4 min

INRAE in the United States: consolidating our research and innovation partnerships

An INRAE delegation led by Chair and CEO Philippe Mauguin visited the USA from 2 to 7 June 2024. The trip allowed productive discussions to be held with two key strategic US partners, leading to the realisation and renewal of new and existing cooperation agreements with the USDA-ARS and the University of Florida. The USA heads the list of INRAE’s international partners.

Published on 13 August 2024

illustration INRAE in the United States: consolidating our research and innovation partnerships
© INRAE

Strengthening research collaboration with a major US partner – the USDA-ARS 

The signature of a framework agreement between INRAE and its top publication partner in the United States, the Agricultural Research Service at the US Department of Agriculture (USDA-ARS) has been confirmed for 2024. It will strengthen collaboration and facilitate bilateral mobility for scientists from the two institutions who work in areas of shared interest, such as the genetic selection and improvement of plants and animals, soil carbon sequestration, and aquaculture. This partnership is proof of INRAE’s commitment to the consolidation of its scientific partnership policy at global scale, particularly in the USA. It is also a mark of the excellent understanding established by INRAE and the USDA-ARS through previous collaboration, having together co-authored over 300 publications in the period 2017 – 2022. 

From left to right: Gema Herrero Corral, international cooperation officer, INRAE; Ingrid Watson, Director of International Research Engagement and Cooperation, USDA-ARS; Simon Liu, Administrator, USDA-ARS; Philippe Mauguin, President and CEO, INRAE; Jean-François Soussana, International Vice-President, INRAE; Thierry Caquet, environmental scientific director, INRAE.

With a focus on climate-change issues in aquaculture, an International Associated Laboratory AQUASAFE – Aquaculture, Sustainability and Adaptation for Future Environments is currently being created to explore and mitigate the effects of climate change on fish physiology and aquaculture production.

INRAE is also working with Cornell University towards a similar framework agreement. Cornell jointly runs the Breeding Insight initiative with the ARS, tackling one of the priority themes selected by INRAE and the USDA-ARS for collaboration.

Cementing our partnership with the University of Florida UF-IFAS

The impressive tally of joint publications between INRAE and the University of Florida, in particular its Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF-IFAS), places them third on our US co-authorship list, after the ARS and UC Davis. INRAE and the UF-IFAS have therefore decided to extend their existing five-year framework agreement, signed in 2020.

An initial Joint Linkage Call (JLC), a bilateral collaboration and exchange programme to enable scientists to build new working partnerships, allowed seven scientific mobility projects to go ahead in 2022, covering forest health and invasive species, the animal sciences, modelling applications for socio-ecological systems and crops, and the resilience and sustainability of forest ecosystems in response to environmental stress factors. Following this success, the two partners are now looking to strengthen scientific collaboration in areas of shared interest and to increase support for the mobility of early career scientists from both institutions.

The visit from Vice President of International Policy Jean-François Soussana thus provided the opportunity to agree to a second call for bilateral mobility schemes on a new set of themes – artificial intelligence and big data in remote sensing, water management, zoonotic diseases, and carbon sequestration and storage.

 

From left: Adegbola Adesogan, director of strategic partnerships, University of Florida; Gema Herrero Corral, international cooperation officer, INRAE; Jean-François Soussana, Vice-President in charge of international policy, INRAE; Robert Gilbert, Senior Vice President of IFAS, University of Florida; John Davis, dean of research, University of Florida.

An International Associated Laboratory (LIA) to investigate the transgenerational effects of heat stress in ruminants is also being set up. This virtual lab exemplifies the maturity and significance of the partnership projects delivered by INRAE and the UF-IFAS. The partners are now exploring a possible international research network (2RI) on crop modelling that could open up bilateral mobility opportunities for the development of ensemble modelling approaches. 

 

 

Diakaridiou Bathily

Contacts

Gema Herrero-Corral International cooperation officerInternational Relations Division, INRAE

Learn more

Climate change and risks

INRAE collaborations and partnerships strengthened in Australia

PRESS RELEASE - From 24 March to 29 March 2023, CEO Philippe Mauguin travelled with an INRAE delegation to Australia in order to sign cooperation agreements with the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) and three major Australian universities (Australian National University, University of Queensland, University of Melbourne). This visit was the occasion to launch an International Associated Laboratory (LIA) on the use of stable isotopes in seed selection and to pave the way for several LIAs in the field of agriculture and climate change, on adaptation to climate change of wheat, reduction of enteric methane in ruminants, organic carbon in soils, integrated water management at the river basin level and biosafety in a context of increasing transboundary risks of plant and animal diseases.

29 March 2023

Bioeconomy

BIOMATA: a new International Associated Laboratory (LIA) for biobased products with the Scion institute in New Zealand

PRESS RELEASE - During a visit to Wellington (New Zealand) by an INRAE delegation, a formal agreement for the creation of BIOMATA (Biorefinery for Sustainable Materials), a new International Associated Laboratory (LIA) was signed on 30 March by Philippe Mauguin, CEO of INRAE and Helen Anderson, the Board Chair of Scion, in person. Philippe Augé, President of the University of Montpellier, and Carole Sinfort, Director General of the Institut Agro Montpellier, also signed the agreement. Using plant biomass resources, BIOMATA will supply basic and applied knowledge for the development and use of biobased materials in the products of tomorrow. Research will reflect a circular economy approach that minimises the ecological footprint of manufacturing processes and makes a product’s end-of-life options a part of the design phase.

30 March 2023

INRAE and its North American partners strengthen their scientific and institutional cooperation

Philippe Mauguin, INRAE Chair and CEO, and Jean-François Soussana, Vice President of International Policy, visited Canada and the United States from 31 May to 7 June 2023. They met with key partners to structure and strengthen the Institute’s extensive collaboration with Université Laval, McGill University, the Fonds de Recherche du Québec and Michigan State University. Key highlights.

06 June 2023