ontents
Introduction
• 04 The IRD around the world
• 07 Key figures 2011
• 05 Editorial
• 08 The 2011-2015 State - IRD objectives contract
• 06 The IRD in a nutshell - Highlights of 2011 • 09 Ethics and quality
10 • Working in partnership
• 12 International partnerships
• 16 Events around the world
18 • Excellence in research
• 20 Research focused on the South
• 30 Improving public health in the South
• 23 Preserving the environment and resources • 34 Understanding social evolution in the South
38 • The Agence inter-établissements de recherche pour le développement
• 40 The AIRD: mobilising for the South • 46 Innovating with the South
• 42 The research programmes
• 48 Sharing knowledge
• 44 Capacity-building in the South
50 • Resources
• 52 Human resources
• 56 The information system - Parity at the IRD
• 54 Financial resources • 57 Platforms open to partners
58 • Appendices
• 60 The IRD decision bodies
• 61 Central services : our gallery
• 62 The research units
• 64 IRD addresses world-wide
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Annual report 2011
The IRD around the world
Annual report 2011
edito
Editorial
2011 has been an excellent year for developments in the IRD organisation. These include the new contractual objectives for
2011-2015, which give the Institute a solid foundation that enables us to have a serene outlook on our future. In addition, the
establishment of the AIRD (Agence inter-établissements de recherche pour le développement) and the services they provide
within the IRD have greatly assisted us in our task of coordinating French research into development.
With an unshakeable focus on the South, the IRD and the AIRD have developed activities based on three pillars of knowledge:
capacity building, research and innovation, working directly with our partners. Because partnerships are the epicentre of our
operation, we have created the following new instruments: the mixed international laboratories (LMI) and the regional pilot
programmes (PPR). The culmination of this initiative is the Partnership Charter, which is now attached to every agreement
signed with the IRD and the AIRD, in order to ensure standard practices that guarantee a better sharing of knowledge. These
initiatives are strong indicators of the Institute’s partnership policy.
With our excellence in research, proven by the positive evaluations received from our units and the increase in scientific output
from our researchers, the IRD has truly found its place within national research policy and the European research environment.
Seventy percent of our units are linked to the "Investissements d'avenir" programme, and funding for research contracts is
increasing.
With scientific projects responding to major planetary challenges, the Institute is reinforcing its role as a motivating force for
research in the South. Climate change, desertification, preservation of water resources, food safety, tropical diseases and social
transformations in Southern countries are all at the heart of our research. The Rio+20
United Nations conference will be a major opportunity in 2012 to renew our commitment
to sustainable development and in particular to the fight against desertification in Africa.
This is how the IRD and the AIRD are contributing to social, economic and cultural
development in our partner countries, through activities in, for the benefit of and in
collaboration with the South, helping to strengthen their skills.
Michel LAURENT
Chairman
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Annual report 2011
The IRD in a nutshell
The IRD is a French public sector institution working in the fields of science and
technology, and entirely dedicated to research into development. It is jointly
governed by the French ministries for research and development.
Operating from headquarters in Marseille, with two further French mainland
sites in Bondy and Montpellier, we are active in over fifty countries, in Africa,
around the Mediterranean basin and in Latin America, Asia and the French
tropical overseas territories. The IRD seeks to confront the major challenges
standing in the way of development by carrying out research, capacity building
and innovation missions in Southern countries - for their benefit and in
partnership with them.
Based on an interdisciplinary approach, the projects run with our partners
address issues of crucial importance for the South: tropical and lifestyle diseases,
food safety, climate change, water resources, biodiversity, social development,
vulnerability, and inequality, migration… with the background aim of achieving
the Millennium Development Goals.
The AIRD, now part of the IRD, is the French inter-establishment research
agency for development, bringing together a group of French higher education
and research establishments who dedicate their activities, in full or in part, to
overseas development. It is a mobilising organisation that aims to coordinate and
encourage national and European research efforts in the field of development.
Highlights of 2011
Declaration of Niamey
Tuam’2011
January
• Launch of the new
Montabo international
campus in Cayenne,
French Guiana
• Launch of the joint IRDCNRS representation, and
Erafrica in South Africa
• Annual PopPov
Conference on Population,
Reproductive Health, and
Economic Development,
Marseille
February / March
• The Burkina Faso
Information Centre for
research and development
celebrates its 10th birthday
• Thierry Lebel and Jean-Luc
Redelsperger are awarded
a silver medal by the
CNRS for their work on
the African monsoon
CapMédiTrop opening
April / May
• Tuam’2011 mission:
biodiversity study in
French Polynesia
• Signing of the Sustainable
Development Charter
Mbour IRD centre/Senegal
June / July
• Delivery of the results of
the Santo 2006 mission in
Vanuatu
• Delivery of the results of
the Santo 2006 mission in
Vanuatu
• Creation of the
Bond’Innov business
incubator in Bondy
Christian Le Provost Award
August / September
• Opening of the AIMSSenegal Institute of
Mathematical Sciences
• Launch of the
CapMédiTrop platform,
dedicated to tropical and
Mediterranean plants
cultivated in Montpellier
October
• Delivery of the findings
from the RIPIESCA
programme on the
interaction between
ecosystems, climate and
society in West Africa
• Closing seminars of the
CORUS and AIRES-Sud
programmes in Paris
• Adoption of the Niamey
Declaration against
desertification
• Creation of the CNEV
(French national
repository for information
about vectors) in
Montpellier
Desertification / Libya
November / December
• Sophie Cravatte is
awarded the Christian Le
Provost Grand Prize from
the Académie des Sciences
• First meeting of the AIRD
Orientation committee
(COrA)
• Regional extension to
the Cousteau Marine and
Coastal Observatory for
Central America and Costa
Rica
Annual report 2011
Key figures 2011
A budget of
2,176
e232.9m
staff members, including
171
bursaries allocated to scientists,
e31.2m
revenue from
conventions and approved products
837
researchers,
997engineers and technicians and 342 local staff
including
37%
51%
Almost
France, of which
122
44
new teams
supported in the South
of staff outside mainland
are in Africa and the Mediterranean
150
long-duration missions
56
research consortiums and
1,556
4
70%
observatories
scientific publications,
corresponding to roughly 2 articles per researcher per year
for theses
of units linked to the
“investissements d’avenir”
funding scheme
45%
More than
100
co-authored with Southern partners
patents held
40,600
hours of training
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Annual report 2011
The 2011-2015 State-IRD objectives contract
The objectives contract guarantees coherence between the organisation’s
policies and national policy. It provides a framework, by detailing objectives
and arranging them according to programmes for action with the aim of
promoting research in the South. It also exists to attract and affiliate national
and European research, training and innovation potential to work in the field
of development. As such, the objectives contract focuses on 4 major priorities
for the organisation, listed below.
Research in partnership with the South
In order to allow Southern countries to take on a full role in any partnership, the
IRD encourages the co-creation of research programmes according to demand
from the South. The IRD is also committed to reinforcing the support given
to its Southern partners in terms of administration of research programmes
as well as for the research itself. Symposia and conferences are organised in
developing countries in order to facilitate the delivery of research results to
stakeholders and contribute to social-scientific dialogue. Lastly, the IRD is
committed to improving promotion and co-publication of shared results. A
partnership charter will be drawn up in direct consultation with Southern
partners.
Become an operator delivering Finalized
Becoming in order to meet global challenges
in the developing world
Interdisciplinary research programmes will be co-created and
conducted in partnership, for the social, environmental and
healthcare issues which are the IRD's priorities. The IRD is adding
its weight to the troubled resources in the developing world,
giving priority to Sub-Saharan Africa and the Mediterranean basin.
An international network of research operations is developed
through our local structures, platforms, observatories and shared
laboratories.
Cooperation / Brazil
Structuring and
developing the Agency
The AIRD is responsible for initiating
strategic discussion of science to aid
development, placing the developing
countries’ needs at the heart of
partnerships, and respecting the IRD's
policy of partnerships "in the South,
with the South and for the South". The
Agency supports research programmes
and projects that focus on developing and
improving knowledge and skills. Sharing of
French scientific resources with the South
will be supported by the deployment of
an expatriation gateway, joint operations and instruments including incubators
and scientific platforms.
Adapting governance to the Institute's missions
The new structural organisation of the headquarters has been in place since
January 2011. Three Management Divisions for Science, the Agency and Resources,
and the Geostrategy and partnership department ensure overall coherence
and favour operator/agency relations. Human resources policy, based on the
development of skills and professions, will be defined, planned and supported by
forward-looking management of jobs and skills. In order to improve accounting
quality, a management control system will be implemented, using analytic
accounting, adapted to work development in project mode, in addition to the
application of full costs. The information system will also develop in order to
better meet the requirements in running the Institute, particularly as an Agency.
Annual report 2011
Ethics and
quality
CCDE committee
The ethical issues at the heart of partnerships
The Quality and the Sustainable Development
Research into development is carried out in cooperation with Southern countries.
This cooperation replies to a principle of equality that is not always obvious in
an international context shaped by a high degree of competitiveness in the
fields of science and technology. Thus it seems crucial to clarify a few principles
that must be respected. The CCDE (consultation committee on professional
conduct and ethics) has assisted in developing the code of professional ethics
for the IRD and partners’ activities.
Active since 2008 across the Institute, the ISO 9001 quality procedure affects
almost all activities at the headquarters and our main centres and delegations.
We can now offer full, tailored supervision to participating structures: raising
awareness, training, conceptual assistance and practice at different stages of the
process, IT tools for networked activity, and financial assistance for certification.
As such, 40 IRD laboratories and administrative entities are engaged in quality
procedures, among which 16 have already received ISO9001 certification.
The objective is to offer users fluid, efficient and easily-understood research
support services. Joining Montpellier and Dakar, IRD France North has had 4 of
its centres certified. The IRD’s network of quality specialists is working at many
of our sites, particularly in West Africa. Some research units like the 216 research
consortium "Mother and child health in the tropics" have also begun certifying
their activities in order to improve efficiency and management of their skills
and resources. The internationally-recognised ISO 9001 certification is also an
important attribute in an increasingly competitive environment for our research
teams.
In particular, the committee has been working on questions relating to
transgenic crop technologies, biosecurity, a study protocol for malaria and a
series of research protocols for mother and infant health in the field of HIV. It
has also initiated general discussion on GMOs.
The CCDE regularly coordinates seminars and workshops open to researchers
and their partners, to enable the broadest participation possible in ethical
discussions. With this aim, the "Precautionary and scientific research principles
in Southern countries" symposium was organised in Casablanca. In parallel, the
CCDE has developed a distance training module on 'increasing awareness of
ethical subjects’ in partnership with Southern countries.
The committee has also developed tools that enable simplified application of
professional ethical codes to enable researchers to better develop their practice
and allow ethical concepts to infiltrate the scientific community. As part of this
objective, the "Good practice guide for research and development" has been
updated and a publication on the "ethics of partnerships in the IRD's scientific
research" is currently being finalized.
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In addition, the IRD has signed the "Public sector sustainable development
charter". This strategic commitment forms the departure point for the social
responsibility initiative that the IRD will deploy in 2012 and 2013 with all
stakeholders across all of our structures, in order to better appreciate the
impacts of our decisions and activities on communities and the environment.
Chairman: Ali BENMAKHLOUF
Doctor of Philosophy, Professor
of Philosophy at Paris XII
University.
Tereza Maciel LYRA, Doctor,
research-fellow at the Aggeu
Magalhães research facility
and the Pernambuco University
medical faculty, Brazil.
Amadou lamine NDIAYE,
Veterinary doctor, Honorary
Rector at the Gaston BergerSaint Louis University, Senegal.
President of the African
Academy of Science (AAS).
Jean-Claude ANDRE, Senior
Engineer from the Ponts et
Chaussées, contributing
member of the Académie des
sciences, Toulouse.
Roger GUEDJ, Professor
Emeritus at the University of
Nice Sophia Antipolis.
Vladimir de SEMIR,Associate
Professor of scientific journalism
at the Pompeu Fabra University
in Barcelona.
Sandrine CHIFFLET, IRD
Research engineer, UMR 213,
Aix-Marseille University.
Marie-Danièle DEMELAS,
Professor of history at Paris III
University.
Bernard TAVERNE,
anthropologist, researcher,
UMI 233, Senegal.
Malaria survey / Benin
Safety in the workplace / Réunion
Contacts:
ccde@ird.fr
qualite@ird.fr