Mr Philippe Mauguin, Chair and CEO of INRAe, visited Australia end of March 2023 to progress collaboration with Australian partners. During his visit, he renewed the MoU with CSIRO, which includes a Joint Linkage Call scheme to support mobility of researchers between the two organisations. He also signed partnerships with the Australian National University (including a letter of intention for an international associated laboratory), the University of Melbourne, and the University of Queensland.

An event was organised at the Residence of France in Canberra, with a panel introduced by Philippe Mauguin, and at which several high-level speakers represented the Australian Department of Agriculture, CSIRO, INRAe, ACIAR, and Agrifutures. It was the opportunity to award Dr Andy Sheppard (CSIRO) as Knight of the French National Order of Agricultural Merit, acknowledging his critical contribution to research between France and Australia. And the event was concluded by a cocktail with the EU’s and France’s Ambassador, as well as several federal MPs.