Governance
The National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS), the Research Institute for Exploitation of the Sea (Ifremer) and the Research Institute for Development (IRD) jointly run BRIDGES through an Executive Committee of Steering Institutions (ComEx). This is supported by the Institutional Committee (CI) made up of by partners with recognised complementary skills.
The three co-directors make up the Management Board (CoDir) which is supported by an Operational Secretariat (SecOp) in charge of the program’s overall coordination. Advice is also provided to the CoDir by an Scientific Advisory Board (SAB). The overall aim is to engage stakeholders and co-funders to ensure BRIDGES has a robust regional and societal basis to work from.
The co-directors
Joachim Claudet (CNRS)
Emmanuelle Roque d’Orbcastel (Ifremer)
Frédéric Ménard (IRD)
Joachim Claudet is a CNRS research professor working at the CRIOBE-PSL laboratory and also an ocean advisor for the CNRS. He specialises in research into the sustainability of coastal and marine socio-ecological systems and uses case studies as input for the management of these systems or meta-analyses as input for public policy-making. The aims of his research are to help solve sustainability issues, identify solutions that are beneficial for nature and people alike, and develop indicators and tools to support the decision-making process. He is the main author of two IPBES regional evaluation studies and also the upcoming IPBES assessment on transformative change, is a member of the Conseil National de la Protection de la Nature and the Conseil National de la Mer et des Littoraux. Joachim Claudet chairs the scientific councils of the Ocean Climate Platform and MedPAN, the network of managers of marine protected areas in the Mediterranean. He also belongs to many other scientific committees including the French Foundation for Biodiversity Research and Blue Parks and to international working groups like the High-Level Panel for a Sustainable Ocean Economy and the Blue Climate Initiative. Joachim Claudet also directed a collective book published by Cambridge University Press on the subject of marine protected areas.
Emmanuelle Roque d’Orbcastel is an Ifremer researcher in the MARBEC joint research unit, leading its drive to promote sustainable marine fisheries and aquaculture from 2015 to 2023. Her specialist research focuses on the interactions between aquaculture organisms and their environment. Emmanuelle Roque d’Orbcastel has coordinated and taken part in 21 funded projects, 12 coastal and deep-sea campaigns and also held the post of laboratory manager from 2011 to 2018. From 2021 to 2023 she was seconded to the Indian Ocean Commission (IOC) and currently coordinates two lines of research in the South-West Indian Ocean on the impact of plastic pollution on aquaculture and reef fish organisms that are exploited for human consumption (the ‘VECTOPLASTIC’ ANR project steered by the CNRS; ExPLOI with AFD/FFEM funding and steered by the IOC). Emmanuelle Roque d’Orbcastel is the Ifremer’s Scientific Management Board’s thematic referent for the French Overseas Territories and is in charge of coordinating its Action Plan for these territories.
Frédéric Ménard is a senior researcher with the Mediterranean Institute of Oceanography joint research unit in Marseille and studies the functioning of tropical marine ecosystems in the context of global change. His research focuses on food webs, fisheries and biodiversity, large pelagic predatory fish and the vulnerability of coastal ecosystems and he is a member of several scientific councils and committees. Frédéric Ménard directed the IRD’s OCEANS, Climate and Resources department from 2015 to 2020 but is now its Overseas Scientific Advisor to the current director Valérie Verdier. He also takes part in the development of the IRD’s overseas strategy and action plan. He also manages the ‘Outre-mer’ PPR steered by the IRD.
The Operational Secretariat
Sophie Boutin
Sarah Bareigts
Sophie Boutin is BRIDGES Program Manager. She has a scientific background in marine ecology (Master 2), preceded by initial post-graduate training in management, marketing and business development, with a specialization in international relations. She has developed professional experience in steering and managing complex, multi-partner projects, initially in communication-marketing functions in an international private company, then in an economic and territorial development agency. From 2014 to 2024, she was in charge of steering and coordinating CeMEB (Centre Environnement et Biodiversité), an ANR consortium of 10 ecology and biodiversity research laboratories in Montpellier, where she was responsible for setting up research support activities, developing the transfer-valorization policy, science-society links and partnerships with institutional and private players.
Sarah Bareigts is a civil engineering and urban planning graduate of INSA Lyon. From 2022 to 2024, she lived in Maputo where she was in charge of regional cooperation between Mozambique and La Réunion. Since March 2024, she has been based in La Réunion, where she is a communication officer for the BRIDGES Research Program.