The Trophées de l’innovation is a competition organised by the French National Research Institute IRD. The competition rewards doctoral students and young researchers who are leading innovative projects with a high impact in the countries of the intertropical and Mediterranean region, in line with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This 2025 edition, held under the banner of the year of the sea, will highlight projects dedicated to the theme of Coastline and Oceans.

More information:

Rewards

Following the call for applications, 6 candidates, the Nominees, will be selected and will benefit from:

• Five days of intensive training in Vietnam analyse and improve their proposal and guide them towards the development of their project (individual mentoring included) ;

• Two additional days of pitch coaching to prepare for the audition with the final jury ;

• Travel and accommodation expenses for the five-day training session, the pitch coaching session and the award ceremony ;

• Participation in the awards ceremony, at an international event, at which the two winners will be announced ;

• Visibility among academic and socio-economic players and the general public.

At the end of the coaching sessions, the final jury will judge the Nominees and name two Winners. One winner will receive the Disruptive Innovation Award, and one winner will receive the Applied Innovation Award.

Each winner will receive:

• A budget of €10,000 to fund the initial steps required to develop their project (mission expenses to set up partnerships, prototyping costs, etc.).

• Personalised support over a maximum period of 12 months to help the winners through the first stages of their project's development.

• Communication support

• High visibility

Eligibility

Submission of applications is free of charge and open to all doctoral students and young researchers, under the following conditions:

• Applicants must fulfil one of the following two eligibility conditions:

  • They must have defended their thesis less than 5 years ago.

  OR

  • Be in the process of completing a doctorate

• The project must be effectively linked to research conducted by an IRD Team (IRD Research Unit, JEAI, LMI). The applicant must therefore fulfil one of the following two eligibility conditions:

  • Be part of an IRD unit or programme (Arts, UMR, LMI, JEAI) and justify this link with a letter of support signed by the director of the IRD unit concerned or by the head of the partnered research programme concerned.

  OR

  • Be part of an IRD partner research team on a project and justify this link with a letter of support signed by the scientific leader of the research team and by the IRD scientific leader on the project.

In both cases, the application must focus on the research project linked to the IRD.

Calendar

As a candidate, here are the dates to remember for 2024:

• From 25th March to 4th May 2025 (6 weeks): Call for applications

• From 5th May to 23rd May 2025 (3 weeks): analysis of the applications and selection of the six (6) Nominees by the Science and Innovation Committee

• 30th May 2025: announcement of results to Nominees by 30th May 2025 at the latest

• 13th June 2025: Unsuccessful Candidates will receive an information e-mail no later than 13th June 2025.

• June 2025: IRD will officially announce the six (6) Nominees

• Between 6th and 13th July 2025: Five (5) days of intensive training for the six (6) Nominees

• Between September and December 2025: pitch coaching for the six (6) Nominees and evaluation of the projects by the Final Jury, then announcement of the two (2) Winners at an event to be defined, and Awards ceremony.

Evaluation Grid

The selection of the 6 Nominees and their projects is based on 4 criteria, rated on a scale from 1 (least good) to 4 (best):

1. Presentation and coherence of the solution with the sustainable development issues addressed by the IRD 

2. Response of the solution to the issues presented, added value compared to the existing solutions 

3. Involvement of stakeholders outside the academic sphere (companies, NGOs, associations, etc.) 

4. Feasibility of the solution's development path (stages, partnerships, scaling up, etc.)

The full evaluation grid is also available in the documents available on the platform.

Competition rules

You can consult the Trophées de l'innovation rules here.

The Candidate's Booklet contains the main information of the rules.

Contact

If you encounter any problems on the application platform or have any further questions, please contact us by email at tropheesinnovation@ird.fr. We will get back to you as soon as possible.

Informations about IRD research units and programmes

For a project to be eligible, it must be in line with the research priorities of an IRD unit or programme and the director must be aware of it and support it.

If you are part of an IRD unit or programme (Arts, UMR, LMI, JEAI), you’ll have to justify this link with a letter of support signed by the director of the IRD unit concerned or by the head of the partnered research programme concerned.

If you are part of an IRD partner research team on a project, you’ll have to justify this link with a letter of support signed by the scientific leader of the research team and by the IRD scientific leader on the project.

Information on the IRD's research units and partnership research programmes:

General presentation of IRD's units and programmes: https://en.ird.fr/research-organisation

Search engine listing IRD's units and programmes: https://lab.ird.fr/en/

List and information on the IRD's International Joint Laboratories (LMI): https://en.ird.fr/international-joint-laboratories-lmi

List and information on the IRD's Young Associate Teams (JEAI): https://en.ird.fr/young-team-associated-ird-jeai