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INRAE establishes its 2025–2030 priorities: 15 research and innovation challenges
PRESS RELEASE - INRAE is entering a new phase of its 2030 roadmap to help the world deal with growing climatic, agricultural, health, and environmental crises as well as the urgent need to radically transform agricultural, food, and forestry systems. Philippe Mauguin, INRAE CEO, and Carole Caranta, Deputy Director General of Science and Innovation, have announced that 15 "research and innovation" challenges will be launched. These efforts are refining the roadmap as it reaches its halfway mark. The aim is to produce concrete solutions for addressing priority issues over the next 3 to 5 years; these solutions are intended for socioeconomic stakeholders, industry stakeholders, and public authorities.
Published on 20 January 2026
Basic and applied research of high quality and great impact
Since INRAE2030 was launched in 2021, the institute’s actions have been structured by five major scientific priorities and three transdisciplinary general policy priorities. All eight priorities remain relevant in 2026 and focus on responding to global changes, supporting transitions in agroecological and food systems, developing an efficient circular bioeconomy, promoting the One Health approach, and facilitating transitions via data science and digital technologies.
Given intense international scientific competition, high societal expectations of public research, and the pressing need for functional solutions, INRAE is strengthening its commitment to using science as a powerful transformative tool for promoting food sovereignty, environmental sustainability, and population health.
15 research and innovation challenges that tackle priority issues
The institute’s 15 research and innovation challenges are fully aligned with the INRAE2030 roadmap. They focus on major scientific and societal issues and seek to have short- to medium-term impacts. This work will be conducted with INRAE’s R&D partners in France and abroad, along with the socioeconomic stakeholders who will benefit from the resulting solutions.
The challenges are transdisciplinary and draw upon the expertise of INRAE's 14 scientific divisions. They will be further fueled by close collaborations with agricultural technical institutes and the full range of stakeholders in the field. Structured as projects, they have clearly stated objectives and well-defined deliverables. They are underpinned by a strong commitment to accelerate transitions from knowledge to solutions.
The challenges centre on the following themes:
- adapting agriculture and forestry to climate change
- sustainably managing water resources, soils, and biodiversity
- transitioning towards low-carbon agricultural and food systems
- adopting the One Health approach to animal and human health
- developing the bioeconomy and biotechnologies
- using digital technologies and artificial intelligence to support transitions
SP 1
Global changes and associated risks
Characterising and deploying genetic resources
New tools for managing water resources
Forest dieback: from forest monitoring to renewal
SP 2
The agroecological transition and food system transformations
Innovations for integrated crop protection
New monitoring and vaccination approaches for animal health
Low-carbon agricultural and food systems
Innovations to improve the sovereignty of the plant protein, fruit, and vegetable industries
Transforming dietary regimes
International trade in agricultural and food products
SP 3
An efficient circular bioeconomy
Bolstering French and European biotechnology leadership
Developing the bioeconomy within regions
SP 4
One Health
Promoting global approaches to health at regional scales
Promoting health via microbiome-based dietary innovations
SP 5
Transitions via data science, artificial intelligence, and digital technologies
Using artificial intelligence to accelerate the transfer of agricultural innovations
Accelerating the development of agricultural equipment for the agroecological transition
Collective action-oriented research based in partnerships
INRAE’s research and innovation challenges embody the institute’s commitment to collective, open, and partnership-based research, as they will bring together research establishments, universities, technical institutes, private companies, start-ups, industry stakeholders, regional authorities, and national authorities.
The challenges are complementary to the new responsibilities being entrusted to French national research organisations and stronger levels of European and international cooperation, which are being expressed via programme agencies (in INRAE’s case, via the coordination of Agralife) and major French national programmes.