The IRD is a French public establishment operating under the joint authority of the French Ministry for Higher Education, Research and Innovation and the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs. Via its network and presence in fifty or so countries, it takes an original approach to research, expertise, training, and knowledge-sharing to the benefit of countries and regions that make science and innovation key drivers in their development.

• A rich community of more than 7,000 people including 2,050 IRD agents (851 researchers and 1,199 IRD engineers and technicians)
• 29% of agents working outside mainland France
• 72 research units
• 1,429 articles published in 2017 by IRD researchers in the Web of Science
• 62% of co-publications with a partner in the South

Scientific progress is necessary to further sustainable and human development: the IRD carries this conviction with it wherever it is present and wherever it works with its partners.

The IRD is a key French player on the international development agenda. It works based on an original model: equitable scientific partnership with developing countries, primarily those in the intertropical regions and the Mediterranean area.

Only this model allows us to design solutions which are adapted to the challenges that humans and the planet are facing (such as pandemics, climate change, humanitarian and political crises, and more) because the whole planet is facing these development challenges.