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INRAE: Thierry Caquet appointed Vice-President of International Policy and Isabelle Litrico appointed Scientific Director of Agriculture
PRESS RELEASE - Philippe Mauguin, Chair and CEO of INRAE, appointed Thierry Caquet Vice-President of International Policy on 1 January 2025 for a four-year term. Thierry succeeds Jean-François Soussana, named Chair of France’s High Council on Climate. Isabelle Litrico, Head of the Plant Biology and Breeding Division until now, becomes Scientific Director of Agriculture. Isabelle succeeds Christian Huyghe, whose term has expired but who in 2025 will carry out a portfolio of missions for several scientific programmes.
Published on 13 January 2025

Thierry Caquet named Vice-President of International Policy at INRAE
Scientific Director of Environment at INRA since 2017, which became INRAE in 2020, Thierry Caquet has been appointed Vice-President of International Policy at INRAE for a four-year term until 2029. As did his predecessor, he will lead international strategy at the Institute and strengthen European and international partnerships throughout the world.
INRAE is the leading institute in Europe and a world-leading institute for research on agriculture, food and the environment. It works with an international network of partners to further knowledge and find solutions to ensure food security, protect natural resources such as water, soil and forests from climate change, and safeguard biodiversity. INRAE works to help achieve the 17 Sustainable Development Goals established by the United Nations in 2015. On the international stage, the Institute contributes policy support in France, Europe and worldwide to accompany the transition towards healthier, more sustainable agroecological and food systems and improve economic, social and environmental outcomes.
Thierry Caquet will work closely with all scientific division heads and those in charge of cross-disciplinary programmes and research structures, together with the scientific directors of Agriculture, of Food and the Bioeconomy, and of Environment, along with the Deputy Director General of Science and Innovation, and with the support of teams in the International Relations department and the Academic Partnerships, Regional and European Affairs department. His first priority will be to consolidate shifts in the international strategy of the INRAE 2030 roadmap in consultation with the Institute’s national and international partners.
Read his portrait here.
Thierry Caquet in a few words
Born in 1963, Thierry Caquet obtained a PhD in ecology and an accreditation to supervise research from Université Paris 1 Sud. After starting his career as a lecturer-researcher in freshwater ecology and ecotoxicology at the Université Paris 1 Sud, he joined INRA Rennes in 2001 to conduct research on the assessment and impact of chemical pollution on aquatic ecosystems.
From 2013 to 2017, he was Head of the Forest, Grassland and Freshwater Ecology division and Director of INRA’s Metaprogramme “Adaptation of agriculture and forests to climate change”. Since 2017, as INRAE’s Scientific Director of Environment, he has coordinated the Institute’s efforts in the areas of climate change (reduction and adaptation), biodiversity, the sustainable management of natural resources as well as natural and environmental risks. He is the Chair of the Partnership for European Environmental Research (PEER) network, a council member of the European AlterNet network, a member of the Board of Directors of the French Foundation for Biodiversity Research (FRB), a member of the scientific and technical council of IGN, France’s national institute of geographic and forest information, and a member of CNB, France’s national biodiversity committee.
He was appointed Vice-President of International Policy at INRAE on 1 January 2025.
Isabelle Litrico appointed Scientific Director of Agriculture at INRAE
Isabelle Litrico has headed the Plant Biology and Breeding Division since the creation of INRAE in 2020. She helped develop the INRAE 2030 strategic roadmap and took part in its implementation in the 43 research units of her division. She is the scientific coordinator and leader of the France 2030 national research programme for Advanced Plant Selection (SVA) launched in 2022 and a specialist in plant breeding genetics geared to meet agroecological challenges and ensure economic performance. She has been appointed Scientific Director of Agriculture for a four-year term.
Isabelle Litrico will lead scientific strategy at the Institute in the areas of agriculture with all relevant INRAE scientific divisions in mainland France and the country’s overseas territories. She will work in cooperation with the scientific directors of Environment and of Food and the Bioeconomy, along with the Deputy Director General of Science and Innovation, under the supervision of the CEO. The key focus of Isabelle Litrico’s mandate will be to address the high expectations of society and stakeholders by producing the highest level of knowledge possible and optimising its impact to ensure that agriculture can ensure food security, an income for farmers, and meet environmental challenges. After chairing two sections of the Permanent Technical Committee on Plant Breeding (CTPS) for seven years, Isabelle Litrico is now president of its scientific committee.
Read her portrait here.
Isabelle Litrico in a few words
Born in 1974, Isabelle obtained a PhD in population biology and ecology from the Université de Montpellier and an accreditation to supervise research from the Université de Poitiers. A temporary research and teaching associate at the Université Paul-Valéry Montpellier at the start of her career, she also conducted post-doctoral research at INRA Lusignan and the University of British Colombia in Vancouver, Canada. She was hired as a researcher at INRA in 2006 and became head of the genetic evolution of grassland populations team at the Multidisciplinary Research Unit for Grasslands and Forage Crops (URP3F) in Lusignan in 2007. She supervised several theses on plant genetics and breeding and published groundbreaking results in the increasingly associated fields of plant breeding and ecology. She became Deputy Director of this unit in 2014. In 2019, she became Deputy Director of the Plant Biology and Biology and Breeding (BAP) Division, before becoming its Director in 2020, when INRAE was created.
She was appointed Scientific Director of Agriculture at INRAE on 1 January 2025.