Climate change and risks 2 min
Scientific cooperation between France and Japan: a stronger INRAE-NARO partnership on agriculture and food
PRESS RELEASE - On Monday 15 November, Dr KYUMA Kazuo, President of the Japanese National Agriculture and Food Research Organization (NARO), and Philippe Mauguin, Chair and CEO of INRAE, renewed their cooperation agreements for a five-year period during an online signing ceremony. As the leading research institutes for agriculture, food and environment in their respective countries, NARO and INRAE are demonstrating their commitment to continue working actively in these key areas. The two organisations have signed a new framework agreement and a new mobility agreement (known as a Joint Linkage Call) with a view to advancing knowledge at the highest scientific level that can help our societies tackle the global challenges associated with climate change.
Published on 15 November 2021
Initial framework agreements were signed between NARO and INRA in 2016 and between NARO and IRSTEA in 2017. As a result, INRAE and NARO are already working together in the key areas of agricultural and food sciences, animal sciences, plant sciences, social sciences and environmental sciences (including hydrology).
A productive partnership since 2016, strengthened by INRAE’s widened scope of activity
INRAE and NARO have produced more than 30 joint scientific publications. The two organisations have been cooperating through a specific Joint Linkage Call (JLC), which encourages mobility of scientists between the two countries, since 2019. They have renewed this scientific collaboration agreement to facilitate short assignments abroad for researchers from the two organisations. These exchanges make it easier to set up joint research projects on themes that are subject to annual calls for projects. Seven projects were conducted in 2019 on subjects such as:
- Improvement of livestock production and yield;
- Evaluation of meat quality;
- Weed control and plant disease resistance;
- Acceleration of the smart food value chain and the use of big data.
Nine other JLC projects were selected in 2020, and a majority of the teams involved from both organisations have been able to maintain their active collaboration remotely until travel becomes possible again (depending on the global pandemic).
This new period of cooperation will make it possible to launch new joint research projects on vital topics, as well as formalise the International Research Network (2RI) PISI-Net on plant and insect interactions, which is currently under development. A joint workshop on robotics in agriculture is planned for late January 2022.