MoISA in figures

Updated 18-04-2024

Research topics

The unit’s research focuses on food security and food sustainability and aims to provide a better understanding of the behaviour of both individual stakeholders and institutions.

Research objective

Through its research, MoISA aims to contribute to the transition towards more sustainable agri-food systems, and more particularly to guarantee food and nutritional security for the most vulnerable populations while ensuring equity in food value chains and protecting the environment.

Disciplines

MoISA is an interdisciplinary research unit, bringing together researchers and teaching-research staff from complementary disciplinary backgrounds ranging from the social sciences to life sciences. This proximity enables them to coordinate their respective fields of expertise with a view to addressing the challenges relating to the sustainability of agri-food systems.

Fields

The unit works primarily in the Mediterranean region (France-Occitanie, Maghreb), sub-Saharan Africa (West and southern Africa), South East Asia and French overseas territories.

History of the joint research unit

The joint research unit was created in 2001 by agreement between EnsaM (subsequently Montpellier SupAgro before becoming Institut Agro in 2022), INRA (which became INRAE in 2020) and Ciheam-Iamm. The agreement was renewed as part of four-year research plans for the periods 2003-2006 and 2007-2010, expanding its scope to include researchers from different teams at the Cirad. Several researchers from the “Land Regulation” team of the IRD joined forces with the unit between 2004 and 2010. In 2016, the unit welcomed four researchers in the field of public health nutrition from INRA, who and were keen to develop closer ties with researchers in the field of social science with regard to understanding food practices and the associated dynamics of change. Finally, the IRD public health nutrition team at the Nutripass joint research unit joined MoISA in 2021.

Since its creation, the MoISA joint research unit has continued to federate/attract new partnering bodies, while constantly expanding its expertise in complementary fields of excellence.