IRD’s communication strategy must respond to two major issues present in the 2016-2030 strategic direction plan (POS) and in the 2016-2020 objectives and performance contract (COP): recognition and awareness of the Institute and its work as a key and original actor in science and development, and consolidation of a collective dimension to our work by facilitating cultural and institutional connections within Planet IRD. IRD’s communication activities are structured around three strong development lines: facilitating dialogue and constructing communities, establishing IRD’s identity, and improving understanding of IRD’s work.
In 2017, the activities of the Communication and Information Sharing department (DCPI) were focused around the Institute’s major, priority thematic or cross-cutting fields: the oceans, desertification, glaciers, promotion of the African Research Council, and more widely, partnered research and action, and the impact of IRD research on development and innovation. At national and international level, IRD’s institutional communication tools (leaflets, stands, newsletters, digital presence, events, etc.) were also deployed throughout the year, to cover these priorities.
One of the key projects was the launch of a vast internet initiative for a more interactive digital presence, integrating more social networks, better aligned with the priorities of the Strategic Direction Plan, and more ergonomic and intuitive for both contributors and internet users. This project will be completed in 2018.
The Institute’s scientific editorial strategy draws on the extraordinarily rich array of subjects, angles and results from its researchers’ work to position itself as a benchmark in the world of science devoted to development. The strategy is implemented via the production of multimedia content, and benefits from all of the diffusion channels used by the Communication and Information Sharing department (DCPI).
A new editorial treatment of scientific news online, with a stronger multimedia approach and a quest for better alignment with the scientific strategy, has been under preparation since summer 2017, with the objective of creating a scientific news portal taking over from IRD’s traditional journal, Sciences au Sud. In 2017, more than a hundred articles were produced (website, Sciences au Sud, leaflets). They cover thematic principles supported by IRD and its partners.
Strengthening of press relations was also a major issue for IRD communication in 2017, making them more systematic, and better connected to current affairs and the Institute’s priority themes of intervention.
More than fifty press releases and press packs were distributed in 2017, to promote IRD’s research results in the domains of health (fighting infectious, emerging and neglected diseases), food security and plant improvement (millet genome sequencing), water resources (Ice Memory expedition in Bolivia), environmental protection (network of marine protected areas).
Moreover, there have been press actions on the Institute’s mobilisation against the impacts of climate change (COP23) and desertification (COP 13), the promotion of the sustainable development goals (nomination of the CEO for the group of 15 international experts in charge of writing the UN report on sustainable development in 2019).
Three works published by IRD have also received media coverage: L’énigme et le paradoxe (Enigma and Paradox), Des mondes oubliés (Forgotten Worlds) et Un défi pour la planète (A Challenge for the Planet).
In 2017, the Institute had 2712 press mentions (a 2% increase compared to 2016), including 20 articles in Le Monde, 20 in Le Figaro, 24 AFP dispatches, 26 interviews or programmes on France Inter, 44 on France O, 20 on France Culture and 54 on RFI.
Several editorial partnerships were formed this year, particularly with the popular science monthly magazine Sciences et Avenir, with The Conversation, an online information and news analysis resource that publishes articles for the general public written by researchers and academics, France Médias Monde – RFI and France 24.
The improved support for IRD professional communities and scientific communities is a strong line of development for IRD communication, with the deployment in 2017 of specific formats for social networks and support in managing network texts. The consolidation of HR and IS (information system) communication around core projects (SIFAC, RIFSEEP etc.) is part of the same drive, for better targeted information that meets the needs of users.
To forge links around its research work, its training provision in the South and innovation, as well as the major projects concerning the Institute’s governance and day-to-day life, IRD engages in more targeted communication on social media in an effort to engage its audiences, and helps inform and coordinate the various communities that make up “Planet IRD” using collaborative tools and spaces for exchange.
Today, planet IRD federates over 8000 French higher education and research staff, and aims to become more open from 2018, particularly towards communities in the Global South.
The audience on social networks, continued to grow in 2017. The IRD Twitter account had 9800 followers at the end of the year. The number of fans of the Institute’s Facebook page also continued to rise, reaching 13,800. Created in May 2016, the IRD company page on LinkedIn had 12,000 subscribers, after existing for a year and a half. Finally, 2017 saw the arrival of IRD on Instagram, the social network devoted to images.
The deployment of IRD’s new visual identity continued in 2017, particularly in the IRD regional delegations and its representations around the world.
Several resources were created to present the new IRD organisation (deployment of regional delegations, new network of representatives), but also to support scientists in their communication projects (creation of a thematic brochure on the oceans for the United Nations conference on the oceans).
IRD was keen to attend several national and international events in 2017, pursuing two lines of action: