The CEE French Centre & the Foundation for Research on Biodiversity

The French Centre of the CEE has been launched in August 2016. It is hosted at the Foundation for Biodiversity, which is a non-for-profit private structure acting at the science-policy-society interface. It is specialised in knowledge brokerage and its two main missions are 1/ to promote the development of research programmes in biodiversity, 2/ to promote knowledge-based actions for biodiversity conservation and sustainable use.

FRB has been created after the Grenelle de l’Environnement in 2008, as a joint initiative of the Ministry of Research and the Ministry of the Environment. Its founding members are the 8 largest public research institutes in France involved in research on biodiversity, plus some companies of the private sector, and Montpellier University. FRB’s core funding comes from the Ministry of research and the founding members. Various Ministries (Environment, Foreign Affairs, Agriculture), the new French Agency for Biodiversity and other partners also grant projects and expertise.  

FRB is accompanied by its scientific Council (François Sarrazin, chair, Sebastien Barot, co-chair), and a college of more than 170 private companies and NGOs composing the Stakeholder Advisory Board. It also provides infrastructure and tools for scientists to work together with its Synthesis Centre in Aix-en Provence (www.CESAB.org).

The CEE French Centre has invited stakeholders to join a Steering Committee whose first meeting took place on May 9th, 2016 in Paris. A roadmap has been established, including a lot of communication and support for future systematic reviews and maps to be commissioned in France. Since then, the first official systematic review has been launched and is almost completed, and others are on-going. Numerous training days and communication material have been designed and are available in French language.

CEE website : http://www.environmentalevidence.org/

FRB webiste : http://www.fondationbiodiversite.fr/fr/