IRD - ANNUAL REPORT 2013

42MOBILISING, COORDINATING, AND LEADING DISCUSSIONS ON RESEARCH FOR DEVELOPMENT

44RESEARCH AND TRAINING PROGRAMMES

46CAPACITY-BUILDING IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

48PROMOTING RESEARCH FINDINGS AND TECHNOLOGY TRANSFERT

50DISSEMINATING KNOWLEDGE AND COMMUNICATING INFORMATION

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The Agenceinter-établissements

de recherche pourle développement

AIRD’s activities are organised around six lines of action: guiding discussions on research for development; support for de� 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.

AIRD

AIRD

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42THE AGENCE INTER-ÉTABLISSEMENTS DE RECHERCHE POUR LE DÉVELOPPEMENT / MOBILISING, COORDINATING, AND LEADING DISCUSSIONS ON RESEARCH FOR DEVELOPMENT

AIRD

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.

MOBILISING, COORDINATING, AND LEADING DISCUSSIONS ON RESEARCH FOR DEVELOPMENT

Laboratory at the Côte d’Ivoire Institut Pasteur

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.

Training after the Haiti earthquake

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 natio-nal research for development landscape, the Agency has obtained notable results since 2010.

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 transfor-mations 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 in-terministériel de la coopération internationale et du développe-ment - 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

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Market gardening in Mali

AIRD

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

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.

THE “VALORISATION SUD” THEME-BASED TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER CONSORTIUM (CVT) STARTS ITS FIRST ACTIONS

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

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44THE 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.

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.

Mbafaye market in Senegal

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.

AIRD

Contact: dpf@ird.fr

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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 inno-vation in Latin America, the Caribbean, and the Mediterranean. Bringing together 160 international experts from 68 countries, it pre-sented 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.

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 partici-pants.

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

NEARLY ONE MILLION EUROS ALLOCATED TO THE GLOBALMED PROJECT

Globalmed, “artemisnin-based com-bination treatments: an illustration of the global market for the medica-tion 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 pharmaceu-tical systems differ noticeably; the

research is based on the example of anti-malarial drugs based on artemisnin.

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.

PACE-NET+: INNOVATIVE INSTRUMENT FOR INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION

Guiana biodiversity

AIRD

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.

CAPACITY-BUILDING IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

Training workshop on reefs in New Caledonia

46THE AGENCE INTER-ÉTABLISSEMENTS DE RECHERCHE POUR LE DÉVELOPPEMENT / CAPACITY-BUILDING IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

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.

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.

AIRD

Contact: sud.formation@ird.frFor more information: watch the video regarding Nathalie Diagne’s research thesis results: http://youtu.be/38demKRfqyg

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Ecuador

Mexico

Peru

Bolivia

Benin

Senegal

Mali

Brazil

Cameroon

Niger

Egypt

TunisiaMorocco

Kenya

Laos

Indonesia

Vietnam

Madagascar

BurkinaFaso Togo

Chile

Argentina

Gabon

Uganda

Ethiopia

Lebanon

India

Seychelles

Comoro Islands

Ivory Coast

Haiti

VenezuelaCosta Rica

GEOGRAPHICREPRESENTATION OFCAPACITY-BUILDING

JEAI PEERS DDS ARTS BEST

On the basis of the number of country packages

3 1 1 1 2

12

Colombia2 1 4 1

1 5 2

1 11

2 1

2

1

4 1

3 2 1 13 3

2 2 3 9 6

1 1 1 1

3 1 3 4Ghana

1 1 1

1 1 5

Mauritania1 12 4 2

1 12 2 1 15 4

4 11

Algeria 2 2

3 2 3 12 21

1 1

1 1

Syria14

2

1

1

2

1 1 3 2Mozambique 1 1

2 2 1

Thailand

1 1 2 1

1

1Malaisia

4 2 13

Cambodia 2

1 1

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48THE AGENCE INTER-ÉTABLISSEMENTS DE RECHERCHE POUR LE DÉVELOPPEMENT / 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.

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.

PROMOTING RESEARCH FINDINGS AND TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER

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).

AIRD

Contact: dvs@ird.frFor more information: watch the video regarding Nathalie Bernard-Maugiron’s research, specialist in Arab law: http://youtu.be/8OVqMdHrL9A

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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.

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and winner of the Emerging Competition from the Ministry of Research. The Bondy campus hosted the Conferences on innovative North-Southentrepreneurship, 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

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,

PREDICTING CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASES

Neglected diseases 28%

HIV 6%

Pollution control / Environment / Bioremediation

8%

Measurement devices andother equipment

15%

Plant genetics / Agronomy 23%

Other diseases 7%

Aquaculture / Fishing5%

Nutrition / Food 4%

Cosmetics 4%

GRAPH SHOWING THE DISTRIBUTION OF THE

PATENT PORTFOLIO

AIRD

North and South innovative entrepreneurship meetings in Bondy

“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 devel-oped 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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50THE 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

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 Hori-zon database is still frequently consulted, especially in countries of the South. In 2013, it ranked third among French open archives, ac-cording to Webometrics Web repository data. It was just behind HAL and HAL-SHS, to which IRD also contributes. It ranked 128th globally, and 37th 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 achie-vements 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.

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; Interactions 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 par-ticipating 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.

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 40th 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.

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Contact: dic@ird.fr

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Strengthening ties between science and society

Raising awareness in society about the challenges of research for development and mobilising young generations around these ques-tions 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 Eu-ropean 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.

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.

“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.

THE PARCOURS MIGRATOIRES PROJECT

Bangui Webradio Fennec club in the Central African Republic

AIRD

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