The DEPE team

INRA's collective scientific assessment and foresight activities were brought together in 2010 to form the Delegation  of Collective Scientific Assessment, Foresight and Advanced Studies (DEPE), reporting to the Institute's CEO. When INRAE was created on January 1, 2020, this delegation became one of the two directorates of the Directorate for Science for Policy (an equivalent structure did not exist at IRSTEA).

The DEPE team is comprised of twenty permanent engineers and contractual staff specialized in collective scientific assessment and foresight, documentation and communication, as well as logistical support specialized in project management.. The DEPE applies the Charte Nationale de l'Expertise (National Expertise Charter), and its processes are traceable. For each project, it assembles committees of around twenty experts, both internal and external to INRAE, who work over a period of 18 to 24 months.

The experts called upon for collective scientific assessments belong exclusively to public higher education and research establishments. Foresight studies also involve experts from the socio-economic world. Some projects are conducted in partnership with other public research establishments (e.g. Ifremer, CNRS).
The sponsors and partners of the assessment and foresight projects meet in a monitoring committee, which ensures that each project runs smoothly, in line with the established research agreement. An advisory committee is set up for each assessment, enabling the parties involved to be consulted (1) at the start of the project on the scope of the consultation, the questions posed by the sponsors, and their handling by the group of experts, (2) at the end of the project on the results obtained and the lessons to be learned.