Release press office

11/05/22

Using gravitational signals for tsunami early warning with AI

IRD researchers publish a study on May 11, 2022 in the journal Nature showing that gravitational signals can be exploited to instantly estimate the magnitude of large earthquakes. These signals, which are very weak and propagate at the speed of light, were discovered in 2017 in data from the 2011...

10/03/22

A multidisciplinary and multilingual journal addressing the future of the African continent in response to global challenges

The members of the Global Africa consortium – University Gaston Berger in Saint-Louis (UGB, Senegal), National Research Institute for Sustainable Development (IRD, France), the Laboratoire d'études et de recherche sur les dynamiques sociales et le développement local (LASDEL, Benin/Niger) and...

18/02/22

Amazon basin: using artificial intelligence to optimise international planning of hydroelectric dams

New methods of digital optimisation to improve international management of hydroelectric dams in the Amazon basin have been proposed in an international study, coordinated by Cornell University (United States) with involvement from IRD researchers as well as their South American partners. These...

14/02/22

Tunisia: a correlation between varied agricultural production and women's dietary diversity

A study by researchers from CIRAD, IRD and the Tunisian National Institute of Nutrition and Food Technology (INNTA) revealed systematic positive correlations positives between the diversity of farm products and that of the diets of women on 290 family farms in the governorate of Sidi Bouzid, Tunisia...

10/01/22

European Research Council: two IRD projects win Starting Grants 2021

On 10 January, the European Research Council (ERC) announced the results of the Starting Grants 2021 call launched under Horizon Europe, the European Union's new research and innovation programme. 397 early career researchers were selected from over 4,000 applicants. They receive grants of 1.5...

13/12/21

Rubber production: How can soil health be restored after clear-cutting of a 40-year-old plantation?

Returning the biomass from logging to the soil and planting legume cover crops enable rapid restoration of the main soil functions, just 18 months after clear-cutting of an aging rubber plantation. A team of scientists has demonstrated this in two sites in Côte d’Ivoire since 2017. While pressure on...

09/12/21

IRD and MNHN publish the book Nature in Common - Beyond the Nagoya Protocol

French National Research Institute for Sustainable Development (IRD) and the French National Natural History Museum (MNHN) co-publish Nature in Common - Beyond the Nagoya Protocol, one of the first summary books on the implementation of this major international agreement for the global biodiversity...

25/10/21

Ocean sciences are essential in the fight against climate change

Full steam ahead toward the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26). On October 25, Ifremer, the CNRS and the IRD, with support from the Ocean & Climate Platform and ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet, are launching a digital world tour of ocean and climate sciences, christened...

06/10/21

Conserving agrobiodiversity to adapt crops to climate change: inauguration of two major facilities

On 6 October in Montpellier, CIRAD, INRAE, IRD and Institut Agro – alongside representatives of the Prefecture and the Occitanie Region, and Michaël Delafosse, President of Montpellier Méditerranée Métropole and Mayor of Montpellier – inaugurated two facilities that will play a major role in the...

09/09/21

Improving Ocean Protection with the First Marine Protected Areas Guide

An international team, which includes researchers from IRD and CNRS, published a novel Marine Protected Areas (MPA) guide in the journal Science on 9 September 2021. The aim is to advance the global community's understanding of ocean protection and achieve global goals to halt marine biodiversity...

20/08/21

IRD at the World Conservation Congress (IUCN) | Press release

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is holding its World Congress from 3 to 11 September 2021 in Marseille. This major event is held every four years and sets priorities to guide nature conservation and sustainable development activities. IRD has made biodiversity one of its...

16/07/21

AFROSCREEN: a COVID-19 response program to boost variant surveillance in 13 African countries

The Agence française de développement (AFD) and ANRS | Maladies infectieuses émergentes, in partnership with the Institut Pasteur, IRD, and laboratories across 13 African countries, are launching the joint AFROSCREEN project. This project meets an urgent need for surveillance of the development of...

18/06/21

An acceleration of coastal overtopping around the world

The combination of sea level rise, tides, storm surge and waves has increased the overtopping of natural and artificial coastal protection by nearly 50% in the last two decades. This revelation comes from an international study coordinated by IRD, involving international partners. The study was...

21/04/21

Central African forests are unequally vulnerable to global change

An international study coordinated by researchers from IRD and CIRAD reveals the composition of the tropical forests of Central Africa and their vulnerability to the increased pressure from climate change and human activity expected in the coming decades. Thanks to an exceptional dataset - an...

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)...