Consultation Memorandum

Proposed scientific priorities for 2010-2014

General introduction

he French National Institute for Agricultural Research is preparing its strategic plan for 2010-2014. To do so, it

T received proposals from its research divisions, considered the recommendations from the evaluation recently
carried out by AERES1, and analysed foresight studies from around the world and expectations from national
public authorities.
With the adoption in 2009 of the national strategy for research and innovation (SNRI)2, several priorities are of immediate
relevance to INRA. This in turn has prompted it to become a major player or associate of three national alliances formed
around crucial challenges:
• ALLENVI for food and nutrition, water, climate, and the environment, with INRA and CNRS at the Secretariat;
• AVIESAN for life sciences and health; INRA runs the “Circulation, metabolism and nutrition” multi-organism
thematic institute together with INSERM;
• ANCRE for energy research; INRA and IFP lead the “Energies from biomass” thematic group.
At the EU level, alongside calls for tender from the European Research Council and the Framework Programme itself,
ministers have decided to develop joint programming initiatives. INRA will coordinate with BBSRC the “agriculture, food
safety and climate change” initiative being put in place.
Meanwhile, at the international Copenhagen summit, New Zealand was behind the launch of a global research network
on mitigation of climate change in agriculture, of which INRA is a partner.
Finally, recent developments in the field of higher education took shape with the creation of AGREENIUM, which will
facilitate a research-education-development continuum at international level in the agronomic and veterinary fields. Se-
veral memorandums of understanding have also been signed with universities.
The Institute is mapping out its future priorities in accordance with this new national, European and international context.

INRA: a national research institute for agriculture, food and nutrition,

and the environment
As a public body for targeted scientific research, INRA must fulfill the following missions:
(i) to combine excellence and relevance in its research activities,
(ii) to ensure the production and dissemination of scientific knowledge and innovation,
(iii) to contribute to training for research and via research, and to the general science/society debate, and
(iv) to anticipate and provide input to decisions made by the authorities and by the key players in society.
The research conducted at INRA is dictated by both the dynamics of science and the socio-economic stakes in food
and nutrition, the environment, and agriculture. As such, the links between research activities, from the most academic
to the most applied, must be clearly identified, and the thrust of research must be decided upon with the input of
partners—academics, professionals, public authorities and citizens.

1- French Agency for the Evaluation of Research and Higher Education

2- General report of the national strategy for research and innovation (2009)

Consultation Memorandum - January 2010 page 1/16

 The drafting of our new strategic plan gives us a special opportunity to consult the partners
Based on scientific production and results, INRA is currently the top European agricultural research body. With sites all
over France and its overseas territories, INRA mobilises skills in life sciences, environmental sciences, and social
science and economics. INRA ranks second in the world for scientific publications in agriculture, plant, and animal
sciences, and in the top 10% for microbiology, environmental sciences and ecology (2008 figures).
INRA is a key player in the European Research Area and is committed to tackling issues of food security with CIRAD
and through AGREENIUM, which creates a link between research, education and development.

Global food security: a growing demand for research

With debate raging over the question of food security, agriculture has once again become a priority area, as highlighted
by the 2008 World Bank report. The urgency was underscored by recent food riots, but agriculture must also address
three major issues: demographic growth and an increasingly urbanised population, the increasing scarcity of fossil
fuels, and global environmental changes accompanied by the erosion of biodiversity and the degradation of water
resources and soil fertility.
At the national level, agriculture (in the broad sense2) and the agri-food industry constitute the primary economic sector.
Agriculture provides jobs and is the source of a trade surplus. The performance of this sector is based on the competi-
tiveness of community-based agriculture that can meet a range of needs. The Environment Round Table (Grenelle de
l’environnement) and, more recently, the “Objectif Terres 2020” programme invite us all to change our mindset and
practices, and shift to new agricultural and industrial models that adhere to the principles of sustainable development.
Agriculture’s tasks for the coming decades are to produce more, in a different and more efficient way, and to produce
new products. This is the principle behind scientific priorities 1, 3, 4 and 7.
To meet these challenges, foresight studies and expert reports3 are helping us identify future lines of investigation. The
exercise conducted on global agricultural and food systems in 2050, using the INRA-CIRAD Agrimonde platform, has
been key in helping us define priorities 3 and 7. More recently, the conclusions from national scientific foresight
workshops on the challenges of climate change for agriculture and forests (ADAGE) and on renewable carbon for che-
mistry and energy (Véga) encourage us to focus on priorities 2, 4 and 5.

Data organisation as a challenge in environmental and life sciences

The fast-paced development of methods for investigating and analysing the structure and function of living organisms,
along with the proliferation of high-throughput technology, has revolutionised the fields of knowledge production and
opened up new possibilities. Green and white biotechnologies provide new tools that can enhance the properties of
crop plants, making them more resistant, productive, or suitable for certain uses. Exploration and modelling of life
mechanisms, using large-scale facilities, are necessary for progress in food and nutrition research and its connection
with health. The priorities defined by the national strategy for research and innovation, with its corresponding budget,
favour the deployment of ambitious scientific activity in these areas of interest.
To go beyond descriptive approaches, meet the challenge of massive data accumulation, integrate the knowledge pro-
duced at different levels of organisation and reinforce quantitative methods: these goals address both scientific frontiers
and society’s strongest demands. INRA has made this a general priority for all of its fields of application (priority 6).
Moreover, the desire to understand and reproduce the complexity of phenomena observed in living organisms is not
limited to biology; it also applies to ecology, environmental sciences and social sciences, all of which are disciplinary
fields that must be integrated into research on agriculture, food, and the environment. The development of modelling

2- By this, we mean agriculture, forests, and inland aquaculture

3- INRA has made major investments in the past 4 years on:
- scientific collective assessments: Drought and agriculture, ECOPHYTO, Agriculture and biodiversity, Pain in farm animals, Fruits
and vegetables
- foresight studies: Agriculture 2013, Rural areas in 2030, French poultry industry in 2025, AGRIMONDE 2050
- studies: Forests, agriculture and GHGs in 2010 and 2020, Health Check of CAP and its application in France

Consultation Memorandum - January 2010 page 2/16

 tools for so-called complex systems is now an essential condition for encouraging an interdisciplinary relationship bet-
ween life and environmental sciences, and social sciences and economics.

INRA: a global player in the agricultural research of tomorrow

The magnitude of the challenges involved requires a systemic approach to the issues facing agricultural research, as
echoed by priority 7. This implies imagining, designing, testing and assessing new interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary
approaches4. Issues are now tackled at a global level, without forgetting that solutions must be applied at a local scale.
INRA’s identity is clearly shaped by the nature and diversity of its missions, its scientific perspective, and its purpose:
to serve the needs of agriculture, food and nutrition, and the environment. As recently recommended by an international
committee5, INRA must become one of the major forces in global agricultural research.

The 7 scientific priorities proposed by INRA:

These 7 priorities are not meant to provide a comprehensive description of our activities. Rather, they represent the
main thrusts that we intend to concentrate on in the next 5 years. They should make our position clear to our partners
and on the international stage. It goes without saying that they cannot be met without strong collaboration from academic,
scientific and socio-professional partners, both at home and abroad.

5 thematic priorities:
1- Integrate economic, social and environmental performances of agriculture
2- Minimise environmental risks; quantify and maximise ecological services (water, biodiversity,
etc.) from agriculture and forestry
3- Gain a better understanding of food transitions and their consequences on health and quality
of life
4- Develop and promote the renewable carbon for chemistry and energy
5- Adapt agriculture to climate change and reduce its contribution to greenhouse gas effects

2 general priorities:
6. Reinforce prediction capacities in biology and ecology
7. Seek systemic and territorial consistencies for global food security

4- INRA Self-assessment report 2009: Transdisciplinary questioning is an approach during which researchers interact among themselves
and with stakeholders in socio-economic and political challenges.
5- http://www.aeres-evaluation.fr/IMG/pdf/AERES-S1-INRA-VF-VA.pdf

Consultation Memorandum - January 2010 page 3/16

 Scientific Priorities for 2010-2014
www.inra2014.com

1 “Integrate economic, social and environmental performances

of agriculture”

Background and challenges

In both developed and developing countries, agricultural and forest systems must satisfy the three dimensions of sus-
tainable development: economic, social, and environmental. This requires inserting the work conducted at the plot,
farm, whole production chain and/or territorial governance level into a larger (regional, national, international) coherent
vision of agricultural and forest issues, and, beyond, of the more general problems of food, energy, environment, North-
South or urban-rural relations, etc. (see Priority 7).
Despite significant progress made in recent years, the convergence of economic, social and environmental performances
of agricultural and forest systems and practices will not happen without major shakeups. The challenge is to design a
new path of scientific, technological, transfer and organisational progress for sustainable agriculture and forestry, one
that can be inserted vertically in production, processing, distribution and consumption chains, and horizontally within
territories and job and population basins, while taking into account the diversity of resources and environments (see
Priority 2) as well as the differences in economic, regulatory and social contexts.
Meeting this challenge requires the joint mobilisation of a vast number of disciplines, in the framework of integrated
and systemic approaches that are not limited to science and research alone. This needs the reinforcement of the
institute’s engineering skills (research, organisation and transfer / development), and the backing of all research, training
and development partners of the agricultural system (in the broad sense).

Research questions
1- Developing pluridisciplinary, integrated and systemic analyses
Over and above the more specific research questions listed below, the major challenge is to make the most of the
wealth of disciplines covered by the institute and its partners, and use it to shore up the ability to carry out integrated
and systemic analyses of agricultural and forest practices, farms, production chain and/or territories. Analyses must be
integrated in the sense that the development of sustainable agriculture and forests requires research that combines
disciplines in the framework of jointly-designed projects, in terms of hypotheses, methodology, and expected results.
They should be systemic in the sense that the sustainability of farms, industries and/or territories require that they
should be considered as scenes where physical, biological, economic and social interactions take place.

2- Create new genetic materials suited to plant, animal (including aquacultural) and forest production systems
that are designed according to principles of sustainable development
The promise and potential of innovation and progress offered by genomics, post-genomics, biotechnology and predictive
biology must be harnessed to address new selection goals, and develop high-throughput genotyping and phenotyping.

Consultation Memorandum - January 2010 page 4/16

 As such, genomic selection will focus in particular on (i) the simultaneous consideration of several characteristics in
selection criteria, (ii) the genetic control of the variability of such selection characteristics, and (iii) the analysis of
genotype x environment interactions in diverse and fluctuating agro-ecosystems that are productive and environmentally-
friendly at the same time.

3- Design integrated management systems for plant and animal health

The protection of plant and animal health, the prevention of health-related accidents, and the rapid and efficient mana-
gement of their effects in case of outbreak are three key aspects of competitiveness, which is of growing importance
given the increasingly global nature of economies and trade as well as the effect of climate change. Generally speaking,
we need to design integrated management strategies for plant and animal health that minimise the use of phytosanitary
products and/or veterinary medicines while remaining as effective—technically and economically—as current protection
methods. Although new bioactive molecules will be pursued, work will focus on predictive epidemiology in order to
optimise biological or ecological pest control, the creation and management of spontaneous or induced resistance in
races or varietals, and spatial and temporal variation of production and production systems, under the broader goal of
designing an “agro-ecology of plant and animal health.”

4- Developing agro-ecology to understand and control agricultural ecosystems function

This consists of providing a biological and ecological foundation to practices and systems that have been revamped to
include sustainable development principles, by acting on three points: (i) the identification, comprehension and control
of critical biological and ecological processes, (ii) the analysis and modelling of such processes and their implications
on practices and systems; and (iii) the development of engineering that integrates the environment as both a resource
for agriculture and forestry and as a target for practices and systems. This “agro-ecology of landscapes and territories”
will mobilise the fields of agronomy and animal sciences as well as the various branches of ecology. At the same time,
it will mobilise both human and social sciences in an integrated manner (see above). Special focus will be given to as-
pects involving (i) innovation (design, adoption, dissemination), (ii) the appropriateness of production and land-related
structures for sustainable development, (iii) the higher value given to environmental and territorial benefits by the market
(higher prices) and/or taxpayer (public support policies), and (iv) the role of agricultural advisers and stakeholders.
Modelling of complex practices and systems will also require the mobilisation of skills in computer science, mathematics
and statistics, and will be completed by work based on observation and experimentation.

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 Scientific Priorities for 2010-2014
www.inra2014.com

2 “Minimise environmental risks; quantify and maximise ecological

services (water, biodiversity, etc.) from agriculture and forestry”

Background and challenges

Ecosystem services, also known as ecological services, refer to the benefits derived by humans from the ecosystems
they use and occupy in order to subsist and ensure their quality of life. These services come in two forms: supply (of
agricultural and forest products, water, etc.) and regulation (of water quality, soil stability and quality, greenhouse gases,
epidemics and biological invasions, pollution remediation, etc.). They are dynamic and have either synergistic or anta-
gonistic relationships with each other. Ecosystem services are directly dependent on the structure (biodiversity, land-
scape, etc.), dynamics (spatial and temporal) and functioning (primary productivity, soil biology, etc.) of ecosystems.
Their degradation can lead to several physical (erosion, dewatering, greenhouse gas emission, etc.), chemical (soil,
water or air pollution, ecotoxicology, toxicology), or biological (biological invasions, disease (re)emergence) risks. Human
activities such as agriculture and forestry affect a wide range of ecosystem services and may increase (or, on the
contrary, minimise) risks associated with their degradation.
The concept of ecosystem services constitutes an emerging scientific area of interest that currently inspires high-level
academic production. At the same time, society is making increasing demands for the clarification of the arbitration bet-
ween these services. INRA has unique assets in the field of agro-ecosystems which allow the institute to develop the
academic aspects, ecological engineering approaches, and the understanding of the socio-economic phenomena that
are involved in the arbitration between services. Jointly-designed academic production were delivered with CNRS (in,
for instance, the fields of ecotoxicology, spatial ecology, and environmental genomics), while infrastructures were created
in a network (GIS Sol), or at the scale of land compartment, landscape, and territory (long term ecological observa-
tories).
The challenges concern our ability to assess ecosystem services, predict their evolution, and control them. This requires
decisive progress in the convergence of disciplines—from agronomy and ecology on one hand, and biotechnical and
social and human sciences on the other hand. To achieve this, we must:
• understand the consequences that different management systems (agriculture, forest, animal husbandry,
fishing, etc.) may have on both supply and regulation ecosystem services,
• learn how, and in what priority, to maximise these ecosystem services,
• predict and control the risks associated with losing these services.

Consultation Memorandum - January 2010 page 6/16

 Research Questions
Meeting these challenges requires an increase in predictive capacities in biology and ecology (see Priority 6), as well
as a better understanding of systemic and territorial consistencies (see Priority 7). It also requires an effort to condense
the knowledge, and targeted research, for six scientific questions:
1- How can we assess and quantify, at various spatial and time scales, the different ecosystem services and their
interactions?
2- How can we predict the response of ecosystem services to changes in the use and management of land and of
continental aquatic environments?
3- What are the links between biodiversity, function, and ecological services in managed continental ecosystems?
4- How do ecosystem services vary depending on spatial organisation and the intensity of human activity?
5- Is it possible to predict the main physical, chemical and biological risks associated with the degradation of ecosystem
services? Which threshold effects, non-linear processes, or irreversible phenomena could amplify these risks?
6- What are the prevention and remediation strategies for these risks? Which costs and benefits are expected from
these strategies? Which innovations are needed to implement them?

Consultation Memorandum - January 2010 page 7/16

 Scientific Priorities for 2010-2014
www.inra2014.com

3 “Gain a better understanding of food transitions

and their consequences on health and quality of life”

Background and challenges

Populations around the world, from both developed and developing countries, are seeing unprecedented changes to
their diets. Such shifts, commonly known as food transitions, refer to changes in eating habits and their consequences
on health and quality of life. The latter is even more marked given that changes are rapid, profound, and accompanied
by changes in lifestyle and health conditions. The intimate causes and consequences of these transitions are not well-
known, and their links to health (causality and mechanisms) have yet to be determined. The complexity of food systems,
their interconnections with environmental matters, and the consequences of globalisation are other aspects of food
transitions. The scope and complex nature of these questions require strategic choices that are both explicit and detailed.
We suggest that priority should be given to studying the relationships between food transitions and health/quality of
life.
The challenge lies in describing and understanding food and diet transitions (causes, consequences and mechanisms)
in all their dimensions and in a very integrated manner, making it possible to suggest interventions on food systems to
improve the health and quality of life of populations while keeping sustainability, social and economic constraints in
mind. This challenge focuses on health stakes and mainly concerns the control of health risks and the conditions for
healthy eating, contributing to the limitation of disorders linked to overnutrition, malnutrition and undernutrition. The
changes being studied are those that correspond to new modes of consumption in terms of food composition, and
buying and consumption patterns: balance between fat and complex carbohydrates; food from animal or plant origin;
ready-to-eat products; losses from waste, etc. Moreover, these transitions are also characterised by strong social ine-
qualities and are tied to population ageing. In geographic terms, the scope includes developed and emerging or deve-
loping countries, in a comparative approach of food systems.

Research Questions
1- Identify and control food characteristics in order to design products that are better suited to food transitions
and improving health/quality of life
The knowledge of food characteristics in terms of their hedonic, healthy, nutritional, and environmental properties, price
and availability, and their technological means of production, should contribute to improving their suitability for food
transitions. This development obviously corresponds to health stakes but also to issues of availability for populations
characterised by unequal access.
1-1 We need to analyse and model the consequences of changes in the characteristics of raw materials and the
functioning of upstream markets (availability, modifications of inputs and their uses, price volatility, etc.) on the quality
and availability of food.

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 1-2 We must study the impact of food matrices on food characteristics and their physiological effects, especially on
the digestive tract.
1-3 We must develop innovations, company strategies, organisational methods and public policies to improve both
flexibility and robustness in the service of greater accessibility.

2- Study, understand and act upon determinants of food consumption

Food consumption is the result of interactions between production system supply and consumer demand. Consequently,
the analysis of food transitions, their determining factors, and the means of intervention must consider these two sides
and study their interactions.
2-1 A better understanding of mechanisms and factors influencing changes in food and nutrition is needed. We must
deepen our understanding of consumer behaviour and practices (foods found in diets, uses, sourcing, etc.), by ana-
lysing and integrating social, economic, biological and psychological factors.
2-2 We must analyse how behaviour is formed, the impact of culture, early learning and education, and the means
of influencing behaviour.
2-3 We must study the conditions in which changes in food characteristics are adopted.
2-4 We need to identify sources of losses and waste, along with the practices and means of limiting these, by changes
in behaviour and/or supply.
2-5 We must conduct specific analyses of populations with unequal access and ageing populations.

3- Analyse and understand causality relationships between food and health

The metabolic environment, with diet at the forefront, is a major factor influencing the health and quality of life of
populations, but the complex nature of these relationships require radical new approaches that make use of high-
throughput, integrative methods such as “systemic biology” in addition to more conventional methods.
3-1 We must participate in, coordinate, and—if needed—conduct longitudinal research on cohorts, while including
biological, socio-economic and environmental characteristics in order to have a global approach.
3-2 Relevant, detailed biobanks and biomarkers must be developed on a large scale.
3-3 The biological effects and health benefit-risk relationships (toxicological, microbiological and nutritional) associated
with food consumption must be assessed, while taking into consideration the different scales of diet, food, and
nutrients.
3-4 We must study transmissible metabolic effects and socio-economic factors behind health-related behaviour.
3-5 In addition to studying events linked to overnutrition, we must also study undernourished populations and the
impact of special diets on target populations (vegetarian and other restrictive diets).
3-6 Finally, advances in knowledge of the intestinal metagenome should make it possible to include this aspect in
population phenotyping and seek its specific relationships with food and health.

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 Scientific Priorities for 2010-2014
www.inra2014.com

4 “Develop and promote the renewable carbon for chemistry and energy”

Background and challenges

We expect agriculture to provide—in addition to food—ecosystem and landscape services, as well as energy and
industrial goods as substitutes for fossil carbon products. Above and beyond first-generation biofuels, the development
of a renewable carbon-based economy falls within the context of (i) the increasing scarcity of fossil fuels, (ii) limiting
economic and geopolitical dependence on oil, (iii) the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, (iv) reducing the toxic
effects linked to the use of chemicals and particularly by observing the REACH European regulation, as well as (v)
diversifying openings in order to contribute to wealth and job creation.
A reverse engineering approach will be favoured. Using needs in bioenergy, biomaterials and biomolecules as a starting
point, we will explore most of the conceivable plant and microbial solutions in possible synergy with organic chemistry,
so that they can then be implemented in competitive environmentally-friendly production chains. In this perspective, a
distinction should be made between bioproducts and bioenergies; unlike the former, the latter may require large surfaces
and consequently compete with the food and environmental functions of land.

Research questions
1- There is an abundance of potential uses for renewable carbon, just as there is a wealth of sources for creating
biomass using solar energy (microbial ecosystems, annual crops, perennial forage and shrub plants, forest resources)
or household, agricultural and silvicultural waste. Going beyond the inventory of needs and sources (an inventory that
would include algae), the poor structural correspondence between carbon fossil molecules and renewable carbon
molecules prods us to think in terms of fonctionnality (chemical intermediates, biolubricants, biosurfactants, bioplastics,
biocomposites, bioenergies) rather than chemical identities.
In this framework, there is first a need to gain deeper knowledge of structures and properties at the different levels of
organisation of biomass. This should then be followed by analysing its suitability for modification, fractioning, and extraction
of products, substances, and molecules of interest. The effects of the accumulation of these products, substances and
molecules of interest on the physiological growth and development functions of plants will also be studied. The goal of
more efficient production, processing and use of biomass and biomolecules will be pursued through the development of
work on (i) green biotechnology, (ii) white biotechnology, (iii) the coupling of these biotechnologies in combined exhaustive
approaches, (iv) nanobiotechnologies, and (v) the destructuring/restructuring of plants in biorefineries.

2- These efforts will be expanded upon by holistic research on systems of biomass production for non-food purposes,
which must demonstrate that they do not harm the environment. As such, there will be a focus on efforts made in designing
sustainable systems for producing and processing renewable carbon. The territorial dimension will also be analysed, in
terms of potential competition for land use, spatial deployment of dedicated crops, or the roles of players present in these
areas.

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 Scientific Priorities for 2010-2014
www.inra2014.com

5 “Adapt agriculture to climate change and reduce its contribution

to greenhouse gas effects”

Background and challenges

Agriculture accounts for some 14% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. If changes in land use, including
deforestation, are taken into account, the figure rises to about 33% (source: IPCC6). Included in these figures are, on
one hand, nitrous oxide emissions from the use of nitrogen-containing fertilizers and livestock farming effluents; and
methane emissions from enteric fermentation, livestock farming effluents, and rice farming. Agriculture and forests also
play an important role in the variation of carbon stores in soils and aerial biomass. Between 1990 and 2005, French
GHG emissions from agricultural sources decreased by 11%, and carbon sinks linked to land use increased by 85%.
The agricultural and forest sectors contributed more than their fair share to the drop in France’s total emissions, but
there is no assurance that this trend will continue7.
The 2007 IPCC report indicated a still moderate figure of around 2°C for global warming if global GHG emissions are
cut by 2015, and a more dire 4°-5°C if current emission trends remain unchanged. Warming would be accompanied
by increased climatic variability and extreme climate events (summer droughts and heat waves, intense winter preci-
pitation, storms) whose impact will be felt more sharply in coming decades. Scientists must consider a cascade of
climate change repercussions on the modes of land use, water needs, soil quality, pressure from pests, energy and
input requirements; and the origin, quality and typical features of products, by analysing feedback from greenhouse
gas emissions, natural resources and biodiversity (see Priority 2), and finally, the consequences for global food security
(see Priority 7).
Climate change is a research priority area that INRA wishes to reinforce in four complementary aspects:
• a knowledge of GHG emissions and absorptions by agriculture and forests;
• the study of potential means of attenuating GHGs and storing carbon in these sectors;
• the analysis of the impact of climate change and increased climate variability;
• the study of how agriculture and anthropised ecosystems adapt to climate change.

Research questions
Research goals are, in particular:
1- To improve the precision of estimates of GHG sources and sinks in agriculture, forests, and land use, and to offer
methodologies of choice for poorly-defined situations;
2- To study the risks associated with extreme climate events and develop strategies aimed at predicting and preventing
the impacts of climate crises;

Consultation Memorandum - January 2010 page 11/16

 3- To predict (with quantification of associated uncertainties) the regional impact of climate change on agriculture and
anthropised ecosystems;
4- To gain a full knowledge of the interactions between the dynamics of climate and biodiversity (distribution areas,
genetic resources) and the health (invasive species, pests, diseases) of ecosystems;
5- To study the adaptation of cultivated or domesticated species to changes in climate and atmospheric composition,
and analyse production systems in order to improve their capacity for adaptation;
6- To develop innovative technology—for adaptation, for reducing emissions and increasing greenhouse gas sinks;
7- To identify costs and benefits of measures in light of other issues (food security, biodiversity, water and soil resources);
8- To define modes of collective organisation (territorial governance, insurance, training, innovation, optimisation) that
are likely to reinforce the capacity of agriculture and forests to adapt to climate change.

6- Climate Change 2007: Climate Change Impacts, Adaptations et Vulnerability, IPCC Working Group II, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge,
England
7- Projected greenhouse gas emissions/absorptions in the agriculture and forest sectors in 2010 and 2020. Stéphane de Cara and Alban Thomas,
coordinators. Report for the French Ministry of Agriculture, 2008

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 Scientific Priorities for 2010-2014
www.inra2014.com

6 “Reinforce prediction capacities in biology and ecology”8,9

Background and challenges

Modelling and prediction now increasingly lie at the heart of research on biological and ecological systems, whether
such research is geared toward understanding these systems, or engineering and harnessing them. Common to the
first five scientific priorities, predictive approaches involve a vast range of domains, such as systems biology and inte-
grative biology, biotechnology and synthetic biology, the design and control of new products and processes, ecosystem
function and management, epidemic control or monitoring of the spatial distribution of animal, plant and microbial spe-
cies, and the design and evaluation of production systems and of management systems for renewable resources.
Carried forward by the remarkable developments in high throughput analytical capacities and the mass of data they
generate, as well as the opportunities offered by information and communications science and technology, the prolife-
ration of predictive approaches is driven by (i) the generalised use of cognitive approaches combining analysis, model-
ling, observation and experimentation, (ii) the recognition of the complex nature of biological and ecological systems,
and (iii) the need to reduce uncertainties related to the functioning, dynamics, design and harnessing of these systems.
Regardless of the scientific question raised or the targeted application, prediction presupposes a closer coupling
between (i) modelling—in a more or less phenomenological or mechanistic manner, depending on the systems and
levels of organisation being studied—, (ii) managing, integrating, and analysing data, and (iii) experimenting or
observing while producing relevant data. The first challenge involves the mastery of this entire chain, wherein each
component can be critical in determining the quality of predictions.
The second challenge, both scientific and cultural, is a corollary of the first. It involves interdisciplinarity, and the
coordination of (i) biological or ecological skills, in relation to objects and phenomena being studied, and (ii) methodo-
logical skills, stemming from applied mathematics, information technology, or engineering. The implementation of pre-
dictive approaches rests not only on the mobilisation—internal or in partnerships—of these skills, but also on various
types of engineering (development and dissemination of methods; use of technology allowing the measurement, modifi-
cation, design and verification of the systems studied).

Research questions and approaches

In recent years, INRA has taken various initiatives to increase its modelling and prediction capabilities, with the launch
of incentives for integrative biology, as well as the production of biological resources; creation of data acquisition, mana-
gement and analysis platforms, as well as of modelling platforms; upgrading of bioinformatic skills and a partnership
with INRIA, the French National Institute for Research in Computer Science and Control. Amplifying these efforts requires
INRA to continue working on different aspects that fall under the scope of skills management, general organisation of
research units and of partnerships, and scientific planning:
1- Pursue the development and networking of infrastructure to increase the reliability, reproducibility and speed of

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 data acquisition, and reinforce the capacity for managing, integrating, sharing and analysing data. The current status
for this question varies, depending on the disciplines and levels of organisation of study. Specific bottlenecks are:
mastery of, or access to, techniques for cell and in vivo imaging and very high throughput studies of gene expression;
phenotyping (diversity, completeness and speed of measurements), particularly in uncontrolled environments; ins-
trumentation of long term environmental observatories; creation of databases and knowledge bases that are open
and structured using ontologies; the creation or expansion of modelling and simulation platforms and its underlying
formalisms; and the scaling of calculation tools and infrastructure, or access to ad hoc external infrastructure;
2- Support methodological developments within the Institute or in partnerships, especially in the following areas:
enhancement of statistical modelling methods which already offer a good predictive power in different areas; the
analysis, visualisation, modelling and verification of complex functions and phenomena involving several levels of
organisation and multiple spatial and temporal scales (e.g. interaction networks or dynamically-structured dynamic
systems observed in morphogenetic phenomena); automatic knowledge extraction and meta-analysis methods;
3- Encourage integrated modelling approaches through several major programmes that cover the diversity of
systems and phenomena studied at INRA (integration of cellular mechanisms involved in a biological function; gene
selection and phenotype prediction; metagenomics of microbial ecosystems; prediction of the evolution in distribution
areas in the context of climate change; coupling between ecological processes and human activities in agro-
ecosystems and land resources; etc.);
4- Reinforce bioinformatic and modelling skills (through the training of new researchers, continuing education, and
recruitment) and encourage the use of appropriate tools for creating contacts between disciplines (pluridisci-
plinary teams, units or sites; partnerships with other research bodies or organizations in France and abroad);
5- Overall, increasing capacity for modelling, prediction, and even modification and control of biological and ecological
systems will be the source of major changes in relationships with technical and socio-economic partners, as well as
in society’s perception of scientific activities. Social sciences and economics will play a key role in analysing such
changes.

8- This memorandum was based on internal consultations on the topic of “Toward more predictive biology and ecology”.
9- In different respects, the stakes, challenges and interlocks mentioned above also concern the technical and socio-economic systems studied
by INRA

Consultation Memorandum - January 2010 page 14/16

 Scientific Priorities for 2010-2014
www.inra2014.com

7 “Seek systemic and territorial consistencies for global food security”

Background and challenges

The world is faced with at least four challenges that it would be dangerous to rank or consider separatly. The challenge
of food and agriculture (1) (satisfying the quantitative and qualitative food requirements of a growing world population
and address non-food needs in the framework of sustainable agricultural systems) is coupled with the challenge of
energy (2) tied to the progressive dwindling of fossil fuels and the increasingly widespread adoption of the energy
consumption practices of developed nations; an environmental challenge (3) tied to the degradation of natural soil,
water and air resources, the loss of biodiversity, and climate change; and a social challenge (4) regarding inequalities
in living standards and development. In this global context, we expect world agriculture to produce more, produce dif-
ferently, and produce other things (market goods or ecosystem services that are more difficult for markets to price). We
also expect agricultural research to provide solutions so that world agriculture can meet these demands. To this end,
radical changes in research and innovation must be thought out with the twofold desire to see deeper involvement from
society in defining research orientations on one hand, and make a thorough analysis of how societies are governed to
take into account these major and systemic challenges (role of public authorities, goals and instruments of national
and international public policies, participation of stakeholders in decision-making, etc.).
The context briefly described above encourages INRA to increase efforts in informing and involving public decision-
makers and players from the field of economics as well as civil society. This means: pursuing foresight exercises and
collective expert reports, and the development of advanced studies; renewal of exchange programmes with stakeholders
on research themes, and revising the policy for the communication of research results to private and public decision-
makers as well as the general public10. It invites the institute to view research developed under each of the first five
scientific priorities as falling within a systemic framework of the challenges of food and agriculture, energy, environment
and society at a global scale. Finally, it leads us to propose, as the seventh scientific priority, the development of specific
research that covers the breadth of the first five priorities, but with the general goal of producing certified knowledge on
the question of global food security, as seen from these different dimensions and in concert with other global challenges11.
INRA cannot pursue this ambition on its own; here, even more than in the previous priorities, collaboration with other
disciplines such as climate and energy science, and with other national and international institutions, is crucial.

Research questions
1- Acquire the capacity to model and analyse global food security viewed in relation with other global
challenges
INRA and CIRAD will continue to pursue the foresight study efforts begun in 2006 through the Agrimonde® initiative,
on the future of global food and agricultural systems in 2050. As in the initial 2006-2009 phase, the foresight project will

Consultation Memorandum - January 2010 page 15/16

 continue to combine a qualitative approach with quantitative analyses. The latter will be intensified thanks to the deve-
lopment of nested models that make it possible to include work conducted at farm, industry, and/or territorial levels to
geographically higher scales. As such, these studies will include national, European or world dimensions. Research ef-
forts will be devoted to (i) the coupling of biophysical, biotechnical and economic models that will necessarily integrate
aspects outside the sphere of food, agriculture and forest (changes in climate, supply and demand of different sources
of energy, urbanisation dynamics, etc.), (ii) the geographic nesting of models elaborated at different spatial scales, (iii)
integration of the dynamics of systemic and/or cutting-edge innovations, (iv) the consideration of uncertainty, risk, and
the behaviour of stakeholders in relation to risks, and (v) the explicit modelling of public policies. In this framework, it
will be possible to coherently and comprehensively tackle issues such as (a) the allocation of land into farmland (food
and non-food), prairies, forests, wetlands, urban areas, etc., (b) the intensification/extensification of agricultural and
forest practices, (c) the place of animal production, (d) the changes in food consumption, (e) the changes in energy
and/or chemical contexts, (f) the losses and waste during production, processing, distribution and/or consumption, and
(g) the international trade in agricultural, agro-industrial and agri-food products. The approaches will combine biotechnical
sciences and human and social sciences. They will require research efforts in computer science, mathematics and
statistics, as well as investments and collaborations in the acquisition of data and information systems.

2- Develop research on sustainable development indicators and methods for evaluating impacts
Analysing the future of global food and agricultural systems according to the three dimensions of sustainability requires
knowledge and explicit representation of physical, biological, economic and social processes to which the first six prio-
rities hope to contribute. This presupposes the availability of strong methodologies for evaluating the impact of processes
and their evolution in the three dimensions of economy, society, and the environment. In this perspective, research
efforts will focus on (i) sustainable development indicators, (ii) multicriteria analysis, and (iii) methods for evaluating the
impact of physical, biological, social and/or economic processes (with special attention paid to the improvement of the
methodology of life cycle analysis).

3- From global to local: Analysing the territorial consequences of global trends and dynamics of territorial
development
The first two research paths will be complemented by work on the analysis of local consequences of global evolutions
and the own dynamics of territories development. Three points will be given special attention: (i) the impact of global
evolutions on the economic performance of farms, upstream and downstream industries, changes in the nature of a far-
mer’s work and the potential for diversifying the sources of revenue for farms (multiple jobholding of forest and farming
households, demand for local products, supply of non-food goods, supply of ecosystem services, etc.), (ii) the role of
agriculture and forests in the dynamics of national and regional development in the framework of new urban-rural relations,
and (iii) the processes involved in organising and coordinating players found in the same geographical area.

10- Simultaneously, the operations listed here should reinforce the institute’s capacity to anticipate research themes to pursue.
11- Applied to the global and systemic issue of global sustainable development, this seventh scientific priority completes the sixth (“reinforce
prediction capacities in biology and ecology”), which addresses a specific need.

Consultation Memorandum - January 2010 page 16/16