Division organization>

Assignments & Research Topics

The SAE2 Research Division (Social Sciences, Agriculture and Food, Rural Development and
Environment) is one of 14 research divisions that compose INRA (the French National Institute for Agricultural Research). In keeping with the Institute's three fields of research expertise (agriculture, food and the environment) and in connection with biological and agronomic sciences, the SAE2 research division has the following objectives:

o To describe and understand the forms and functioning of social and economic organizations.
o To develop conceptual frameworks and operational instruments to to assist the analysis of public and private actors' behaviors and decisions.
o To contribute to debates on public policy design and assessment, European and international negotiations, and science/society relations.

Five Research Areas
The SAE2 Research Division is predominantly composed of economists and sociologists. Its main fields are:
o Consumer behaviour and the processing and distribution of agro-food products, especially in terms of food/well-being/health relations; the organization of production and distribution chains; and the analysis and evaluation of
public policies.
o Agricultural productions and markets, notably in terms of farm functioning, organization of markets and trade, and the analysis of their regulation.
o Natural resources and environmental issues.
o The development of rural areas
o Economic and social approaches to risk, innovation, and sustainable development.

Partnerships
Scientific Research institutions, French and foreign universities, CEPII, IFPRI, IIASA.
Research programs through the French National Research Agency (ANR),
European Union research programs, bilateral programs, ...
Institutional and Professional
Upon demand by a range of institutions and organizations (the European
Commission, the OECD, the World Bank, the French Ministries of Agriculture and the
Environment, professional organizations, business).
Requests for studies and expertise are evaluated and piloted by an economic studies coordination group run by the department's administration.

Key figures

• 400 people: 200 researchers and engineers, 100 research support staff, and 100 academics in laboratory-university partnerships or other affiliations - 50 doctoral students.
  
  
• 19 research units, of which 11 are laboratory-university partnerships and 1 is an associated unit

Short presentation (leaflet in PDF format)

Units presentation (PDF)

Orientations, 2011-2015
Centered on public policy, the division's strategic plan is in line with the issue of
sustainable development. It aims to systematically take account of the environmental
dimension of agricultural and food-producing activities. It expands analyses to include
global stakes (food security and climate change) and to extra-European contexts.
The strategic plan is structured around four thematic fields, organized into 10 scientific
priorities.

Theme 1: Food, consumers, industries, and public policies
Centered on food and the dynamic of processing and distribution sectors, this
thematic field is charged with extending ongoing research on food habits, vertical
relations within agri-food chains, and performance analysis of agro-food
industries. Today, we are expanding our research beyond nutritional concerns and food risk
management to include the environmental stakes of food production.
Priority 1.1: Analysis, design, and impact of nutritional and food risk management
policies
Priority 1.2: Transmission of prices, efficiency, and regulation of up- and downstream
relations, throughout agricultural and food processing chains.
Priority 1.3: Agri-food industry firm performance and sectoral restructuring

Theme 2: Farms, the Environment, Natural Resources, and Public Policy
Focused on the relationships between farm and forestry installations and the
environment, this thematic field aims to analyse the role of environmental constraints
and opportunities in installations' dynamic processes, and reciprocally to analyze the
consequences of evolutions in agricultural and forestry practices for natural resource
management.
Priority 2.1: Adapting farms to change: behaviors in face of innovation
and risk
Priority 2.1: Adapting farms over the long term: demography, structures, and
production factors
Priority 2.3: Protection and management of natural resources (water, soil,
biodiversity, landscape).

Theme 3: Localization, Trade, climate change, and public policy
Without claiming to cover all aspects of the question, this thematic field aims to direct the
work of the division toward the general problematic of "global food security" in the
context of climate change. Four points are given priority: the first concentrates on market and trade modeling, the second focuses on collective risk management tools in agriculture and forestry, the third considers consequences in land use stemming from changes in economic dynamics linked to climate change, and the last is centered on questions of rural development.
Priority 3.1: Markets and trade of agricultural, agri-industrial, and agri-food
products: trade barriers and international firm strategies.
Priority 3.2: Collective risk management instruments and systems in agriculture
and forestry.
Priority 3.3: Economic dynamics, land use, and climate change.
Priority 3.4: Dynamics and structuring of rural spaces: competition for land ownership and
sustainable territorial development.

Theme 4: Reflexive and methodological contributions
Priority 4.1: Relations between sciences, innovation, and society
Priority 4.2: Analysis and evaluation of public policy