Wageningen UR (University and Research Centre) and French research institute INRA (l’Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique) are planning intensive future collaboration. In the framework of this partnership, they will jointly submit joint research proposals to the European Union. To this end, Dr Marion Guillou, CEO of INRA, and Dr Aalt Dijkhuizen, chairman of the Executive Board of Wageningen UR signed an agreement during the Opening of the Academic Year on 7 September.
As two of the biggest institutes in their field in Europe, INRA and Wageningen UR are both active in the field of healthy nutrition and living environment and have already been working together for some time.
In this agreement, the two institutes pledge to exchange researchers and specialists, to jointly set up research projects and to collaborate in international research programmes. Furthermore, they have agreed to use each other’s research facilities, such as the Restaurant of the Future in Wageningen.
In their partnership, Wageningen UR and INRA will give priority to research in the field of nutrition and health, plant and animal sciences, living environment, ecosystems and climate and economy and society. One of the first concrete joint research projects will be in the field of aquaculture.
Worldwide partnership
In his opening speech, chairman Dijkhuizen mentioned other future collaborative agreements which Wageningen UR hopes to enter into this autumn. These involve research institutes in Brazil, Chile and China. An agreement is also being prepared with Massey University in New Zealand.