International Research Centres tackle planetary issues

On the edge of the Sonoran Desert in Arizona, researchers from across the globe have joined forces to tackle the major challenge of preserving the planet’s habitability. This is indeed one of the research priorities of the France-Arizona Institute for Global Grand Challenges, the first International Research Centre (IRC) launched by the CNRS, five years ago. The University of Arizona, the partner in this bilateral relation, recently renewed its commitment with the CNRS.

Five other IRCs were also created in the United States, Japan, Brazil, United Kingdom, and Canada. A seventh will be signed in late November in South Africa. These new structures stem from a desire to expand an existing relation. These strategic bilateral partnerships are based on already active cooperation tools, such as International Research Projects, Networks, and Laboratories (IRP, IRN et IRL). Their objective is to support large-scale projects: "IRCs can engage with global scientific challenges, such as the climate crisis or the energy transition, which require international cooperation unfolding over the long-term," explains Alain Mermet, the Head of CNRS Europe & International.

This is a crucial approach according to the Global Risks Report published in 2025 by the World Economic Forum, which emphasises the need "to find avenues for dialogue and collaboration" in the face of increasingly complex global risks. IRCs are part of the solution : they can "play a pivotal role in preserving spaces for exchange and fostering a shared responsibility to address common challenges", explains Antoine Petit, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the CNRS.

"Build an open, ethical and global science"

The CNRS, which is present in 39 countries via its International Research Laboratories (IRL)–in addition to 400 International Research Projects and Networks (IRP and IRN) with 80 partner countries–continues to establish international relations with its IRCs. It has 11 offices abroad, and two-thirds of its 55,000 publications in 2024 were co-signed with a foreign institution. Cooperation with African countries was also emphasised with the Africa Strategy launched in 2022. 

The idea of sparking collaboration between IRCs has also emerged, and was the central topic of the meeting held at CNRS headquarters in Paris on Wednesday, 29 October, bringing together the leadership of current and future IRC partner universities. "In Brazil we have both global problems, such as the drying up of the Amazon rainforest, and local problems, including domestic violence. We need international scientific cooperation to solve them," cites by way of example Carlos Gilberto Carlotti Junior, Rector of the University of Sao Paulo.

Global topics were discussed as part of round-tables, such as the One Health approach, which studies the links between human, animal, and environmental health, and research on quantum physics and its links with innovation ecosystems. "As we face new global challenges, we must continue to work, hand in hand, to build a science that is open and ethical, as well as genuinely global in scope," affirms Jean-Paul Seytre, Deputy Director for Globalisation at the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs.

Large-scale projects at the France-Arizona Institute

IRCs provide the CNRS with access to top-notch infrastructure. This is true of the unique infrastructure of the University of Arizona, to which it has access thanks to the France-Arizona IRC. The Biosphere 2 Laboratory, a miniature version of our planet in the middle of the Arizona desert, was designed to prepare trips to Mars. It makes it possible study the impact of climate change on ecosystems ranging from tropical forests, oceans with their marine life, and deserts. This allows for “conducting controlled ecological experiments on an unprecedented scale,” affirms Annick Lesne, the CNRS’s Scientific Director for the IRC.

"The laboratory instruments are often one of a kind, made to measure for certain experiments, hence the value of collaboration in terms of both expertise and material resources."  "Exceptional" telescopes, along with spectroscopy and dendrochronology equipment (which measure the growth rings of trees), can also be shared with the CNRS as part of the IRC. The France-Arizona Institute focuses on three primary topics: the habitability of our planet; the links between “food, energy, and water,” with special attention to developing agrivoltaism; and the future of human health, including studying the impact of climate change.

"A wealth of complementary resources"

On the other side of the English Channel, the International Research Centre for Transformational Science and Technology, which grew out of collaboration between the CNRS and Imperial College London, is also pursuing ambitious projects. From a new approach to fighting cancer based on the latest advances in particle physics to the creation of a "Google Earth" for the human body in order to better study metabolic illnesses, the two institutions will stress their specialties. 

"The relation initially began with mathematics and later expanded to other fields, and offers a wealth of complementary resources," underscores Sandrine Heutz, Scientific Director at the CNRS-Imperial Centre. "We identified opportunities in engineering, and this led to the creation of the Ayrton Blériot International Research Laboratory (IRL), which studies the energy transition and digital technology." Health, sustainability, and digital networks are the three pillars of the CNRS-Imperial IRC, and new opportunities for joint research will be explored through these pillars.

Training young international talent

Beyond these ambitious research programmes, the strength of International Research Centres is to also "train young talent," explains Alain Mermet, the Head of CNRS Europe and International. Joint Ph.D. programmes and combined doctorates were launched at the same time as the first centres. This innovative format gives prominence to international experience, as a thesis at one institution proceeds with a second one “mirroring” it at the partner university on a shared topic. The two students receive annual funding of 5,000 euros for mobility to their counterpart’s laboratory, as well as to promote exchanges. Over 380 mirror PhDs have been funded by the CNRS and its partner universities since 2019.

Augustin Brassens, a doctoral student in a joint Ph.D. programme with the CNRS-uTokyo IRC–who is based at the University of Technology of Compiègne with Rachid Jellali as director of research–spent 4 months in Tokyo for the first part of his thesis. In the calm of a Japanese laboratory, between two experiments, the doctoral student reveals over the telephone that "the international was among those providing the greatest motivation to complete this thesis." 

He is producing a human organ-on-a-chip in order to avoid experiments on mice, a mission that is in keeping with the Organs- and Organoids-on-a-Chip (MEDOoC) national priority research programme (PEPR). "My counterpart in Tokyo reproduces liver tissue and I produce adipose tissue (body fat). We are in the process of pairing our models in order for these tissues to communicate," points out the young Brassens, who is already planning other collaborations in the future.

"Creating solidarity in a polarised world"

Forging a community of international researchers is also the goal of Clara Randimbiarimanana based at the University of Arizona, who is completing a thesis on how coastal communities in southwest Madagascar perceive and contribute to climate change mitigation. With her CNRS counterpart "it was perfect, we were curious together, we sent each other words of encouragement."

The doctoral student from Madagascar, who completed her thesis in May 2026, has travelled a great deal: to Bordeaux to meet partner teams; to Paris to access one of a kind archives; to Cologne, Germany for a conference bringing together researchers from numerous African countries, with her CNRS counterpart also attending; and finally to Senegal and Madagascar to meet the fishermen at the centre of her thesis.

"Very grateful" for the opportunities provided by the joint doctoral programme, Randimbiarimanana emphasizes the importance of international academic exchanges in advancing research in the humanities and social sciences. "When it comes to environmental justice, countries are interconnected: this involves the Paris Agreement on the climate, the commitments made during COP28, communities suffering from rising sea levels, and countries whose resources are exploited internationally." More broadly, it is a way "to create relations and solidarity in a highly polarized world."

"Enhanced legibility, visibility, and impact"

In general, International Research Centres "enhance legibility, visibility, and impact," explains Sandrine Heutz, who represents Imperial College in the CNRS-Imperial IRC.  This offers an advantage in securing funding, especially in connection with Horizon Europe, with which the United Kingdom is associated. This "enhances funding opportunities for joint research between the CNRS and its European and international partners," Mermet observes.

IRCs also give the CNRS access to other funding instruments. For example, the Transitions IRC, a partnership between the CNRS and the University of São Paulo, paved the way for the programmes of FAPESP, one of the most important research funding agencies in Brazil. The amounts vary between a few hundred thousand to tens of millions of euros per project, with the CNRS being the only foreign partner to take advantage.

Technology transfer can also benefit, as the topics selected for the Innovations for a Sustainable Planet IRC, signed in 2024 with Sherbrooke International University in Canada, are in line with the university’s ecosystem, a spearhead for industrial innovation in Québec in the fields of quantum physics, micro- and nanotechnologies, and advanced microelectronics. An example of the wide range of collaborations encouraged by the IRCs to promote research excellence on an international scale.