the IRD around the world
2006 was a particularly important
year for the IRD, with the signing
of its objectives contract for the
2006-2009 period, the appointment
of a new Director General and
important progress on two issues.
One was the discussions between
higher education establishments
and research bodies that resulted in
the formation of AIRD, the Agence
inter-établissements de recherche
pour le développement, and the
other was the work on site policy.
Finally, the decision to move the
Institute’s head office to Marseille is
intended to correct the over-centralisation of our research system.
International recognition of our research work by now needs no demonstration. This
year’s examples include a further increase in the number of scientific articles published in
top-grade journals and important research findings such as the identification of the
natural reservoir of the HIV virus in chimpanzees and definitive proof of the existence of
the mega-Lake Chad in the mid-Holocene. Our expertise (demonstrated for example in
volcanic risk prevention in Latin America and chikungunya control in the Indian Ocean)
and our participation in major international programmes (AMMA on climate, the Santo
biodiversity mission) reaffirmed the Institute’s position as a major player in research for
development. As regards training, the increase in the number of teaching hours
dispensed and theses supervised illustrates our commitment to helping to structure
Southern scientific communities.
Aside from the year’s results in the annual report, it is also worth noting the more gradual
trends in research for development. For the past ten years the IRD has identified with the
concept of “research for development”. This ambitious term has often been misused, and
has been understood even recently as referring almost exclusively to support for the least
developed countries, in the name of international solidarity. This goal must of course still
be pursued, and our focus on the millennium development goals is a strategic framework
that reminds us of it.
Annual report • 2006
Editorial
Nonetheless, science in general and research for development in particular cannot ignore
globalisation, which in no way removes inequalities, power relations or risks – on the
contrary. In the context of globalisation, research for development has a range of goals
that combine a concern for solidarity with concern for safety, security and empowerment.
Moreover, many relevant scientific issues such as climate, emerging diseases, biodiversity
and migration require a global approach both to understand them and to address their
consequences. With challenges like these, research for development cannot rely solely
on the contributions of dedicated organisations. Nor can it do without European
partnerships, or limit its field of activity to the developing countries. This is the new
strategy that must be elaborated and adopted, and this will be our task in 2007.
Jean-François GIRARD
Chairman
Michel LAURENT
Director General
5
A strategic turning point for the IRD
2006 marked a significant strategic watershed for the IRD. With the signing of its
new objectives contract for 2006-2009, the Institute was given a new function as
a government agency. To fulfil its new dual mission as research operator and
agency for the South, it defined a scientific policy action plan and started
consultations about restructuring its research facilities under a new site policy.
The new objectives contract, signed with the Government in mid-2006, gives the IRD an
ambitious framework for stimulating French research for development. The aim is for the
Institute to better adapt its scientific work to development needs, modernise its
partnerships with Southern scientific institutions, forge a network of European
partnerships and increase its influence and presence in the major international
development organisations.
Scientific and geographical priorities
The IRD will now be concentrating its research potential on scientific and geographical
priorities defined in the light of the Southern countries’ main development challenges and
the broad lines of French development aid policy. The Institute’s core research streams
will henceforth be poverty reduction, international migration, emerging infectious
diseases, climate change and natural hazards, water resources and access to water, and
ecosystems and natural resources. These are key issues for development, recognised as
such by the international institutions, and will be studied under multidisciplinary and
cross-disciplinary programmes. The Institute’s geopolitical strategy will be based on four
main priorities: increasing investment in Africa and the Mediterranean basin; making a
bigger contribution to the construction of the European research area; developing
regional dynamics in the South; and promoting South-South partnerships.
Creation of the Agence inter-établissements de la recherche
pour le développement (AIRD)
At the government’s behest, in 2006 the IRD founded the Agence inter-établissements
de la recherche pour le développement (AIRD). The agency has a threefold purpose. It is
tasked with amplifying French and European research efforts for development by
mobilising the potential of research bodies and universities. It is intended to act as a
driving force by stimulating strategic thinking, generating proposals and providing
expertise on research for development and scientific cooperation with the South. And it
is to be an active force for building up Southern scientific communities as permanent
features of their regions. This latter goal will be pursued by supporting research teams
and researcher training, leading regional research programmes and providing scientific
supervision for regional technology platforms. AIRD is governed by a steering committee
whose members are representatives of French research bodies (Cirad, CNRS, CPU,
Inserm, Institut Pasteur, IRD) and the main multilateral organisations, and qualified
personalities representing the Southern continents.
The programmes set up by AIRD will be selected and guided by its steering committee.
The system will be based on calls for proposals open to the scientific community in North
and South
Missions of AIRD and its steering committee
• Conduct continuous discussion of the concepts of research for development
• Define relevant scientific topics for research for development
• Define priority themes for the agency’s programming
• Identify, mobilise and combine the skills and resources of all potential partners, North and
South
• Issue calls for proposals and through these launch research-for-development
programmes comprising a wider North-South scientific community
• Evaluate the research programmes launched and managed by the Agency.
In October, the IRD defined its action plan for meeting the challenges of its new objectives contract. This plan will help the Institute complete the management modernisation
and research work restructuring that began several years ago. It puts strong emphasis
on partnership with Northern and Southern organisations alike, and gives a key place to
strengthening Southern scientific communities to help them address today’s globalised
challenges and progress towards self-reliance. To address the big issues of development
the IRD must focus its work and its teams more tightly, take a more horizontal approach
and develop stronger partnerships. The Institute will be concentrating its scientific potential, with fewer IRD-only research units and more participation in joint units. Abroad, wherever conditions allow, support will be given to international joint research units, as with
the UMR joint units in Metropolitan France.
Part of this effort will be a site policy designed to construct the necessary synergies with
local partners, give greater visibility to research-for-development issues and concentrate
effort and human and material resources on the scientific priorities of the objectives
contract.
The policy of research expatriation, missions to the South and temporary hosting of
Southern researchers will be guided by the scientific relevance of the research
programmes and by the local importance of their topics. These must be spelled out by
the partners together. Lastly, the IRD will continue to contribute to the major earth and
ocean observation systems. Resources in this field will be augmented, with platforms
developed in partnership and open to a large number of users.
Annual report • 2006
Action plan for a revitalised scientific policy
A new head office in Marseille
At their meeting at the end of 2006 the Board of Trustees voted to move the Institute’s
head office to the Euroméditerranée site in Marseille. In March, the Interministerial
Committee for Regional Planning and Competitiveness had asked the IRD to examine
the possibilities for moving the headquarters out of the Île-de-France region, and an
interministerial mission had examined the applications of ten candidate cities. The move
will be an opportunity to further modernise working conditions at head office and will bring
it to a region that already has close ties with Southern countries and with research for
development.
Alongside the research there must be training, scientific outreach and consultancy work.
The conjunction of research and training remains an absolute priority, and there is strong
demand from the South for training for tomorrow’s scientists. The involvement of IRD
researchers in training, especially for international Master’s degrees, will be strengthened
and formalised, with closer partnerships with universities in North and South. The
continuum between research and teaching is now consolidated with the creation of
collaborative chairs. Under this system, the IRD supports a joint research project by two
researchers, one from the North and one from the South. The two researchers undertake
a research-for-development project that must include training at doctoral or Master’s
level.
Access to water is a priority
7
The IRD in a nutshell
Key figures of 2006
Research for development
Founded in 1944, the Institut de Recherche pour le Développement is a French public
research institute working for the development of the Southern countries. It operates under
the joint authority of the French Ministries responsible for research and for overseas
development.
Its work is focused on the relationship between humans and their environment in connection
with the world’s great development challenges - climate change, managing natural hazards,
access to water, protecting ecosystems, food security and public health, international
migration, poverty reduction etc.
200
2,231
€170
€12.70
71%
M€ budget
828
1, 013
390
staff
million in government subsidies
million own resources
allocated to staff pay
researchers
engineers and technicians
local permanent staff
In France and abroad
Over 800 researchers and 1,000 engineers take part in major research programmes
aiming for sustainable development. The IRD has five establishments in metropolitan
France and five in the French overseas territories. It works in Africa, around the shores of
the Mediterranean, in Asia, the Indian Ocean, Latin America and the Pacific. All in all it
operates in forty countries.
Partnership
IRD research is conducted in partnership with Southern institutions under national,
European and international programmes. It provides training and network facilitation to
build up the capacities of Southern scientific communities and help them integrate into
the international scientific community. It also plays a part in transferring knowledge and
finding applications for research results with economic and social actors in the South,
always with a mind to the interests of partner countries.
Mobilising the scientific community for the Southern countries
Through its part in AIRD, the new inter-establishment Agence inter-établissements de la
recherche pour le développement, the IRD has the task of mobilising French and
European universities and major research bodies on research issues connected with
development.
956
79
179
staff working
outside
Metropolitan
France
of which
research
and service units
43%
53%
117
includ
grants paid to
Southern scientists
29
129
5
20
4
6,000
hours of teaching
given by IRD
researchers
and engineers
140
supervised theses
800
scientific
publications
(excluding human sciences)
51%
49%
43%
of staff
of expatriate staff work in Africa
long-term missions
joint units with other French research
bodies or Universities
Thesis grants
Master’s grants
inservice training grants
scientific exchange grants
in France
abroad
of theses jointly signed with Southern
partners
New Director General appointed
Combating Chikungunya
in La Réunion
Professor Michel Laurent, specialist in behavioural
neuroscience, former Chairman of Méditerranée-AixMarseille University and Vice-Chairman of the Conference
of University Chairpersons, was appointed Director
General of the IRD for a three-year mandate.
Following its participation in the consultancy mission on
the chikungunya outbreak, launched by the research and
health ministries in 2005, the IRD is now leading a major
research programme in La Réunion to improve knowledge
of the mosquitoes that transmit the disease.
2006-2009 objectives contract signed
Towards a tropical pelagic ecosystems monitoring system
Brigitte Gerardin, Deputy Minister for cooperation,
development and the Francophone countries, François
Goulard, Deputy Minister for higher education and
research, IRD chairman Jean-François Girard and Director
General Michel Laurent signed the Institute’s new
objectives contract (2006-2009), which lays down its
priorities for the next four years.
The European FADIO programme, in which the IRD was
the lead institution, completed its work in 2006 after four
years of research and oceanographic surveys. The
programme developed and tested electronic tags relayed
by satellite uplink, automating the collecting of data on
large pelagic fish. With these tools researchers will be able
to set up a system for monitoring tropical pelagic
ecosystems.
Annual report • 2006
Highlights of the year
New inter-establishment agency for
research for development (AIRD)
The IRD founded this agency at the request of the
Interministerial Committee for International Cooperation
and Development, to stimulate the French research effort
for development. Its members are education and research
establishments working for development in Southern
countries.
Monitoring the Amazonian environment
by satellite
SEAS Guyane, inaugurated in 2006 in Cayenne, French
Guiana, is an environmental monitoring platform that
enables researchers to make direct use of Spot and
Envisat satellite images of the Amazonian region.
2006 Santo expedition in the Pacific
The Muséum national d’histoire naturelle, the IRD and the
NGO Pronatura led a major international expedition to
inventory biodiversity on the island of Espiritu Santo in
Vanuatu. It lasted five months and involved 150
researchers from 25 countries, exploring the island from
the treetops to the ocean depths. Some twenty IRD
scientists took part and much use was made of the
Institute’s logistical resources, particularly the
oceanographic vessel Alis. What follows now is several
years’ work to identify the 10,000 animal and plant
species collected and make a detailed analysis of the
island’s biodiversity.
9