Editorial
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The IRD around the world
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Introduction
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5
The IRD: 65 years of successful research
to the benefit of Southern populations 6
Positive outcome at the close of the
2006-2009 objectives contract
Contents
The IRD in a nutshell
Highlights of 2009
Key figures 2009
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8
8
9
Six research programmes
Excellence in research,
guided by ethics
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30
Capacity-building support
for Southern scientific
communities
34
Technology transfer and
consulting
36
Disseminating scientific
information
38
Ap
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Partnerships around
the world
42
Shared equipment, available
to partners
50
International
44
Human resources
51
Overseas France
46
Information systems
Metropolitan France
47
Financial resources
AIRD, an agency mobilising for
research in the South
The IRD’s decision bodies
62
Central services
63
53
The research units
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54
IRD locations around
the world
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58
The IRD around the world
165
.ORTHERN
&RANCE
-ONTPELLIER
Belgium
France
234
(see insert)
Spain
United States
Tunisia
Morocco
China
Algeria
Senegal
Mexico
Côte
d'Ivoire
Peru
Thailand
Cameroon
Vietnam
1-16 35-61 92-165
234
* Universities, research institutes, other institutions
Ethiopia
Kenya
Angola
Brazil
)2$CENTRE
Benin
Gabon
Ecuador
-ARSEILLE
Laos
India
Burkina Faso
French
Guiana
92
3TAFFINHOSTSTRUCTURES
Niger
Martinique
3OUTHERN
&RANCE
)2$HEADOFFICE
Egypt
Mali
Guadeloupe
French
Polynesia
"ONDY
Seychelles
Indonesia
Vanuatu
Madagascar
Bolivia
La Réunion
Chile
New Caledonia
South Africa
Argentina
IRD centre or office
,OCALSTAFF
%XPATRIATEORSECONDEDSTAFF
4
Institut de recherche pour le développement
STAFFNUMBERS
Other form of presence
Staff at 31/12/09
Source: Personnel department
Editorial
The year 2009 confirmed that the IRD had met the targets it committed to under its 2006-2009 objectives contract with the government: a tighter
research structure, consolidation of AIRD (the research agency for overseas development involving all relevant French establishments), more extensive
partnerships with universities in North and South and a modernised administration in the new head offices in Marseille.
The Institute’s embedment in the overall French research system was strengthened by its active involvement in joint research units (now forming nearly
90% of its research units), and by its stronger links with universities and other research bodies in two national alliances – Aviesan for health research issues
and Allenvi for research in agriculture and environment.
A further illustration of the IRD’s work in joint research was our driving role in the creation of the Grand Observatoire du Pacifique Sud. GOPS monitors
marine and terrestrial biodiversity and environment in the South Pacific, for the purposes of tropical ecosystems protection.
The policy of partnership with Southern countries was strengthened with the launch of five international joint laboratories and West Africa’s first business
incubator, in Dakar, involving five Senegalese universities. Support for the scientific communities of partner countries is still a priority work stream. IRD
researchers were supervising more than 470 doctoral students from the South in 2009.
Scientific output continued to advance with an average of two publications per researcher over the year. Research quality was high, as demonstrated when
an IRD researcher was awarded the Fondation Mérieux prize for his work on emerging diseases.
All our work around the three pillars of knowledge that are training, research and innovation puts the Institute in an excellent position to undertake the next
step. This is a major structuring exercise we call L’IRD Demain, based on strategic thinking for the period to 2025 and the elaboration of a new objectives
contract with the government.
My special thanks to chairman Jean-François Girard who left the IRD in November, for his enthusiastic work in the service of research for overseas
development.
To fulfil ever better its mission of partnership with the South, in the South and for the South, the IRD will henceforth be working under new organisational
arrangements and a new form of governance, with a chairman acting as director general and three deputy directors general to assist him.
Michel Laurent / Chairman
Annual report 2009
5
The IRD: 65 years of successful research
to the benefit of Southern populations
Plumpy’nut:
saving children from famine
Plumpy’nut, a ready-to-eat paste made mainly of groundnuts, has
revolutionised the fight against malnutrition. Invented by an IRD
nutritionist, it is now widely used in humanitarian field operations.
More than 14,000 tonnes are produced annually by the private
company Nutriset and its network of franchised manufacturers, most
of which are in Africa and Asia.
Onchocerciasis on the way to
eradication in West Africa
HIV:
limiting mother-to-baby transmission
Clinical trials conducted by the IRD and its partners have shown that
zidovudine (AZT) reduces the risk of AIDS transmission from mother
to baby by a factor of 3 to 10. Taken in association with nevirapine, it
is an effective, low-cost treatment. These results had a direct impact
on health and prevention policies in Thailand as early as 2003.
Twenty years of research
on Andean glaciers
For thirty years the IRD has worked alongside the WHO to combat onchocerciasis. In many parts of West Africa, “river blindness”
is no longer considered a public health problem. Treatment with
ivermectin, now common practice, has helped to control the disease.
However, scientists are paying close attention to the resistant strains
that are emerging.
The tropical glaciers of the Andes are melting at an ever faster rate.
In Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador the IRD and its partners have set up
a glacier observation network that is the only one of its kind in the
Southern hemisphere. Its observations, together with hydrological
models, are used to evaluate and predict the consequences of climate
change on the water resources that are essential for agriculture, urban
water supplies and hydroelectric power.
Impregnated mosquito nets
to combat malaria
Herbaria:
reference tools for tropical botany
Promoted by the World Health Organisation, mosquito nets
impregnated with insecticide are one of the best means of malaria
prevention. Between 2006 and 2008, nearly 140 million impregnated
mosquito nets were distributed in Africa. This is one of the IRD’s
greatest advances.
For nearly fifty years the IRD has been running two herbaria, in French
Guiana and New Caledonia, that serve as international references.
Now computerised and constantly added to, they are indispensable
identification tools for research in tropical botany. They are also used
for the study of traditional pharmacopoeas.
A better understanding
of El Niño episodes
6
El Niño is the most important climatic anomaly in the intertropical
zone.The IRD and its partners have been conducting research
on these episodes for many years. Their findings have improved
predictability - an important advance for the populations that suffer
the floods, droughts and fishery disruption El Niño brings.
Institut de recherche pour le développement
Positive outcome at the close of the
2006-2009 objectives contract
At the close of its 2006-2009 objectives contract with the
State, the IRD’s assessment of these past four years is
positive. Major achievements in that time have included
implementation of a new deployment policy, the transformation of almost all the research units into joint research
units (UMRs), the head office move from Paris to Marseille
and the start of the IRD’s role as an agency as well as a
research operator.
As a means of unifying French scientific action for the South, in 2006
the agency AIRD1 was created within the IRD. It has been the channel
for allocating €10 million2 so far to research programmes on health,
environmental science and social science, particularly in West Africa.
Complementing the role of AIRD through the work of its departments
and research units, the Institute continued to augment its capacity to
mobilize partners, as witness its growing investment in coordinating
large-scale projects. By the end of the four-year contract, the number
of projects costing over €1 million for which the IRD was manager or
scientific coordinator had more than doubled, from 17 in 2005 to 40
in 2009, including six FSP3 projects. There is also a strong multiplier
effect: the total human and budgetary resources devoted to these
projects are four or five times greater than the IRD’s commitment
alone. The mobilisation of the wider scientific community can also
be seen from the marked increase in the number of researchers and
lecturer-researchers from other French establishments hosted in IRD
structures. The number of researchers from other European countries,
though more modest, has also increased.
Scientific cooperation with and support for Southern research teams
is now most often achieved by creating joint laboratories and facilities.
There are now 25 of these, hosting some 215 graduate staff and
researchers from partner countries. There are now more than
40 regional projects involving at least two developing countries and so
promoting South-South cooperation dynamics. The conceptions and
objectives of the IRD centres still maintained in West Africa and the
French overseas territories have changed. For example, the Hann centre
in Dakar is now the joint responsibility of the IRD and Cheikh Anta Diop
University, while the Ouagadougou centre is more open to researchers
and students from partner establishments. In the field of training
through research, the number of theses submitted by Southern
doctoral students supervised by the Institute was nearly a hundred in
2009 (75 in 2006).
As regards the science itself, the proportion of researchers whose
work falls within the scope of the four-year contract’s priorities has
increased substantially: it is now 80%, compared to some 50% in
2005. This concentration of the IRD’s research potential is notable
in all six contract priority fields4. The streamlining of the scientific
apparatus, based on a more proactive deployment policy and a
reduction in the number of research units in favour of joint units,
continued throughout the four years of the contract. The proportion
of joint units increased from 33 to 88%, the aim being to unite the
competencies of French establishments to address strategic issues in
research for development. The number of publications listed on Web
of Science grew steadily, as did their quality: 1075 publications were
listed5 in 2003 and nearly 1800 in 2008 (counting all publications
by joint units in which the IRD is involved). Measures to encourage
staff to apply for accreditation to supervise research have borne fruit:
the proportion of researchers so accredited is now 34%, compared
to 20% in 2005.
On the financial side, the proportion of own resources in the Institute’s
overall budget increased from 9% in 2006 to nearly 15% in 2009.
This growth has been partly due to the research teams’ success in
tendering for ANR6 projects; more broadly, it illustrates the growth of
the IRD’s agency function.
Part of the process of modernising the Institute’s administration is
quality management. Many of the laboratories and administrative
departments have been working towards certification and twelve
structures are now ISO 9001 certified. This policy will be extended
over the next few years.
Agence Inter-établissements de Recherche pour le Développement.
€18.3 million if credits managed directly by members of the Agency.
Fonds de Solidarité Prioritaire (Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs).
4
Public policy on poverty reduction; international migration; emerging infectious diseases;
climate change and natural hazards; water resources and access to water; ecosystems and natural
resources.
5
Excluding human and social sciences.
6
ANR: Agence Nationale de la Recherche
1
2
3
Annual report 2009
7
The IRD in a nutshell
The IRD is a research body with a difference, the only one
of its kind on the European overseas development research
scene. It is a French public sector research institute reporting to the Ministries responsible for research and development aid. Its mission is to conduct scientific research in
the South, for the South, with the South.
Research structure focused
on major global issues
The IRD gives priority to multidisciplinary research. Since its
founding 65 years ago it has focused its work on the relations between
humans and their environment in tropical and Mediterranean regions.
The purpose of all its training, research and innovation work is to
assist the social, economic and cultural development of countries in
the South.
The IRD reaches out across the world from its headquarters in
Marseille and its two centres in metropolitan France, in Montpellier
and Bondy. It operates in some fifty countries of Africa, Asia and
Latin America, countries around the Mediterranean and the French
overseas territories. Its staff of 829 researchers, 1040 non-research
staff and 339 locally employed staff work on some of today’s
Highlights of
2009
8
Institut de recherche pour le développement
MARCH
• The
Grand Observatoire du Pacifique Sud (GOPS)
was launched to monitor marine and terrestrial
biodiversity and environment in the South Pacific.
• A memorandum of understanding was signed
with the Conférence des Présidents d’Universités to strengthen partnership between French
research establishments and Southern countries
in matters of higher education, research and
innovation.
great research endeavours, tackling major scientific priorities for
development: poverty reduction, international migration, access
to water, emerging infectious diseases, climate change and natural
hazards, ecosystems and natural resources.
Partnership: an ethical principal
The IRD’s approach to working with Southern scientific communities
is one of dynamic partnership; knowledge sharing and the pooling
of competencies and resources are overriding concerns. The
inter-institute development research agency AIRD (Agence Interétablissements de Recherche pour le Développement), which is run
by the IRD, has recently bolstered national and European research
efforts for development by mobilising the potential of French research
bodies and universities.
APRIL
• T he IRD joined two scientific Alliances: AVIESAN
(health and life sciences) and ANCRE (energy
research) (July).
• Y ear of France in Brazil: the IRD took part in some
thirty symposiums, exhibitions and summer
schools around the country.
JUNE
• An IRD researcher was awarded the Prix
Christophe Mérieux for his work on emerging
infectious diseases and the major arboviruses of
Central Africa.
• An expert group review on disease vector control
in France delivered.
• The “Espace et développement des pays du Sud”
agreement (remote sensing and development)
was signed with CNES.
Key figures 2009
€230.03 million budget / €32 million revenue from contracts and value-added products / 2208 staff including
829 researchers, 1040 non-research staff and 339 locally employed staff / 38% of staff working outside metropolitan France,
of whom roughly 50% work in Africa or the Mediterranean / 60 research units / 1540 scientific articles published,
i.e. 2 articles signed per researcher per year / 41% signed jointly with Southern partners / 7400
IRD scientists one-third of which were given in Southern countries / 816
hours of teaching provided by
doctoral students supervised including 477 Southern students /
160 grants and fellowships awarded to Southern students including 129 for theses / 25 Emerging IRD Partner Teams supported /
81 patents held
JULY
• The Prime Minister opened the Centre de
Recherche et de Veille sur les maladies
émergentes dans l’Océan Indien (CRVOI, working
on emerging diseases in the Indian Ocean) in La
Réunion.
• Third international AMMA (African Monsoon
Multidisciplinary Analysis) conference was held
in Burkina Faso.
SEPTEMBER
An agreement was signed with AFD to establish a
satellite receiving station in Gabon for monitoring
forest cover in the countries of Central Africa.
OCTOBER
• T he HYBAM programme (monitoring system on
the Amazonian rivers of Brazil and Colombia) held
its third meeting.
• T he IRD’s sixty years of presence in Cameroon
were celebrated.
NOVEMBER
West Africa’s first business incubator opened, in
Dakar; this is a joint initiative with Cheikh Anta Diop
University.
Annual report 2009
9