The International Centre for Research and Decision Support (CIRAD) is one of the main services of the International Federation of Catholic Universities (IFCU). Its mission is to promote inter-university and multidisciplinary research in the framework of international cooperation. Likewise, it offers diverse tools that allow for supporting research practices carried out by IFCU member universities. Aware of the concerns, interests and expectations of Catholic universities and their respective fields of action, CIRAD offers a space for meeting, debate, intellectual production and knowledge sharing, with a view to reflecting on the major challenges of human, scientific, social and ecclesial development.
Since 1975, the Centre has promoted numerous projects and cooperation activities around the world carried out by the institutions forming the international network of the Federation. Innovative initiatives and themes find their place alongside more traditional projects. Training and education have always been at the heart of the Centre’s concerns (formation to values, young students’ cultures, service-learning, university social responsibility), but over time other projects have been launched in areas as varied as human mobility (migration and displacement), social issues (drug addiction, vulnerable families, social inclusion), environmental challenges (soil fertilisation, water management), poverty reduction, human rights and peace-building, and intercultural and interreligious dialogue.
We highlight in particular two major achievements resulting from recent large-scale projects:
a) The Newman Framework on University Social Responsibility (USR) and the Assessment System based on this framework, whose information is available on the following website: www.rsu-fiuc.org
b) The International Observatory Capacitas – IFCU on Disability and Inclusion in higher education, led by the Catholic University of Valencia, which also has its own website: https://www.ucv.es/quienes-somos/observatorios-ucv/capacitas-fiuc
Likewise, Cirad hosts different interdisciplinary and international research groups (called IRGs), which have been formed over time bringing together teachers, researchers and experts, pooling their knowledge in a convivial setting that they have defined according to their own methods and organization. Discussion around a common theme, organisation of specific symposium, research projects and activities, teachers’ exchanges, publications, consultancy… are some of the ways in which IRGs work. CIRAD also hosts the Scientific Research Council (CSR), on which the representatives of the IRGs sit, and which is responsible for providing the main scientific guidelines for the work policies of the groups, for ensuring communication both internally and externally, and for coordinating initiatives that occasionally bring together all the groups.
The IRGs currently in place are: education (ACISE), philosophy (COMIUCAP), theology (COCTI), family (REDIF), health sciences, political sciences (REGIMEN), psychology (FIUCUP), social sciences, peace studies, inter-religious dialogue (PLURIEL), human intelligence, and Catholic studies.
This site aims at disseminating the different research projects and activities carried out by CIRAD as well as by IFCU member universities in collaboration with the Centre, while creating a space for reflection and exchange addressed to the wider university community. News are classified in accordance with four thematic clusters: Higher Education and Research, Youth and Societies, States and Public Policies, and Social, Environmental and Health Issues.
Information posted on this site is regularly disseminated through social media in order to achieve the largest possible audience.