Christine Argillier – Research Director, aquatic ecologist (testimonial from the dossier “Science and the Water Framework Directive – 20 years of hydrobiology research to achieve good ecological status in aquatic environments” – 2021)
“Those who embarked on this adventure believed in it. Setting up a system for assessing the status of aquatic environments, based on biology, at a national level, with European harmonisation, was engaging and motivating. We had to be prepared to take risks, and have a management team to support us, which we were lucky to have. The initial motivation for embarking on a career in public policy support is undoubtedly to want to do targeted research. It’s not always easy, and often takes us out of our comfort zone, but it allows us to be at the heart of the action, to exchange different points of view and to move some lines, however modestly. Everything needed to be constructed, so it was very exciting.”
Testimonial from our thematic dossier
Thematic dossier
Science and the Water Framework Directive 20 years of hydrobiology research to achieve good ecological status in aquatic environments
In 2000, the European Water Framework Directive (WFD) set Member States the challenge of restoring European water bodies to good ecological status within twenty years. At the time, knowledge was lacking to implement the directive, so in 2007 the Ministry of the Environment’s Directorate for Water and Biodiversity (DEB) and the National Office for Water and Aquatic Environments (Onema) entered into a major collaboration with a number of research bodies. Cemagref/Irstea and INRA (now INRAE) were among the first partners to join forces, with research being carried out in hydrology, biology and ecology. While work is continuing to achieve the objective of good ecological status, the contributions of science to the implementation of this innovative and ambitious public environmental policy are already significant. A look back at 20 years of collaboration between French research and government departments.
