Research
International Center for Research and Decision Support
CIRAD-FIUC
The globalization of international issues is forcing the research community to work more than ever on an international scale, in order to understand the global dimension of societal and environmental challenges while taking local needs into account.
The Centre international de recherche et d'aide à la décision (CIRAD) is a department of FIUC that promotes inter-university and multi-disciplinary research within the framework of international cooperation. It is a place where knowledge is produced and circulated, enabling us to constantly question the main challenges facing us today, with a view to transforming our societies.
Since 1975, the Centre has promoted numerous international research and action-research projects within the framework of South-South and North-South cooperation worldwide. A wide range of fields have been involved, including human mobility (migration, displacement), social issues (drug addiction, families at risk, street children, schooling, social inclusion and disability), environmental challenges (soil fertility, water management), intercultural and inter-religious dialogues, training (values training, citizenship training, training in the prevention of psychosocial disorders), the social responsibility of universities, human rights and peace-building, poverty reduction and development.
In addition to training and capacity-building, the Center conducts international surveys and studies, and produces documents (books, articles, booklets, guides, policy briefs, etc.) designed to inform higher education institutions, policy-makers and other stakeholders.
Information-Contact :
Dr Montserrat Alom - Director of CIRAD-FIUC
montserrat.alom@bureau.fiuc.org
Research for inclusion
Since 2014, the International Federation of Catholic Universities (FIUC) has been invested in an international program to promote the accessibility and inclusion of students with disabilities in Catholic higher education. This program, first carried out in Latin America, has continued in Europe and then in Asia and Africa. It brought together some forty higher education establishments around activities involving the design of an institutional inclusion plan, awareness-raising sessions and training courses for university professors and administrative staff. Among other things, it resulted in the production of a bilingual (English, Spanish) Guide to help universities acquire the tools they need to create and implement an inclusion plan adapted to their local context. It also led to the production of a Policy Brief on the subject and a Best Practice Guide listing actions carried out by Asian and African universities.
Finally, the program has brought universities and key players together in an international network, through the creation of an International Observatory on Inclusion at the Catholic University of Valencia (Spain). Links have been forged between the participating Catholic universities, facilitating exchanges between them and with NGOs, government representatives and local experts.
Best practice guides
CIRAD is promoting the production of guides listing universities' best practices in the field of social responsibility, with a view to sharing and disseminating them. The aim is both to make other member universities aware of what is being done around the world, thereby inspiring them, and to raise the profile of Catholic higher education institutions among other international players.
These best practice guides are available on request. Two already exist:
- a guide to good practice in the inclusion of students with disabilities
- a guide to good university practice in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic
Forums
CIRAD participates in the organization of forums on issues related to the internationalization of higher education establishments in different regions of the world. These forums bring together those in charge of international relations at Catholic universities.
Issues related to the socio-environmental crisis
In partnership with Secours Catholique-Caritas France and AFD, CIRAD is taking part, alongside CIEDEL and GEMDEV, in an international project to promote integral ecology and a just ecological transition in developing countries.
This multi-stakeholder project aims to empower local populations to design and implement alternative development models in response to the current socio-environmental crisis. Targeting over twenty countries, activities will take place in Africa, the Middle East, Asia, Eastern Europe and Latin America.
Worldwide survey
Thanks to the richness and diversity of its network members, CIRAD organizes global surveys to obtain data on a variety of themes in the context of Catholic higher education. The results are then disseminated within the Federation as well as to its partners or any type of organization with a link to higher education.
International research groups
Over the years, a number of interdisciplinary and international research groups have been set up, bringing together teachers, researchers and experts to pool their know-how in a convivial setting defined by the groups themselves, and organized in their own way.
Discussion of a common theme, organization of specific colloquia, research projects and activities, exchange of teachers, publications, consultancy - these are just some of the ways in which IRG members work together. These activities help to consolidate, develop and promote their knowledge, as well as realizing the Federation's academic, ethical and spiritual objectives, making them concrete and dynamic within member institutions.