Organization and governance

Chief Executive Officer

Élisabeth Claverie de Saint Martin

Elisabeth Claverie de Saint Martin studied at France’s prestigious Ecole Normale Supérieure and Ecole Nationale d’Administration, and began her career as a researcher in microeconomics. She joined the Civil Service in 1993, and quickly began work under the direct authority of three French ministers (Finance, Research and Foreign Affairs), and for the Spanish government.
In 2013, she was appointed Senior Advisor to the Executive Director for France at the World Bank and the IMF in Washington DC, where she worked to build and steer public development aid policy.
In 2016, she returned to France and was appointed Deputy Director for sustainable development at the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs Directorate General for Globalization, Culture, Education and International Development. This varied career has made her acutely sensitive to biodiversity and climate issues within the European and multilateral framework.
Elisabeth Claverie de Saint Martin joined CIRAD in 2018, as Director General in charge of Research and Strategy, before being appointed CEO on 16 June 2021. 

Board positions within other organizations:

• Member of the Board of Directors, INRAE (French National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment)
• Member of the Board of Directors, IRD (Institut de recherche pour le développement)
• Member of the Executive Board, Agropolis Fondation
• Member of the Scientific Committee, AFD (Agence française de développement)
• Member of the Strategic Committee, DigitAg

Office of the Director General in charge of Research and Strategy

The Office of the Director General in charge of Research and Strategy (DGD-RS) works alongside CIRAD's President Managing Director to implement the strategy adopted by its Board of Trustees. In particular, its sets its research, partnership and skill building priorities; it guarantees the quality of their implementation; and it identifies the changes required in terms of scientific and technical skills.

Jean-Paul Laclau, Director General in charge of Research and Strategy

Office of the Director General in charge of Resources and Organization

The Office of the Director General in charge of Resources and Organization (DGD-RD) establishes and oversees guidelines for the implementation of the establishment's strategy and its contract of agreed objectives, by seeking out, identifying and mobilizing the financial, human and material resources its research units require for their scientific operations.

Anthony Farisano, Director General in charge of Resources and Organization

Anthony Farisano is an ESSEC graduate. Following an initial experience in the private sector, at Ernst&Young, he joined the Budget Department at the French Ministry for the Economy and Finance in 2008, occupying several successive positions including that of Head of the office for energy, State participation, industry and innovation. As such, he was specifically responsible for steering State funding allocated to research in the field of energy, and represented the State on the Boards of Trustees of various research organizations, including IFPEN, IRSN and BRGM.
After another five years in the private sector at the Engie group, with financial responsibility for one of its subsidiaries, he returned to the Ministry for the Economy and Finance in 2019, as mission director within the strategic information and economic security service (SISSE) at the Directorate General for Enterprise (DGE), in charge of matters relating to foreign investment in France, extraterritoriality of law and protection of the research sector.
Anthony Farisano joined CIRAD on 1 October 2021.

Scientific departments

Biological Systems (BIOS)

The Biological Systems Department conducts research on the living world, its characterization and its exploitation. It covers the diversity, biology and functioning of organisms and populations and the relations between them and with their environment, both under and free from anthropic pressure.

It works on a genome, cell, organism and population level. Its work draws in particular upon concepts and tools from the fields of genomics, physiology, genetics, microbiology, epidemiology, entomology and ecology. It associates analysis, statistics and modelling, for a clearer understanding of biological systems.

The topics covered by the department's research units include plant diversity/breeding and plant and animal health, using increasingly integrated, multidisciplinary approaches.

Delphine Luquet, Director

Performance of Tropical Production and Processing Systems (PERSYST)

The Performance of Tropical Production and Processing Systems Department studies tropical production operations (family farming and cash crops) on a plot, farm and small-scale processing firm scale. Its work is conducted in partnership with local research players in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the French overseas regions.

Its research covers the following thematic fields: agroecology and ecological intensification, soil and environmental ecology, and the sustainability of food and non-food processing systems.

More precisely, its units study biological regulation processes within production systems, resource use efficiency (energy, water, nutrients, etc) and the performance of production and processing systems, taking multi-criteria approaches. Based on the resulting knowledge, they work with producers and development players to develop innovative, sustainable food and non-food production and processing systems.

Éric Justes, Director

Environments and Societies (ES)

The Environments and Societies Department centres its research on the relations between agriculture, natural resource management and social dynamics, and the links with public policy.

It works on every scale of rural development, from family farms to the global level, studying the processes of innovation and coordination between players and social groups, and territories as the best places for implementing regulation.

Its researchers conduct surveys, polls and inventories and use specific techniques to represent and model complex systems. They develop concepts and tools from various disciplines within the agricultural and human sciences. They address the ways in which renewable resources—water, forests, rangelands and wildlife—are managed collectively, with a view to sustainable production of goods and services. They also work on the establishment and impact of public policy, particularly as regards management of commons and market organization, and the establishment of norms and provision of support for talks between players in the field of agriculture and the environment.

Claire Cerdan, Director