The public sector is increasingly calling on INRAE scientists to address issues that concern the Institute’s research and expertise: preserving and managing common goods such as water, biodiversity and soil, anticipating and managing natural, food and environmental risks, and initiating food and agroecological transitions. These demands require close collaboration at different levels of action, at national, European and international level, as well as local level, which is an essential link in the chain of action.

The Public Policy Support Division helps build partnerships with public players to bring science and public policy closer together. This involves coordinating and leading the dialogue between the Institute’s scientific and technical provision and the needs of public players in designing and implementing food, agricultural and environmental policies.

Public policy support partnerships at all geographical levels

Public policy support involves formalising partnerships with national ministries and public entities responsible for implementing public policies. Institutional framework agreements with these strategic players structure and organise the partnership, specifying all the areas and methods of collaboration. They are then the subject of specific application agreements. They also set up governance bodies (steering committee, monitoring committee, etc.) responsible for monitoring and coordinating these partnerships.

These framework agreements are developed with INRAE’s non-academic priority public partners at national, regional and international levels.

This work is one of INRAE’s Public Policy Support Division’s missions and is carried out in close collaboration with the Public Policy Support Division, the Scientific Directors and the Heads of Research Departments. To date, INRAE has signed twenty national agreements that cover hundreds of support actions. Agreements have also been signed at regional level (with cities and regions, for example). Many of these agreements are managed by the research centres. A number of European and international partnership agreements (MoUs) are also managed in conjunction with the International Relations Department and the Higher Education, Sites and Europe Department. These include agreements with the JRC, EEA, EFSA, FAO, WMO and IFPRI.

Public policy support – national partnerships

INRAE establishes special partnerships with national public policy players, ministries or public institutions to contribute to the design, implementation and evaluation of public policies in the Institute’s areas of research.

The aim is to develop and target collaborations as part of INRAE’s national strategy for public policy support: to identify the players, issues and public policies concerned, both current and future.

INRAE’s main partners in public policy support are the ministries and national entities responsible for implementing public policies in line with the Institute’s aims. The Ministries of Agriculture and Research, which oversee INRAE, are key partners. Relations have also been established with the Ministry of Ecology, the Senate and the National Assembly, the Parliamentary Office for the Evaluation of Scientific and Technological Choices (OPECST) and the Economic, Social and Environmental Council (CESE).

These collaborations involve :

• setting up organised and systematic exchanges with the departments of the ministries responsible for agriculture and the environment to listen to needs and anticipate actions; these exchanges are currently being structured with the ministry responsible for health,
• the concerted drafting of framework agreements and conventions with public partners to better coordinate the scientific provision and the needs of political action, and to secure actions over the long term and in terms of resources. Projects are promoted jointly to strengthen collaboration and partnership.

Partnership with Ministries

As well as being major beneficiaries of INRAE’s public policy support, ministries are also partners, whether they be general directorates, directorates, departments or inspectorates. The partnership includes participation in councils or committees set up by the ministries, for example as part of national strategies or plans.

Public policy support initiatives are also carried out for local departments and agencies (DDT, DDPP, DRAAF, DREAL, ARS, etc.).

INRAE provides support to ministries at all stages of public policy: scientific insights and support for the design of new public policies, and operational support for their implementation and evaluation.

Operational support for ministries involves developing tools, indicators and decision-making aids. Together with the ministries concerned, it runs and develops long-term systems known as “permanent public policy support systems“, which have dedicated resources and staff.

These support the implementation of public policies, while at the same time enriching the Institute’s knowledge production and scientific strategy thanks to the data and emerging issues they generate.

A dozen or so permanent projects have been set up with the Ministry of Agriculture, while others are being developed or formalised with the Ministry of the Environment.

“Anticipation is […] a key element in designing and implementing forestry policy. […] The need for science is considerable, and the Ministry of Agriculture has long relied on INRAE scientists. […] To meet these long-term challenges, public forestry policy must also be a long-term process, informed by the results of scientific research. Acquiring knowledge is essential in a technically highly complex field, to enable the State to anticipate uncertain climatic conditions.” 

Elisabeth Van de Maël

Head of the Sustainable Forest and Wood Management Office (BGED) Directorate-General for Business Economic and Environmental Performance (DGPE) – Ministry of Agriculture and Food (2022)

Read the testimonial

Partnership with national organisations

Numerous national organisations are also important players in the design, implementation and evaluation of public policies: funding agencies, scientific and technical bodies, associations, foundations and groups. As part of its support for public policy, INRAE has partnerships with a large number of organisations with widely varying statuses, missions and relationships with public policy.

These partners may have local departments with varying degrees of programming autonomy.

Local public policy support partnerships

In agriculture, food and the environment, the local level is essential for implementing and coordinating public policies. It is where these policies are implemented and where they intersect with a wide range of stakeholders, the most important of which are local and regional authorities.

INRAE’s national positioning and its solid, historic roots in the regions, with its 18 research centres make it easier to bring together scientific groups, often multidisciplinary, and local public players.

The Public Policy Support Division is committed to strengthening this partnership with local players, an objective set by the Institute in its INRAE 2030 strategy.

Local public policy support partners

The various public policy support activities also have local beneficiaries: decentralised government departments, agencies, operators and public bodies, and local authorities and similar organisations. They are joined by other scientific, socio-economic and associative partners, and even some international players.

Local and regional partners have a variety of expectations of research: new knowledge, data and analysis tools that can be used by local and regional players, insight into a specific issue, or help in developing the technical and scientific skills of their staff.

Local and regional partners and support services

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INRAE’s thematic research offering in line with local authorities’ fields of action

Much of INRAE’s research supports local and regional transitions in agriculture, food and the environment, reflecting the fields of action and needs of local and regional authorities and their stakeholders.

The forms of partnership are adapted to the context, ranging from framework agreements to the implementation of specific projects, accompanied by training or the development of platforms.

European and international public policy support partnerships

Public policy support partnerships at European and international level include, in particular, international expertise activities carried out with international organisations and in the field.

The term ‘international expertise’ covers a wide range of INRAE activities, both in terms of the way they are carried out and their purpose.

International expertise refers to: