A highly principled institute
Our research subjects and practices directly tackle issues of concern for society, and our research results help inform the solutions we must adopt. In all our work, we rely on the guidance provided by our ethics committee and our code of conduct advisers. For certain research topics, INRAE has used this guidance to formally describe its institutional principles, positions, strategies, or opinions.
Our strategies, our principles
Ethics, Scientific Integrity and Code of Conduct Charter
Through this Ethics, Scientific Integrity and Code of Conduct Charter, INRAE wishes to highlight the core values that act as guidelines to ensure that all staff place the goal of serving the common good in an impartial and upright manner at the very heart of their duties and activities.
Animal experimentation at INRAE
Historically, animal-based research has served a variety of crucial functions: it has allowed us to improve human and animal health; to explore questions in the fundamental and agricultural sciences; and to preserve biodiversity and the environment. However, we have a responsibility to constantly assess whether such uses are ethical, and we must continue to seek alternatives. Like all French research institutes, INRAE rigorously applies the country’s strict requirements related to animal experimentation, which are based on European regulations. INRAE also collaborates with other institutes to explore the issue of animal-based research and is helping create a national centre for animal experimentation, modelled after centres in various other European countries.
Our policies and principles
Genome editing technologies have become a key tool in plant genetics and breeding and INRAE adopts a strategy regarding the use of these technologies for plant research, in a context of societal and regulatory debate. This strategy is in line with the Institute’s values and with its ambition to contribute to environmental, social and economic progress.
INRAE performs research in the fields of agriculture, food, and the environment. The resulting knowledge is used to develop efficient agroecological food and agricultural systems; respond to environmental changes; and promote a holistic approach to public health.
Scientific opinions
SPECIAL REPORT—Many people are starting to reflect on their levels of meat consumption because they are concerned about their health, animal welfare, and/or the global environmental sustainability of Western lifestyles. INRAE has written a scientific opinion to help clarify the benefits and limitations of reducing meat consumption. It provides abundant statistics and graphs to support and illustrate its conclusions.
Our organisation
Ethics Committee
The INRAE-CIRAD-IFREMER-IRD Joint Ethics Committee addresses the ethical questions that arise during the course of research in France and abroad in the areas of food, agriculture, marine resources, the environment, and sustainable development. It is notably concerned by research focused on relationships between science and society.
Delegation of Ethics, Scientific Integrity and Code of Conduct in Research Projects
A rigorous scientific approach must be taken at all times for the common good and careful consideration given to the ethical implications of the projects undertaken.
INRAE's mission is to produce and disseminate knowledge to respond to the challenges confronting society in the areas of food, agriculture, and the environment and to put such knowledge to work to foster innovation, provide expertise and lend support to public policies. The complex questions that society is seeking answers to require that a rigorous scientific approach be taken at all times for the common good and that careful consideration be given to the ethical implications of the projects undertaken.
INRAE, which has signed the French Code of Conduct for Research Professions has reaffirmed our commitment to supporting such values in our Ethics, Scientific Integrity and Code of Conduct Charter as well as in our Scientific Integrity Policy, and has formed a delegation under the authority of the Institute's Chair and CEO to promote those values and ensure they are upheld." Delegation