For more than 40 years, CIRAD has been forging strong, varied partnerships with Brazil, the global agricultural giant. It was therefore only natural that it should be involved in two initiatives aimed at strengthening scientific cooperation between France and Brazil. The launch events in late September followed on from the G20 research and innovation working group meetings in Manaus, in the heart of the Amazon.
A joint committee to support research
The first initiative, a joint interministerial committee (Comix) has pinpointed four key fields for cooperation: biodiversity and environment; social sciences; health; and mathematics and artificial intelligence.
With a budget of 6 million euros, the France-Brazil committee intends to support joint research projects, notably by means of a joint call for projects by the French Agence nationale de la recherche (ANR) and its Brazilian counterpart the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq).
“This is a potential new source of funding for CIRAD”, says Pierre Marraccini, CIRAD Regional Director for Brazil and Southern Cone Countries. “Particularly since the Brazilian government has shown its determination to support its poorest states, notably in the Amazon, where we have historically had a lot of partnerships.”
A Franco-Brazilian centre for biodiversity in the Amazon
The Amazon is central to the second initiative: the launch of the Franco-Brazilian centre for biodiversity in the Amazon (CFBBA). The centre pools research efforts on the part of the two countries on the sustainability of this unique territory, including by French Guiana and its research organizations. It will play a crucial role in providing a better understanding of Amazonian ecosystems, their interactions and the importance of biodiversity for the environmental balance of this global common good.
The centre will be run virtually, and will not have any actual offices. It is led by two co-directors: Henrique Pereira, Director of the Brazilian National Institute of Amazon Research (INPA/MCTI), and Gilles Kleitz, Deputy Director of Science and Sustainability Science Officer at IRD.
Emilie Coudel, a socioeconomist with CIRAD’s “Knowledge, Environment and Societies” research unit, is a member of the CFBBA science council, on which she will be in charge of topics relating to the human and social sciences, the bioeconomy and agroecology.
Calls for projects are due to be launched in mid-2025 for each of the topics currently being defined.
CIRAD, a catalyst for South-South cooperation
This relaunch of scientific partnerships between the two countries fits into the France-Brazil strategic action plan. For Pierre Marraccini, “in addition to its expertise in science and development in the field, CIRAD has other cards up its sleeve as regards this cooperation drive, notably in terms of fostering South-South cooperation, which could rely on our vast network of partners across Africa, Asia, the Pacific and the rest of Latin America.”
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Publish date : 2024-10-17 02:34:00
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