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François Houllier in the Netherlands with the French President
François Houllier, President of INRA, accompanied the French President to the Netherlands on 20 January 2014. They participated in the French-Dutch economic forum "Innovation and Sustainability" in Amsterdam. INRA's cooperation agreement with Wageningen University & Research Centre, its principal international partner, has been renewed and extended.
François Houllier, President of INRA, was part of the official delegation accompanying the French President, François Hollande, to the Netherlands on 20 January 2014. Three ministers - Pierre Moscovici (Economy), Stéphane Le Foll (Agriculture), Thierry Repentin (European Affairs) - and several CEOs of large companies (Air France-KLM, L'Oréal France, Danone, BNP Paribas, Total) were associated with this official visit, the first visit of a French President in 14 years.
At 16h, they participated in the French-Dutch economic forum on Innovation and Sustainability in Amsterdam. François Houllier took part in the round table "Smart agriculture and smart food" attended mainly by business leaders but also by researchers from INRA and Wageningen University & Research Centre. Some of the conclusions of this seminar have been included in the joint declaration on the partnership between France and the Netherlands.
Key agricultural research collaboration
INRA maintains active cooperation with Wageningen University and Research Centre. This partnership covers numerous subjects, 291 INRA-Wageningen UR co-publications were registered over the 2008-2012 period. Under the 7th European Commission Framework Programme for Research (FP7), INRA and Wageningen UR are working together in 78 research projects, including 22 coordinated by INRA and 16 by Wageningen UR. INRA's subsidiaries for research transfer and innovation, Agri-Obtentions and INRA-Transfert, have partnership agreements with several Dutch companies.
The cooperation agreement between INRA and Wageningen UR, its principal international partner, were renewed and extended at the end of the economic forum. Since 2009, both organisations have been working together within the framework of an earlier agreement, in the fields of animal sciences (since 2009) and environmental sciences (in 2013). The new agreement extends cooperation to food, agrifood and bioeconomy. The letter of intent between INRA and Wageningen UR was ratified by François Houllier and Martin Scholten, director of the Animal Science Group of Wageningen UR, in the presence of the French President François Hollande and the Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte.