8 min
2019 INRA Awards
The 14th INRA Awards Ceremony was held in Paris at "La Bellevilloise" on 19 November 2019 in the company of Frédérique Vidal, Minister of Higher Education, Research and Innovation and Didier Guillaume, Minister of Agriculture and Food.
The ceremony took place not long before the launch of INRAE, the result of the merger of INRA and IRSTEA. This 14th edition is the last in a long and remarkable series initiated in 2006. In 2020, the new INRAE Awards will take place.
Published on 17 January 2020
Each year, the INRA Awards honour the creativitity, talent and commitment of INRA researchers, engineers and technicians. The different awards highlight remarkable scientific achievements, their impact for society, innovation and support to research teams.
Portraits of the recipients of the 2019 INRA Awards
Olivier Lalouette, recipient of the Research Support Award
Since 2010, Olivier Lalouette has been the manager of INRA’s Centre for Taste and Feeding Behaviour at the Bourgogne Franche-Comté Research Centre. Supported by a team of 15 people, he is the dynamic coordinator of support services for this unit which specialises in studying dietary behaviour, its regulation and effects on wellbeing and health. Olivier is the recipient of the INRA Research Support Award for 2019.. >>>
Laetitia Lançon, recipient of the Research Support Award
Laetitia Lançon oversees a team of 20 people at the French Plant Genomic Resources Center (CNRGV), part of the INRA Occitanie-Toulouse centre. She has been the management assistant since the unit was created in 2004 and helped construct the lab’s entire administrative, financial and legal architecture. After 15 years of indefatigable commitment to her duties, Laetitia has been nominated this year’s well-deserving winner of the Research Support Award. >>>
Yann Guiguen, recipient of the Scientific Breakthrough Award
Male or female, sex often varies as determined by genetic, environmental or even social mechanisms. A complex topic that Yann Guiguen, Research Director, studies in depth at the INRA Brittany-Normandy Fish Physiology and Genomics Laboratory. Yann is the recipient of INRA’s 2019 Scientific Breakthrough Award. >>>
Pascal Neveu, recipient of the Innovation Award
At INRA’s Occitanie-Montpellier Research Centre, Pascal Neveu has been hard at work developing the next generation of processes for integrating, managing and mining large volumes of diverse data. Neveu is a research engineer in the Mathematics, Informatics, Statistics for Environment and Agronomy (MISTEA) Joint Research Unit, and has been its director since 2014. He is the recipient of the 2019 INRA Innovation Award. >>>
Guillaume Martin, recipient of the Promising Researcher Award
Guillaume Martin, research director in the Joint Research Unit for Agrosystems and Territorial Development at INRA’s Occitanie-Toulouse centre, received the 2019 Promising Researcher Award for his work in adapting livestock to climate change and the vagaries of the market. We spoke with this pioneering scientist who is committed to working hand in hand with livestock farmers to bring about the agroecological transition. >>>
Claire Chenu, recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award
In the heart of the Versailles plain between the Château of Versailles, former home of French kings, and the Château de Grignon, current home of AgroParisTech, Claire Chenu can be found working. Both in her role as INRA researcher or AgroParisTech professor, she has always been interested in soil organic matter, which is essential for food security, the fight against climate change and biodiversity. The 2019 INRA Lifetime Achievement Award recognises her exceptional career. >>>
Potato research team, recipient of INRA Science with an Impact Award
The potato is the fourth most important crop in the world, behind wheat, rice, and maize. Bolstering potato farming in Africa and Asia could help promote food security. However, for the potato to maintain its status, it is crucial to control the plant’s plethora of pathogens without resorting to chemical pesticides, which have ecotoxicological effects. INRA's "potato team” has deftly risen to the challenge; based out of the INRA centre of Brittany-Normandy, its members also collaborate with researchers at the INRA centre of Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur (PACA). The team’s work has earned it the 2019 INRA Science with an Impact Award. >>>
President of the jury:
Philippe Gillet, Vice-President for Academic Affairs at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland
Members:
John Porter, Emeritus Professor of climate change and food security, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
Alan Matthews, Emeritus Professor of European agricultural policy, Department of Economics, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland
Sophien Kamoun, Professor of molecular phytopathology, the Sainsbury Laboratory, United Kingdom
Agnès Van Den Pol-Van Dasselaar, Professor, specialist in grazing, University of Wageningen, the Netherlands
Christine Watson, Professor for Agricultural Systems, Scotland's Rural College
Annick Mercenier, Director of Innovation at NutriLeads, Zurich, Switzerland