A new information system for the new ambitions

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Serving the science support activities

The professional workshops run over the first half of the year helped clarify and formalise financial management, ready to comply with the key points of the GBCP (public budgetary and accounts management) reform as from 1 January 2016. The results of these workshops were built on as part of the project to implement the new financial information system, SIFC EPST, which is based on the SIFAC solution pooled by the AMUE, the French shared-services agency for Universities and Higher Education and Research Institutions.
The Climate under Surveillance website – www​.climat​-sous​-sur​veil​lance​.ird​.fr – is designed for young people and the wider public, and went online in 2015 in the frame of the COP21.
An application to manage contacts and track the circulation of communication materials produced by IRD was also commissioned. Its architecture enables devolved management which is well suited to local operations.

Overcoming the digital divide in Africa

The Tandem project for digital research networks in West and Central Africa, developed in partnership with Cirad and Renater1, has been selected by the European Commission to receive a €1.2 million grant. Several initiatives have been organised as part of the project:

Strengthen IRD’s international communication network

After moving to new premises, the new Quito, Santiago, Tunisia and CREC (Cotonou Entomological Research Centre) sites have now been connected to the IRD network.
Network speeds have been boosted in Mali, Benin, Cameroon and Bolivia. A satellite link has been rolled out at the Niakhar site in Senegal.
The Eduroam/​Guest wifi has been opened up to the IRD’s representations. Security has been improved using flow prioritisation techniques, creating back-up connections, in Africa for example, and monitoring local networks. 

Adjusting infrastructure services to requirements while keeping costs in check

The economic model based on infrastructure services located in a private cloud means the provision of computing power can be adjusted to actual needs. The main factors behind changes in the scope of the cloud in 2015 were a 500% increase in individual network file storage quotas (from 1 to 5 GB), the implementation of GBCP infrastructure and the provision of new services.


  1. the Reseau National de Télécommunications pour la technologie, l’Enseignement et la Recherche (National telecommunications network for Technology, Education and Research) 

Key figures

Supporting and assisting IS users

4,200 IS users – IRD agents or otherwise – use the email service. 252 million emails were exchanged over the IRD platform in 2015, of which 22 million were outgoing.
The user service centre was called on 13,000 times, mainly for issues concerning account access, workstation configuration and help with starting a video conference.