Type: Actualité

A few words from Denis Couvet, Chair of the FRB

 

The scientific and organisational excellence of the CESAB is a valuable asset for French, European and global research. Its recognised strengths have earned it a significant role in the Priority Research Programmes and Equipment (PEPRs) SOLU-BIOD and DYNA-BIOD, hosting working groups and providing a supportive framework for cutting-edge research. The FRB will work to facilitate synergies between these two programmes, which are clearly relevant to one another but whose potential for convergence remains largely untapped.

 

One of the key challenges ahead for the CESAB, both societal and scientific, will be to move beyond our “biodiversity” silos. This is what IPBES recommends in its Nexus Assessment, which emphasises the need to bring together the fields of biodiversity, water, climate, food and health. The assessment thus proposes new ways of thinking, whether in analyses, forward-looking approaches or recommendations, by weaving together fundamental and applied research.

>> [Infographics] Biodiversity, water, food, health and climate: everything is connected!

 

Today, research is being called upon to play an essential role in addressing adaptation to global change and mitigating its effects. It is becoming crucial to distinguish sustainable or resilient forms of adaptation that contribute to mitigation objectives from more short-term approaches that do not contribute to mitigation efforts and may even undermine them.

Furthermore, research into these issues must account for the many interactions between biological, physicochemical, human and social mechanisms, requiring a broader interdisciplinary approach. Beyond interdisciplinarity, it is also necessary to consider how stakeholders develop and implement their actions, drawing on their practical experience and knowledge in pursuit of their adaptation objectives.

 

Numerous interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary challenges therefore lie ahead, and, as many past projects have demonstrated, the CESAB is more than capable of rising to them!

 

Denis Couvet – Chair of the FRB

 

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