Release press office

11/01/21

One Planet Summit: launch of PREZODE, a first-ever international initiative to prevent future pandemics

PREZODE, an initiative to prevent emerging zoonotic risks and pandemics, was announced on the occasion of the One Planet Summit for biodiversity held on 11 January. Initiated by three French research institutes – INRAE, CIRAD and IRD – PREZODE already mobilised more than 1,000 researchers from 50...

14/12/20

Improving multi-sectoral ocean management to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals

Researchers from IRD, the CNRS and Memorial University of Newfoundland (Canada) have assessed the capacity of the principal ocean management tools to achieve the "Conserve and sustainably use the oceans" sustainable development goal (SDG). They have shown that certain multi-sectoral mechanisms, such...

18/11/20

Air pollution: a new indicator for measuring health impacts

Researchers from IRD, the CNRS and UGA took part in a European study of sources of fine particulate matter that are harmful to health, coordinated by the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI, Switzerland). Their results, published in the journal Nature on 18 November 2020, reveal the harmful nature of...

09/11/20

A new model found to predict earthquake propagation speed

In an article published on November 9th in Nature Geoscience, Jean-Paul Ampuero and Huihui Weng, two researchers from Université Côte d'Azur and IRD propose a new model to predict the propagation speed of earthquakes.

08/10/20

Sweetpotato biodiversity can help increase climate-resilience of small-scale farming

Sweetpotato biodiversity can help increase climate-resilience of small-scale farming, according to the findings of a study undertaken by researchers from the French public research institution IRD, CIRAD, and the CGIAR center, the International Potato Center (CIP). The findings of this global...

21/09/20

Solving global challenges using insect research

IRD researchers and their partners have published a special issue in the Current Opinion in Insect Science journal. Using an interdisciplinary approach and based on examples from international research, they explain how insects can contribute to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG)...

24/07/20

Ebola Survivors Present Severe Immune System Abnormalities Two Years After Recovery

Four years after the end of the Ebola epidemic in West Africa, and as it continues to wreak havoc in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the scientific community wonders about the after-effects that may remain among survivors. To learn more, researchers from Inserm and Université Paris-Est Créteil at...

02/07/20

Sustainability science: a priority of IRD governance

Valérie Verdier, President and CEO of IRD, presented the changes in its governance to the Board of Directors on June 26, 2020. She reaffirmed the priority of Science, as part of an equitable partnership with the South and French Overseas Territories, and the increasingly important role of...

07/05/20

Analysis of 65 years of work on the relationships between forests, deforestation and infectious disease emergence

The global COVID-19 pandemic has shed light on the importance of certain previously little-studied scientific areas such as the relationships between ecosystems, their biodiversity and the emergence of new infectious diseases. Humans are making increasing use of their environment and so they are...

22/04/20

ARIACOV: action research project in support of the African response to the Covid-19 epidemic

An action research project in support of the African response to the Covid-19 epidemic (ARIACOV) has just been funded by the Agence Française de Développement (AFD) as part of the "Covid-19 - Health in Common" initiative. This two-year project aims to support the authorities of Benin, Cameroon...

22/04/20

Assessing El Niño’s impact on fisheries and aquaculture around the world

New report presents the main regional consequences caused by the five types of the climate pattern.

20/04/20

Aquaculture at the crossroads of global warming and antimicrobial resistance

Antimicrobial resistance is responsible for some 700 000 deaths each year worldwide. In relation to this phenomenon, a team of researchers from IRD and CIRAD have raised the alarm regarding the development of antimicrobial-resistant bacteria in aquaculture, which is affecting fish production and...

03/04/20

A COVID-19 interdisciplinary and partnership-based scientific committee at IRD

IRD has created a COVID-19 interdisciplinary and partnership-based scientific committee. Composed of 8 members, who are researchers from the Institute and partners from the South, it is led by the Director of the "Societies and Globalization" Department and the Director of the "Health and Societies"...

02/03/20

Corinne Brunon-Meunier is the new Deputy Executive Director of the French National Research Institute for Sustainable Development (IRD-France)

Valérie Verdier, IRD Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer, has appointed Corinne Brunon-Meunier as IRD’s Deputy Executive Director.

12/02/20

Valérie Verdier is IRDs new Chairman of the Board and CEO

Valérie Verdier has just been appointed Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of the French National Research Institute for Sustainable Development (IRD-France), by the Council of Ministers meeting on12th February 2020. The appointment is in response to the nomination by Frédérique Vidal...

06/01/20

A better estimate of water-level rise in the Ganges delta

For the first time, scientists have provided reliable regional estimates of land subsidence and water-level rise in the Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna delta. Depending on the region of the delta, water-level rise could reach 85 to 140 cm by 2100. The work, published in PNAS on 6 January 2020 by...

18/12/19

Submarine cables: billions of potential seismic sensors!

Scientists have for the first time shown that it is possible to detect the propagation of seismic waves on the seafloor using submarine telecommunications cables. According to their observations, this existing infrastructure could be used to detect earthquakes, as well as swell and underwater noise...

20/11/19

Almost a Third of Tropical Africa’s Flora Faces Extinction

31.7% of tropical Africa’s vascular plant species could be threatened with extinction, reveals an international study coordinated by an IRD researcher, published in the journal Science Advances on 20 November 2019. Using a new approach based on the key elements of the assessment process used by the...

20/09/19

Combating climate change: a worthwhile investment

Investing to limit global warming to 1.5 °C between now and 2050 would cost four to five times less than repairing the harm that a 2 °C temperature increase would cause to people, ecosystems and infrastructures. This statistic comes from an international study to which IRD and CNRS researchers have...

11/09/19

The first Global Sustainable Development Report given to the Secretary-General of the United Nations

Achieving human well-being for all of the Earth’s people – expected to number eight and a half billion by 2030 - is still possible, but only if there is a fundamental - and urgent - change in the relationship between people and nature, according to a new United Nations report by an independent...