Director General of Research and Development of Indonesia’s Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Technology (left) alongside with IRD Chairwoman and CEO Dr Valérie Verdier (center) and French Ambassador to Indonesia Fabien Penone (right) during the signing of a cooperation agreement. (SEA Daily / Sadina Aimee)
On June 4, France and Indonesia deepened ties on scientific and research collaboration in order to support their newly established strategic global partnership, with the aim to expand cooperation in innovation, education and sustainable development.
The initiative was unveiled as the Chairwoman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Institute recherche de développement (IRD), Dr. Valérie Verdier, visited Indonesia, marking the 50th anniversary of the institute in the country. The visit comes shortly after Presidents Emmanuel Macron and Prabowo Subianto adopted a Joint Declaration on Education, Research and Mobility during the Indonesian leader’s state visit to Paris last May. It also forms part of the 2026 Indonesia–France Year of Innovation, reflecting growing ties between the two countries.
According to French Ambassador to Indonesia, Fabien Penone, scientific cooperation between the two countries is evolving from individual research projects into long-term partnerships involving universities, public institutions and innovation ecosystems. “We have been working for a long time with Indonesia, but the objective now is to structure in a much more strategic way this cooperation and to scale up the number of projects on which we are working,” the Ambassador stated to Southeast Asia Daily.
The effort was further demonstrated by the signing of several cooperation agreements involving Indonesian and international partners, including the Indonesian Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Technology, the Indonesian Agency for Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics (BMKG) as well as the World Food Programme.
Simultaneously, Dr. Valérie Verdier emphasised that the cooperation embraces science as a borderless tool to foster trust, progress and societal benefit through cooperation and youth engagement.
“Beyond these specific agreements, I think that what we are celebrating today is a broader vision of our collaboration. A vision in which science creates lasting connections between countries, which is very important. Science has no border,” she said.
For five decades, IRD has collaborated with Indonesian institutions on research linked to sustainable development, including climate resilience, disaster-risk reduction, agriculture, marine biodiversity, public health and environmental studies. The French public research institute currently operates programmes in more than 50 countries and maintains a permanent office in Indonesia, established in 1976.
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