The Agence inter-établissements de recherche pour 42

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41

THE AGENCE INTER-ÉTABLISSEMENTS DE RECHERCHE POUR LE DÉVELOPPEMENT

AIRD

42

MOBILISING, COORDINATING,

AND LEADING DISCUSSIONS ON

RESEARCH FOR DEVELOPMENT

44

RESEARCH AND TRAINING

PROGRAMMES

46

CAPACITY-BUILDING

IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

48

PROMOTING RESEARCH FINDINGS

AND TECHNOLOGY TRANSFERT

50

DISSEMINATING KNOWLEDGE

AND COMMUNICATING INFORMATION

AIRD

The Agence inter-établissements de recherche pour le développement

AIRD’s activities are organised around six lines of action: guiding discussions on research for development; support for defi ning research policies in the South, capacity building; engineering support for research partnerships with countries in the South; promotion and transfer of research results; and sharing and communicating knowledge with civil society.

IRD - ANNUAL REPORT 2013

AIRD

42

THE AGENCE INTER-ÉTABLISSEMENTS DE RECHERCHE POUR LE DÉVELOPPEMENT / MOBILISING, COORDINATING, AND LEADING DISCUSSIONS ON RESEARCH FOR DEVELOPMENT

MOBILISING,

COORDINATING,

AND LEADING

DISCUSSIONS

ON RESEARCH

FOR

DEVELOPMENT

Laboratory at the Côte d’Ivoire

Institut Pasteur

In 2013, AIRD was at the core of the reflection process following the Higher Education and Research

Conferences and the Development and International

Solidarity Conferences.

The Agency’s role and future held an important place in the discussions that accompanied and followed the joint inspection report conducted by the General Inspectorate for the French National

Education Administration and the General Inspectorate for Foreign

Affairs, submitted in July. Faced with the ambiguity of its positioning within the IRD and in the absence of basic financing, the authorities decided to eliminate the AIRD in 2014.

However, as it meets a real need for synergy on the French national research for development landscape, the Agency has obtained notable results since 2010.

the South? How to better integrate innovation into the core of research for development?

• Lastly, a final subject was opened on free access to data, with the legal, ethical, and technological questions that this raises.

Leading refl ection on research for development

The Agency’s Advisory Board (COrA), the entity for North-South debates and exchange, launched the first four areas for discussion:

• The first, on the impact of research on development, sought to answer the following questions: what is the right level of observation for establishing a relationship between research and development? What are the priority targets (decision-makers, research communities, populations, etc.)? What are the processes to be envisioned and the dialogues to be built to increase this impact? How can we measure the effectiveness and efficiency of the resources implemented?

• Research for development is faced with rapid and significant changes: the globalisation of research subjects, appearance of new players, new research community structures, etc. These transformations suggest and require renewing the practice of North-South research partnerships. A second working group proposed cooper- ative procedures able to create and ensure trust among partners: its recommendations have been summarized in the draft charter on research for development, mentioned at the Cicid (Comité interministériel de la coopération internationale et du développement - Interministerial committee on international cooperation and development) in July 2013.

• A working group on innovation and research for development attempted to answer two major questions: how to adapt public tools to support innovation to the conditions of the countries in

Training after the Haiti earthquake

IRD - ANNUAL REPORT 2013

MOBILISING, COORDINATING, AND LEADING DISCUSSIONS ON RESEARCH FOR DEVELOPMENT / THE AGENCE INTER-ÉTABLISSEMENTS DE RECHERCHE POUR LE DÉVELOPPEMENT

Foreign Affairs with a total of €1.9 M over three years, was also launched. This programme supports networking of African research teams for training, research assistance, and South-South mobility activities. Seven networks and six research projects have started work.

Market gardening in Mali

THE “VALORISATION SUD” THEME-BASED

TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER CONSORTIUM

(CVT) STARTS ITS FIRST ACTIONS

Supporting the defi nition and implementation of research policies in the South

AIRD continued its action to promote the reconstruction of the higher education and research system in Haiti. Following the seminar on strengthening research capabilities in Haiti, held in 2012 with Quisqueya University in Port-au-Prince and the University of

Quebec in Montreal, the Agency launched an invitation to tender intended to identify young Haitian research teams and assist their development through financial support. It also involved facilitating their association with more experienced foreign teams. Three such teams were selected. 2013 also saw the completion of the Pendha project ( Plan d’enseignement numérique à distance pour Haïti - Digital distance learning plan for Haiti) conducted closely with the University

Agency of La Francophonie through financing primarily from the

Ministry of Foreign Affairs. This project helped establish 12 digital spaces and train several tens of Haitian teachers. AIRD also supported

Haitian authorities in establishing a Doctoral college and in defining accreditation procedures for doctoral schools.

The Ministry of Higher Education and Research of Cote d’Ivoire entrusted AIRD with responsibility for a program intended to strengthen Ivoirian research capabilities, with €2 M as part of the Debt

Reduction and Development Contract (C2D). These credits will finance a call for projects to restart research on health and technologies in cooperation with French research teams. The project also includes support for assistance with research, innovation, economic promotion, and scientific expertise.

The call for projects planned in the Parraf program ( Programme d’appui à la recherche en réseau en Afrique - Program for network research support in Africa), financed by the French Ministry of

Furthermore, Cirad, the Institut Pasteur,

IRD, and overseas universities joined forces to create a theme-based technology transfer consortium

(CVT) “ Valorisation Sud ” (Technology transfer in developing countries), to boost the transfer of technologies and know-how adapted to tropical and equatorial regions and to countries on their way to joining the world economy. In 2013, the

CVT’s Director was hired, its headquarters were established in

Marseille, and the team was gradually formed. The first promotion, marketing and patent and technology transfer operations have started.

FOR MORE INFORMATION visit the website of CVT Valorisation Sud: http://www.cvt-sud.fr

IRD - ANNUAL REPORT 2013

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THE AGENCE INTER-ÉTABLISSEMENTS DE RECHERCHE POUR LE DÉVELOPPEMENT / RESEARCH AND TRAINING PROGRAMMES

RESEARCH

AND TRAINING

PROGRAMMES

Biodiversity inventory in Kenya

(JEAI Kenweb)

One of the Agency’s missions is to initiate and support research excellence for the South and with the South.

To do so, the AIRD is co-constructing and managing research programmes and is helping European partners coordinate research devoted to development of the countries in the South.

Programme management

During 2013, the AIRD devoted €2.07 M to fi nance more than twenty research and training programmes and an additional €2.5 M to help strengthen the capabilities of our partners in the South. Co-fi nancing from partners and international backers often multiplied fi nancing abilities between fi ve- and ten-fold.

Several programs were built with partners from the South:

Guayamazon, intended to structure and support collaboration among research teams from Brazil, the Guyana region, and metropolitan

France on the subject of the Amazonian biome; STDF a partnership program with the Egyptian Science and Technology Development Fund; the Great Green Wall programme with the APGMV ( Agence panafricaine de la grande muraille verte - Pan African Agency for the Great Green

Wall) on the function of ecosystems and the local use of semi-arid

Sahel environments; the three-way France-Brazil-APGMV programme to fi ght desertifi cation.

In the health sector, AIRD is working alongside Ministries and major research institutions to structure the CRV-OI ( Centre de recherche et de veille sur les maladies infectieuses émergentes dans l’océan Indien -

Centre for Research and Monitoring of emerging infectious diseases in the Indian Ocean). It is also helping the Aviesan Alliance in establishing a regional centre for the study of emerging pathogens in Southeast Asia.

The Agency is also managing several programmes with the ANR

(French National Research Agency) including Agrobiosphere, which covers transitions to sustainable production systems. Lastly, it manages programmes with various partners: Agroforestry, with CIRAD, on agriculture in temperate African zones; Mistrals, with the CNRS, on the environment and climate changes in the Mediterranean region;

Demtrend, with the Hewlett Foundation, on demographic questions in Africa; SEPDD with the AFD (French Development Agency) and the

FFEM (French Fund for the Global Environment), on the promotion of plant research to the countries of the South.

Mbafaye market in Senegal

Cooperative activities in Europe

IRD is very widely mobilised to participate in the collaborative research projects and institutional international development projects of the FP7. 2013 closed programming in the areas of the sciences, technologies, and innovation. Between 2007 and 2013,

IRD received total contributions of €22.3 M for 79 projects including

12 coordination projects on research or innovation plans as well as institutional projects.

Contact: dpf@ird.fr

IRD - ANNUAL REPORT 2013

RESEARCH AND TRAINING PROGRAMMES / THE AGENCE INTER-ÉTABLISSEMENTS DE RECHERCHE POUR LE DÉVELOPPEMENT

The Ministry of Higher Education and Research also tasked the

Agency with organising the France-Germany-Africa call for humanities and social science projects.

The AIRD is assisting IRD researchers in launching Horizon 2020.

In its capacity as “national contact point”, it led a training program on this topic in Buenos Aires, which brought together 110 participants.

The monitoring activity on scheduling European development aid managed by the General Directorate for Development and

Cooperation (DG DEVCO) was structured around two objectives: on the one hand, positioning IRD within development aid programs targeting priority issues and regions; and on the other hand, better influencing programming so that research can be confirmed as a factor in development.

As part of the Incontact network, the Institute held a conference in Marseille on International cooperation on research and innovation in Latin America, the Caribbean, and the Mediterranean.

Bringing together 160 international experts from 68 countries, it presented the opportunities offered for these regions by Horizon 2020 as well as the sources of financing for projects of common interest.

Other projects helped strengthen research and technical coop- eration between the European Union and the South: PACE-Net+

(Pacific), CAAST-Net+ (Africa), MED-SPRING (Mediterranean),

Sheracca+ (Egypt), and ERA-Net for Latin America.

NEARLY ONE MILLION EUROS ALLOCATED

TO THE GLOBALMED PROJECT

Globalmed, “artemisnin-based combination treatments: an illustration of the global market for the medication from Asia to Africa”, was the first

IRD project financed as part of the

European IDEES (ERC) programme.

Coordinated by Carine Baxerres, anthropologist at the “Mother and child against tropical infections”

UMR, this project aims to study the market for treatments in Benin and Ghana where the pharmaceutical systems differ noticeably; the research is based on the example of anti-malarial drugs based on artemisnin.

PACE-NET+: INNOVATIVE INSTRUMENT

FOR INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION

Guiana biodiversity

Devoted to the Pacific region, this European project, coordinated by IRD in Noumea, started in September 2013. It brings together

16 partners and aims to strengthen bi-regional dialogue on science and technology between the European Union and the Pacific. It will concentrate on the three major social challenges of health, food security, and natural resource management in light of climate change.

IRD - ANNUAL REPORT 2013

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THE AGENCE INTER-ÉTABLISSEMENTS DE RECHERCHE POUR LE DÉVELOPPEMENT / CAPACITY-BUILDING IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

CAPACITY-

BUILDING IN

DEVELOPING

COUNTRIES

Contact: sud.formation@ird.fr

For more information: watch the video regarding Nathalie Diagne’s research thesis results: http://youtu.be/38demKRfqyg

IRD - ANNUAL REPORT 2013

The objective of capacity-building activities is to transfer knowledge generated by development research to research partners. The programmes aim to strengthen the capabilities of individuals, research teams, and partner institutions.

Supporting individual training

Concerning individual support, AIRD has implemented the ARTS

( Allocation de recherche pour une thèse au Sud - Research Grant for a

Thesis in the South) and BEST (Research and Technology Exchange

Bursaries) programmes. Twenty-four ARTS bursaries were allocated in 2013, bringing their total number to 110. Twelve BESTs, focused on hosting researchers, engineers, and technicians from the countries of the South at research or higher education institutions outside their country, were allocated, bringing their total number to 34. In addition,

Cirad has entrusted the Agency with managing a third invitation to tender for the DDS programme (Doctoral grants for countries in the

South). Eight new doctoral candidates have been selected, bringing the total number of DDS bursary students to 33. Lastly, continuing the

Agency’s opening to the French research community, the partnerships established with the CNRS and the Fondation Mérieux helped support fi ve doctoral candidates.

Supporting partners in the development of their higher education and research system

The Agency is supporting partners in the South with the ATS programme ( Actions thématiques structurantes - Base-Building

Activities) It helped complete 23 collective projects conducted in the South (creation of networks, training workshops, summer schools) through direct participation in major initiatives together with institutions such as AFD, the FRB (Foundation for Research on Biodiversity) and the PREFALC programme ( Programme régional

France-Amérique latine-Caraïbe - France-Latin America-Caribbean

Regional Programme).

The last year of the GVal-Food Security programme led to three training programmes, including one in partnership with the IFS

(International Foundation for Science) .

Once again, Abdou Moumouni University in Niamey asked the IRD to host a training program in writing research projects.

Training workshop on reefs in New Caledonia

Lastly, as part of the IHERD programme (Innovation, Higher

Education and Research for Development) , two international workshops were organised in partnership with the OECD. One in Marseille covered the design and implementation of innovation and research policies in developing countries, while the other in Dakar was devoted to R&D effi ciency for institutional policies and practices in Francophone

Africa.

Supporting research teams

Support for emerging teams in developing countries is also vital to increase the autonomy and international competitiveness of the

Institute’s partners. Thus, seven new teams have been selected as part of the JEAI programme, bringing their total number to 42. The

PEERS Programme ( Programme d’excellence pour l’enseignement et la recherche au Sud - Program for Excellence in Teaching and Research in the South), intended to support North-South two-person teams comprised of experienced teacher-researchers managing a research project that includes a signifi cant training component, supported six new projects. Thirteen PEERS are currently underway.

CAPACITY-BUILDING IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES / THE AGENCE INTER-ÉTABLISSEMENTS DE RECHERCHE POUR LE DÉVELOPPEMENT

GEOGRAPHIC

REPRESENTATION OF

CAPACITY-BUILDING

JEAI

PEERS

DDS

ARTS

BEST

On the basis of the number of country packages

Mexico

3 1 1 1

1 5 2

Haiti

Ecuador

2

Costa Rica

1

2 1 4 1 Colombia

Venezuela

2

4 1

Brazil

1 1 5

Morocco

4 11

Tunisia 4

1

Syria

Lebanon

Algeria

2 2

1 1

Egypt

1 1

Mauritania

Mali

1 1 1 1

Niger

2 4 2

3 2 1 13 3

Senegal

2 2 3 9 6

Burkina

Faso

1 1

Togo

Cameroon

2 2 1 15 4

3 1 3 4

Ivory Coast

Ghana

1 1 1

Benin

3 2 3 12 2

1

Uganda

Gabon

2

Ethiopia

1

Kenya

2 2 1

Seychelles

1 1

1

Comoro Islands

2 India

Peru

1 11

Bolivia

2 1

Mozambique

1 1

Madagascar

1 1 3 2

Thailand

1 1 2 1

1

Laos

Vietnam

Cambodia

2

4 2 13

Malaisia

1

1 1

Indonesia

Chile

2

Argentina

1

IRD - ANNUAL REPORT 2013

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THE AGENCE INTER-ÉTABLISSEMENTS DE RECHERCHE POUR LE DÉVELOPPEMENT / PROMOTING RESEARCH FINDINGS AND TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER

PROMOTING

RESEARCH

FINDINGS AND

TECHNOLOGY

TRANSFER

The fi ndings of research centred on developing countries are promoted, on both political and economic levels, through assessments, actions aimed at protecting and capitalizing on intellectual property, and numerous collaborations with industrial partners.

These activities generated €4.3 million in annual income.

Collegial assessment and consulting

The collegial assessment assignment provided in June 2012 for the Offi ce of the President of the Court of Cassation of Egypt led to the publication of a bilingual French-Arabic book at the end of

2013. Intended for legal environments and jurisdictions in Egypt and France, this work provides guidance in the appropriation of many recommendations issued by the college of experts. In fact, the situation within Egypt is closely examining the role of law and allocations of judicial power.

The year was also marked by the launch of collegial expertise on the conservation of and development strategy for Lake Chad, sponsored by the Lake Chad Basin Commission (CBLT) and the

French Global Environment Facility (FFEM). The conclusions and recommendations set out in the fi nal report cover all the constraints related to water resources, demographic and migratory dynamics, variability of resources and activity systems, and governance of the lake.

A dozen institutional consultancy reports have been remitted at the request of Government administrations, public authorities, development agencies, and research firms. These consultancies have addressed a wide range of topics such as a socio-economic and anthropological study of coastal fi shing activities in Guinea, an evaluation of the modelling of zones suited to the establishment of the vector for dengue and chikungunya (Aedes albopictus) , and research on operational indicators associated with women’s nutritional habits, within the framework of a global study conducted by the United

Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).

Intellectual property and technology transfer

In 2013, IRD processed ten new patent applications, bringing the number of active patent families in its portfolio to 110, with royalties totalling €1.1 M. Two thirds of this portfolio is co-owned with companies or other research organisations. The share co-owned together with partners from the South has now reached one third. To increase the potential for global promotion of the portfolio and to reduce or stabilise the related costs, only patents with high socio-economic potential were kept.

The technology transfer activity was strengthened considerably with more than twenty meetings with industrials. Three licensing contracts and one option were signed. Two of them cover technologies related to fi shing and aquaculture. As an example, IRD and the Institute for Research on the Peruvian Amazon Region granted the company

Skuldtech the right to produce and market a kit for sexing Arapaima gigas , an Amazonian fi sh, to optimise reproduction in captivity of this species with high economic potential.

Lastly, the “ Valorisation Sud ” CVT managed by IRD, the Institut

Pasteur, CIRAD and overseas universities, and fi nanced through the framework for Future Investments, started its activity.

Contact: dvs@ird.fr

For more information: watch the video regarding

Nathalie Bernard-Maugiron’s research, specialist in Arab law: http://youtu.be/8OVqMdHrL9A

IRD - ANNUAL REPORT 2013

PROMOTING RESEARCH FINDINGS AND TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER / THE AGENCE INTER-ÉTABLISSEMENTS DE RECHERCHE POUR LE DÉVELOPPEMENT

GRAPH SHOWING THE

DISTRIBUTION OF THE

PATENT PORTFOLIO

Nutrition / Food

4%

Aquaculture / Fishing

5%

HIV

6%

Other diseases

7%

Pollution control /

Environment / Bioremediation

8%

Cosmetics

4%

Neglected diseases

28%

North and South innovative entrepreneurship meetings in Bondy

Measurement devices and other equipment

15%

Plant genetics / Agronomy

23%

Business creation

The various mechanisms established by IRD, in particular the

Innodev and Bond’innov incubators, the Nouméa incubator and the PACEIM programme, are now assisting nearly one hundred entrepreneurs. The Institute is also promoting North-South networking of assistance structures (incubators, special programmes, investors, etc.) around those working on projects for innovative companies focusing on markets in the South. Assisting the creation of jobs based on technological innovations adapted to the South bears witness to the impact of research efforts for the socio-economic development of countries in the South. As such, one dozen companies created by

IRD are active around the world. They have generated the creation of

90 jobs, with a cumulative income of €2.2 M.

In 2013, the Bond’innov incubator launched two new calls for projects. Out of the 11 business creation projects hosted by the incubator, 9 have activities related to developing countries (3 of which are located in the South and assisted remotely). Five incubated projects were awarded prizes: Moroccan entrepreneurial start-up competition, the Orange Social Entrepreneur in Africa prize, the

Burkina Faso entrepreneurship prize organised by the World Bank, and winner of the Emerging Competition from the Ministry of Research.

The Bondy campus hosted the Conferences on innovative North-South entrepreneurship, which brought together one hundred participants to debate support for the creation of innovative businesses in the presence of Minister Pascal Canfi n, the President of the National Assembly,

Claude Bartolone, and IRD President Michel Laurent.

Human resources at the Innodev incubator in Dakar were strength- ened for better monitoring of project leaders and fi nancial capacity building through fundraising .

The signature of a partnership agreement between IRD and the

Agency for the Economic Development of New Caledonia (ADECAL) will allow operations to start at the New Caledonian incubator at the

IRD site in Anse Vata.

Industrial partnerships

IRD is promoting the establishment of responsible public-private partnerships together with the South. These research partnerships, signed with industrials, entrepreneurs, professional associations, and corporate foundations, involve all the Institute’s major research fi elds. The context of the economic crisis did not hinder the signature of

91 agreements for research collaboration (56%), research services

(12%), consortia (5%), framework agreements (3%), biological equipment transfer (8%), and confi dentiality (15%). The number of applications processed continues to increase, and the total amount for the agreements signed has reached €3.1 M.

PREDICTING CARDIOVASCULAR

DISEASES

“ My project consists of developing and distributing biomarkers that can predict cardiovascular diseases. The PACEIM programme will help me to return to Lebanon while maintaining my research activities and collaborations in France, and to develop technologies that do not exist on the market. The concept was approved by IRD,

Marseille Innovation, and Berytech. Partnerships are being developed with the Clipp Dijon platform and the University of Balamans in Lebanon. Thanks to PACEIM, a complete R&D and commercial feasibility study will be conducted for the creation of the business and its development in Lebanon.

Ramzi El Feghali – Doctor of cardiovascular pharmacology, PACEIM programme award winner.

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THE AGENCE INTER-ÉTABLISSEMENTS DE RECHERCHE POUR LE DÉVELOPPEMENT / DISSEMINATING KNOWLEDGE AND COMMUNICATING INFORMATION

DISSEMINATING

KNOWLEDGE AND

COMMUNICATING

INFORMATION

“L’eau au cœur de la science”

(Water at the heart of science) exhibition in Malabo in Equatorial Guinea

Contact: dic@ird.fr

Disseminating knowledge and sharing research results to research communities and civil society in the North and

South are an important part of the Institute’s activity.

Capitalising on knowledge

Efforts to capitalize on knowledge acquired through research have prompted the development of several resource-sharing tools. IRD collects all publications by its researchers and makes them available through the Horizon database and the open archive HAL. The Horizon database is still frequently consulted, especially in countries of the South. In 2013, it ranked third among French open archives, according to Webometrics Web repository data. It was just behind HAL and

HAL-SHS, to which IRD also contributes. It ranked 128 th globally, and 37 th for the wealth of its content. IRD has also committed to a partnership with 28 French research stakeholders to promote Open

Access and the shared HAL platform.

The SPHAERA cartographic database contains more than

18,000 references and helps disseminate news of the Institute’s achievements in terms of geographical information.

Lastly, the Indigo photo library, one of the richest research photo libraries in France, now holds nearly 55,000 photos.

A highlight in cartographic product publishing was the publication of the New Caledonia Atlas and the development of the Atlas of Vulnerable

Areas and Territories in the La Paz agglomeration . Sixty-fi ve students from the South also received training in geography and geomatics.

AIRD also sponsored 59 conferences, including the 40 th Congress of the International Commission on Research Exploration in the

Mediterranean and the Conference on the Climate in Africa (CCA 2013).

Improving the Institute visibility

The Institute’s visibility in the media improved very significantly in 2013, with 2,820 press clips, a 56% increase over 2012, including

34 articles in Le Monde , 40 programs on RFI, 21 on France Inter,

43 AFP news releases, and 10 articles in the journal, La Recherche .

Sixty-five press releases were distributed.

Scientific news sheets present the most recent IRD research results, two or three times per month. To date, more than 450 sheets have been placed online on the IRD institutional website. Intended for French and foreign media, governing Ministries, IRD partners, decision-makers, and the public, they present summaries of current research information. In 2013, 28 scientific news sheets generated more than 150 articles in the press.

Disseminating knowledge

In 2013, 26 books were published or co-published, including: Quinoa et quinueros (Quinoa and quinueros), published for the International

Year of Quinoa; I nteractions insectes-plantes: Les marchés urbains du travail en Afrique subsaharienne (Insect-plant interactions: the urban labour markets in Sub-Saharan Africa) co-published with the French

Development Agency, and 50 ans de recherche pour le développement en Polynésie française (50 years of research for development in French

Polynesia). IRD is currently part of a consortium of public publishers participating in the Open Edition Books initiative , supported by the Digital

Research Library. A selection of 60 books in the humanities and social sciences were placed online on this portal in 2013.

Twelve fi lms were also produced or co-produced, and 12 others are in production. IRD research projects in the Himalayas were the subject of a shoot for the Planète Glace (Ice Planet) series, a co-production with

Arte and Radio Canada. Among the eight fi lms that won awards in 2013,

Vivre en enfer (Living in Hell) received the award for the best series at the prestigious Japanese Wildlife Film Festival .

IRD - ANNUAL REPORT 2013

DISSEMINATING KNOWLEDGE AND COMMUNICATING INFORMATION / THE AGENCE INTER-ÉTABLISSEMENTS DE RECHERCHE POUR LE DÉVELOPPEMENT

THE PARCOURS MIGRATOIRES PROJECT

“ Students especially liked this initiative as it was different from the traditional classroom work structure. They had the feeling that we were considering things that affect them, while they sometimes tend to think that what they are studying is isolated from reality.

They were also able to make the link between their daily concerns and the investigatory work that they were conducting.

” Jérémy

Abram - Professor of History and Geography and civic, legal, and social education at the St-Exupéry secondary school in Marseille.

Bangui Webradio Fennec club in the Central African Republic

For more information:

Listen again to the programs from Webradio Fennec: http://www.webradiofennec.fr/

The newspaper Sciences au Sud , with a circulation of 75,000 copies across more than 100 countries, continues its efforts to offer its columns to partners.

Visits to the Institute’s website increased by 8% with more than

6 million visitors and approximately 23 million page views. Despite the digital divide, Internet users in francophone Africa are among the most loyal visitors to the institution’s website. The AIRD website saw the most signifi cant increase, with 160% more visits. These websites enjoy very good visibility in the South. IRD also solidifi ed its presence on social networks: the number of “followers” on Facebook and Twitter doubled this year.

Strengthening ties between science and society

Raising awareness in society about the challenges of research for development and mobilising young generations around these questions has led IRD to deploy a broad palette of activities in France and in the countries of the South.

Twenty-fi ve travelling exhibits are available, including four new ones. Their dissemination increased signifi cantly with presentations at 190 sites, including 138 in the French cultural network abroad. The

L’eau au cœur de la science (Water at the core of research) exhibit, which presents major French research projects on water, was presented

66 times in France and abroad.

Researchers attended 250 conferences intended for the general public, 75% of which were outside metropolitan France.

Youth have benefi ted from innovative educational materials:

Webradio Fennec , a radio blog devoted to the environment, brought together 14 student clubs in Cameroon, the Central African Republic,

Morocco, and France. Forty-one reports, produced with help from researchers, are now online. Approved as part of the Marseille European Capital of Culture 2013 programme, the Parcours migratoires

(Migration Patterns) project mobilised 250 secondary school students and 15 social science researchers. Equipped with a website, it fi nished with an international conference that brought together the French,

Moroccan, and Tunisian participants. Launched in September 2013, a new project, Villes en questions (Questions on Cities), will enable young Mediterranean residents (Morocco, Tunisia, France) to have an informed, reasoned, critical debate on the social bonds in their neighbourhoods. Lastly, one thousand secondary school students from the PACA region were able to follow conferences on the Institute’s headline issues.

IRD - ANNUAL REPORT 2013

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