an active
partner in the African Monsoon Multidisciplinary Analyses programme (AMMA) and the Water programme
of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), for which it is now the coordinating agency. It
developed regional dynamics in the South, for example in the Andean countries, and started to promote
South-South partnerships. The IRD’s presence in the Mediterranean region was also intensified, with a
centre opening in Morocco. The Institute was also working to strengthen research capacities in the French
tropical overseas territories, as witness its support for the SEAS Guyane remote sensing platform and its
involvement right from the start of the chikungunya epidemic that hit La Réunion and neighbouring
Indian Ocean countries. The IRD immediately mobilised its scientists and reinforced its resources to
combat the illness, playing its part in the structures set up by the authorities.
Most important, in 2005 the IRD was examining strategic issues and working on a new
contract with the State, its contrat d’objectifs or action plan for 2006-2009. Scientific and
geographical priorities were set in accordance with the recommendations of the Strategic Audit
Committee, in the light of development challenges and with a view to affirming the IRD’s role as
a major actor in national and international policy for the South. In this connection the
Interministerial Committee for International Cooperation has appointed the IRD as lead agency to
mobilise all French universities and research bodies.
With its recent, tighter organisation into 79 research and service units including 28 joint units, the
IRD can respond to major development challenges as it focuses on its scientific priorities: poverty
reduction, international migration, emerging infectious diseases, climate change, water resources
and access to water, and ecosystems and natural resources.
On the strength of this strategic repositioning, its network of centres around the world, its 2,256 staff,
its recognised work in partnership with the South and its role in training for the Southern scientific
community, the IRD is well placed today to fulfil the extended mission the government has given it.
Jean-François GIRARD
Chairman
Michel LAURENT
Director General
Highlights of 2005
IRD partners 25th international population congress
At the 25th international population congress in Tours, France, on 18-23 July, attended
by over 2000 researchers from 108 countries, the IRD took an active part in discussions
about the challenges of world demography in the 21st century.
Exploratory surveys study major South American earthquakes
Two marine geophysics surveys, Amadeus and Esmeraldas, were conducted off the coasts
of Ecuador and Colombia. Their purpose is to improve understanding of major earthquakes
and make simulations of tsunami propagation more reliable.
Satellite observation of the Amazonian environment
Ebola virus research in Gabon
New objectives contract
Evaluating overfishing
The IRD and the responsible authorities drew up the Institute’s new objectives contract for 20062009. The contract defines scientific and geographical priorities for addressing the world’s major
development challenges. The IRD was entrusted with a new function: as lead agency for
development research, it is responsible for stimulating research in this field and drawing
together the entire French scientific community, in research organisations and universities alike.
According to IRD scientists, stocks have crashed in a quarter of the world’s fisheries over the
past fifty years. In 21% of cases the collapse is preceded by a plateau of stable production
and is therefore not foreseeable. These unpredictable collapses are a result of increasingly
efficient fishing equipment technology and the difficulty for depleted fish populations to
regenerate.
Morocco: new IRD centre in Rabat
African monsoon: first assessment of the AMMA programme
Continuing its commitment to Mediterranean countries, the IRD opened its new centre in
Morocco on 30 June.
The IRD took part in the AMMA programme’s first international conference in Dakar. Over 250
researchers met to review ongoing work and discuss future directions for this huge
programme, which is designed to improve understanding of the mechanisms underlying the
African monsoon and its impact on climate and population.
Ebola fever: bats a reservoir for the virus
In Gabon, IRD scientists and their partners have identified bats as one of the natural reservoirs
for the Ebola fever virus. Since 2001 this virus has caused several violent epidemics of
haemorrhagic fever in the Republic of Congo and Gabon.
IRD helps fight Chikungunya epidemic
Building on its experience in medical entomology the IRD mobilised its researchers to combat
the Chikungunya epidemic in la Réunion, as part of the Chikungunya epidemic control support
mission launched by the French health and overseas territories ministries.
4
SEAS Guyane, an environmental monitoring platform for Amazonia, based on satellite
remote sensing, was set up in Cayenne in French Guyana. The IRD will run the image
receiving and processing station.
IRD leads NEPAD water programme
As part of the boost for research in Africa initiated by NEPAD, The New Partnership for Africa’s
Development, the French foreign affairs ministry commissioned the IRD to coordinate all
French research on water science and technology. The IRD was one of the organising bodies for
a meeting of French and African experts, held in Nairobi, to start building a network of African
centres of excellence in this field.
5
The IRD
in a nutshell
Key figures of
2005
167.35
195.2
Research for development
Founded in 1944, the Institut de Recherche pour le Développement is a French public research
institute under the joint authority of the French ministries responsible for research and for overseas
development.
The IRD works in Africa, Asia, the Indian Ocean, Latin America and the Pacific, conducting
multidisciplinary research for the purposes of economic, social and cultural development in
Southern countries. Its work is focused on the relations between humans and their environment in
tropical and Mediterranean regions, with a view to sustainable development.
Lead agency in research for the South
Through its role as a government agency, the IRD mobilises the French scientific community for
research that will assist development. Continuous assessment ensures excellence in the research
the IRD conducts, as witness its scientists’ increasing participation in national, European and
international programmes in Southern countries.
Dynamic partnership
The IRD’s research projects are conducted in partnership with Southern institutions. The Institute
also designs and provides training to build the capacities of the Southern countries’ own scientific
communities. It works to transfer knowledge to economic and social actors and to find applications
for its research results. Its dissemination of scientific and technical information is a further
contribution to knowledge sharing.
2 256
M€ total budget
staff
971
staff outside mainland
France (43%)
79
research and service
units
205
760
grants and fellowships
awarded to scientists
from the South
(studentships and
appointments)
publications recorded
in the Science Citation
Index (excl. social
sciences)
13.34
72 %
Incl 794
797
665
34 %
71 %
155
Incl
28
105
53
43
4
M€ government subsidy
M€ own resources, mainly from research
contracts
allocated to payroll
researchers
engineers and technicians
local and non-tenured staff
of staff in mainland France
work in partner institutions’ structures
of staff abroad work in Africa
long-term missions
joint research units with other
French research organisations
and universities
thesis grants
scientific exchange fellowships
in-service training grants
post doctorals’ grants
Over 1 publication per researcher per year
40 %
of articles jointly signed with
Southern partners
Annual report 2005