About IRD

The Institute of Research for Development (IRD) is a scientific and technological public institution (STPI) under the double tutelage of ministries in charge of Research and Cooperation. It employs 2,083 agents, which include 760 researchers, 750 engineers, technicians and administrative staff, as well as local personnel in overseas centers.

The Institute’s fundamental missions are :

Research
Expertise and development
Support and Training
Scientific information

For these purposes, the Institute carries out scientific programs centered on the relations between humans and their environment in southern countries with the objective of contributing to their sustainable development. It carries out research in Africa, in the Indian Ocean, in South America, in Asia and in the Pacific through 35 centers and representations in the world, of which 25 are located in foreign countries mainly in the inter-tropical zone.

IRD carries out research in conjunction with French higher education and research institutions and with its southern partners.

Engaged in about a hundred operations supported by the European Union, it participates to numerous important scientific programs.

Its research activities are organized in three scientific departments (Societies and Health, Living Resources, Surroundings and Environment departments) and eighty three research units around six general themes:

Environmental risks and security of southern countries’ populations
Sustainable management of southern ecosystems
Resources and use of continental and seaside waters in southern countries
Food security in southern countries
Health in southern countries: epidemics, endemic and emerging diseases, health systems
Economic, social, identity stakes and spatial dynamics in southern countries

The Institute of Research for Development is present in Laos since 1991 with its first researchers collaborating with the Health Ministry in a project financed by the European Union, following which, researches were also carried out with the Institute of Cultural Research of the Ministry of Information and Culture, UNDP, the Faculty of Agriculture of the Lao National University, while collaboration with the Ministry of Health continued in the form of researches on maternal and child mortality with the mother and child center.

In 2001, with increased personnel assigned to Laos , IRD opened an office in Vientiane . To this date, in addition to continued collaboration with the Ministry of Health and the Lao National University, a team of researchers and engineers is based at the Institute of Agriculture and Forestry Research of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry in the context of a IWMI ( International Water Management Institute ) MSEC ( Managing Soil Erosion Consortium ) project and a researcher is working on Vientiane at the Ministry of Communication, Transport, Post and Construction.

Today, IRD personnel in Laos include 5 researchers and 4 engineers, 3 agents under local unlimited duration contract, and 8 persons under local and limited duration contract. These agents implement programs in three of the priority thematic development researches of the Institute: sustainable management of southern ecosystems, food security in southern countries and development and globalization.