In 2017, IRD implemented the new strategy to improve societal promotion of research as defined in IRD’s COP (objectives and performance contract), in the following different dimensions:
The COP2016-2020 endorses the reorientation of the research promotion strategy, to make it more consistent with the Institute’s missions. The priority is now given to the societal value of research, and its contribution to creating solutions, whatever their forms, for a sustainable future.
A first block in this strategy is the revision of the intellectual property policy, a reflection which brings together internal players (researchers, implementation managers, lawyers) and partners of the Institute. It will lead to a redeveloped strategy in 2018.
In this framework, the objective of maximising patent filing is revised, to emphasise case-by-case protection of intellectual property, only when this is justified.
The IRD portfolio is undergoing major and progressive rationalisation, and currently has 69 patent families (116 in 2016).
In 2017, licence agreements were signed with five companies, including a licence signed by a technology transfer acceleration company (SATT).
An increasing number of researchers are turning to partnerships to bring their research work to fruition. Signed with industrial players, entrepreneurs, NGOs, professional associations, and corporate foundations, they encompass the themes of IRD’s five scientific departments.
In 2017, IRD signed six framework agreements with companies, with an increasing emphasis on long-term forms of partnership, in service of inventing new, sustainable economic models, where research questions are co-constructed, and where close relationships between partners will provide better results.
Campuses of Innovation are projects seeking to open research to society and to innovation ecosystems, supported by IRD with partners in the Global South. They aim to bring together local players (government, private players, public actors, civil society, artists), to share their knowledge and skills in order to generate and support innovations in response to local issues.
After the Bondy and Dakar campuses, launched in 2016, the Ouagadougou campus opened in October 2017.
More than a hundred innovative entrepreneurs of various origins receive support via the schemes devised and set up by IRD: Bond’Innov (France), iNCubateur in Nouméa (New Caledonia), Meet Africa – the new support programme for the start-up of innovative businesses in Africa, and internal support for spin-off activities.
