In 2019, the IRD celebrated its 75th anniversary. This was an opportunity for the Institute to assert its position in favour of a science of sustainability and to demonstrate the key role of collaboration with Southern countries in achieving this objective.
At the heart of the IRD's missions, the theme of "scientific knowledge at the service of the common good" set the tone for this anniversary:
The year was punctuated by around thirty events in France and abroad, including:
The launch of the IRD's 75th anniversary on 22 February at the International Symposium on Research, Development and the Common Good, Musée du quai Branly-Jacques-Chirac, Paris, attended by over 400 people.
The Sahara Mondes Connectés exhibition at the Musée des Arts Africains Océaniens et Amérindiens de la Ville de Marseille, the brainchild of artist-traveller Titouan Lamazou and IRD historian Charles Grémont, attracted over 50,000 visitors between May and September.
The international conference Science ouverte au Sud (Open Science in the South), held in partnership with UCAD from 23 to 25 October in Dakar, Senegal, resulted in a Declaration on sharing and opening up research data for sustainable development.
The IRD's 75th anniversary was an opportunity for the Institute to be at the forefront of this science, playing a role in driving and stimulating all French and French-speaking research, and especially scientists in the South.
The IRD was able to demonstrate its commitment and its missions in the service of sustainable science, while bringing together the scientific, academic, political, economic and media communities. From scientific production to the sharing and appropriation of its results by society, the IRD is committed to research for the common good.
Each event, in its own way, embodied the values of the Institute and its major innovations, now mobilised to meet the major challenges of the Sustainable Development Goals.
This anniversary will have been marked by :
13 scientific conferences with the 75th anniversary label
115 press releases
A book dedicated to the IRD's 75 years of research, Science and sustainable development, 75 years of research in the South, richly illustrated and coordinated by a scientific committee of over 40 IRD researchers.
These meetings and initiatives were very well received:
On social networks
Comprehensive digital plans have been put in place for each major event
More than 140,000 accounts were affected by the hashtag #SciencesPourUnMondeDurable and almost 150,000 by#IRD75ans (trending topic on twitter)
Nearly 145,000 total views on Twitter
More than 45,000 views of IRD publications on LinkedIn
In the press
With more than 115 spin-offs
One of the IRD's most talked-about topics in 2019
Consolidating partnerships with France Médias Monde and Sciences et Avenir
Collaboration with the media on new types of content such as datavisualisation and video