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North America
United States
Researcher exchanges between INRA and US laboratories continue to grow in number and quality, in a wide range of research areas. In 2006 and 2007, out of 47 INRA researchers who went abroad every year for a long-term stay, 15 travelled to the United States.
INRA has pursued cooperation with its two major partners, ARS (Agricultural Research Service) and the University of Illinois. It also now works with other US and international teams in the areas of pig genomics and bovine embryo reproduction physiology and genomics. This in turn led to a series of research projects and researcher exchanges in the US as well as two conferences at INRA’s Jouy-en-Josas Research Centre in 2005 (pig genomics and developmental and reproduction biology).
Interest in joint research on poultry reproduction has recently been renewed and has continued to grow significantly in 2005.
A workshop on "Multifonctionality: implications on markets, trade and the environment" took place at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) in March 2006.
In 2007, a General Agreement of Academic Cooperation between INRA's Science for Action and Sustainable Development (SAD) research division and the University of Utah, Department of Wildland Resources, was signed for a duration of 5 years. It focuses on agri-environment issues and pastoral practices. This agreement involves INRA researchers and students spending time at the University of Utah and vice-versa. The cooperation is part of the BEHAVE R&D network whose activities cover 17 states in the west of the USA.
Canada
In December 2004, INRA renewed its cooperation agreement with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. In 2005, a co-operation on corn genomics was set up between INRA of Clermont-Ferrand and Canada Agriculture in Winnipeg and Ottawa.
Latin America
Argentina
Various agreements have been signed with Argentinean partners, including the Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA, joint research projects, one five years, renewable by tacit agreement, signed in September 2006), and Universidad de la Plata and Secretaría de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación Productiva (SECYT).
A research/training project developed jointly with IRD (a French public science and technology research institute) is currently under way. It is based on training (basic and continuing education) for specialists of rural development, to be provided by a French university and 3 Argentinean universities. It benefits from the joint work of rural development organisations in Argentina and Brazil. The research proposed focuses on an in-depth transformation of the skills involved in rural development in Europe and Latin America. Efforts to change public policy (and representations of research and development), symbolised by the term “multi-functionality” in France and “nuevas ruralidades” in Latin America, is a means of recognising and supporting these transformations. The project is based on a comparative approach of rural development relations in three countries (Argentina, Brazil and France) with vastly different policies on family farming. In all three countries, family farming is particularly widespread and has a significant impact on policies.
Cooperation with Brazil
After the renewal of its cooperation agreement with INRA in 2002, EMBRAPA, the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation, made great progress structurally over 2004. Every year, INRA welcomes 30 to 40 Brazilian researchers, doctoral students and post-doctoral fellows for work on joint projects. The partnership with Brazil also extends to universities.
The majority of projects focus on multi-functionality, public policy and technical institutes/family farming relations. Others involve research/industry partnerships (Montpellier), restructuring the food industry and the dynamics of the soy industry in Brazil (Paris-Ivry).
In Rennes, INRA works together with various partners on dairy filtration technologies, with the aim of developing that area in the Brazilian industry.
In Le Mans, INRA is working with Parana teams on the emergence of a non-GMO soy industry, while INRA at Clermont-Ferrand is involved in a programme on temperature/phenology interactions of various apple trees.
One important joint project has resulted in the isolation and culture of the pathogen responsible for citrus-variegated chlorosis in orange trees (Bordeaux). New projects have been launched in order to select corn adapted to acidic tropical soil (West Indies and Montpellier), study the lettuce mosaic virus and characterise salt-stress induced rice genes (Versailles).
In the forest sciences, the Research Centres in Guiana and Bordeaux are contributing to the modelling of gene flow in Amazonian forest species and in the Araucaria genus. Lastly, in agronomy, the Versailles-Grignon and Avignon Research Centres are participating in a project on “the physical relations of direct seeding and soil”.
EMBRAPA values European cooperation
EMBRAPA places great importance in cooperating with European countries. The creation of LABEX three years ago is evidence of this. LABEX allows researchers abroad to focus on various scientific topics in a defined structure. EMBRAPA has established a LABEX in cooperation with USDA ARS and another in Montpellier for Europe. EMBRAPA invests a total of $105,000 (not including wages) per year. LABEX-Europe is located in Agropolis and supports two researchers working at CIRAD (agro-industry and biotechnology), one at Agropolis (agricultural economy) and one at INRA (natural resources and soil sciences). They are responsible for dividing their time equally between conducting research projects and ensuring scientific watch in Europe. The Director-President of EMBRAPA seeks to boost LABEX’s success by increasing cooperation with INRA and other research organisations in Europe such as the Wageningen Research Centre in the Netherlands.
An INRA-CIRAD mission went to Brazil in May 2006 and met their principal partners. A second mission in April led to the signing of an agreement with the FAPESP) in order to develop scientific partnerships.
Mexico
A mission coordinated between several INRA Research Divisions went to Mexico in November 2005 in order to assess the possibilities of developing co-operation activities. On average, 35 to 40 Mexicans, PhD or Post-Doc, are hosted each year in INRA's laboratories.
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See also
