“This UNESCO Center will enable us to take a major step forward”
On October 15, the University of Montpellier, the Ministry of Higher Education, Research Innovation, andUNESCO signed a six-year agreement to establish an international center dedicated to water. This marks a first in France and a major victory for Eric Servat, director ofthe Mediterranean Institute for Water and the Environment and the project’s leader. An interview with this key figure in Montpellier’s water sciences community.
The University of Montpellier will host an international UNESCO center dedicated to water. It is called Icireward. What does this acronym stand for?
It was my colleague and friend Olivier Barreteau, director of the UMR G-EAU, who came up with this acronym. It stands for “International Center for Interdisciplinary Research on Water System Dynamics.” In French, it would be translated as “International Center for Interdisciplinary Research on the Dynamics of Socio-Hydro-Systems.” And that perfectly captures who we are and what our project is all about.
It is a Category 2 UNESCO Center. What is the difference between it and a Category 1 Center?
In practical terms, this means we have more autonomy in defining our strategic directions than a Category 1 Center. In fact, in the field of water sciences, only the Delft Center in the Netherlands was a Category 1 Center, but it, too, has requested to be reclassified as a Category 2 Center. Nevertheless, we will have a UNESCO representative on the Strategic Steering Committee, and, of course, we will submit the required reports every two years. We are working with UNESCO in an atmosphere of mutual trust, which will allow us to carry out our project with confidence.
How many UNESCO centers dedicated to water are there worldwide?
There are about thirty of them in total, and we are the first in France. The French scientific community—and in particular the water sciences community in Montpellier—has been working with UNESCO for a very long time, so it made sense to formalize these ties.
People are talking about a “water community” in Montpellier—are there really that many of you?
This UNESCO Center brings together fifteen laboratories in the Montpellier area (in the broadest sense, as it includes Narbonne and Alès). These are major institutions that are 100% dedicated to water sciences, such as HydroSciences, which I directed for 14 years, as well as G-EAU andLisah at the Institut Agro – Montpellier Supagro. And then there are all the other laboratories where water research is part of their work. All told, this represents about 400 scientists and nearly 150 doctoral students. When you’re able to bring together so many people, it creates a significant critical mass—which, in the field of water sciences, is the largest structured community in France.
In all disciplines?
Yes, at HydroSciences you’ll find physicists, modelers, and hydrologists, but also chemists, geochemists, and microbiologists. At G-EAU, there are economists, sociologists, anthropologists, and political scientists… At Lisah, there are agronomists and soil scientists… and in the other laboratories, there are geographers, remote sensing specialists, and more. We cover an extremely broad and diverse spectrum of scientific disciplines.
Montpellier also has a long history of water sciences
Yes, it’s our history that has given us all these areas of expertise. Even back in the days of the USTL—the University of Science and Technology of Languedoc—there were already laboratories dedicated to mathematical hydrology and hydrogeology. In the 1960s, people like Professor Avias were conducting research on the source of the Lez River. There was a strong pool of expertise, and all the national organizations working in the field of water established themselves in Montpellier—the CNRS,the IRD,CIRAD, the BRGM, INRAE…Because of this history, perhaps more so than elsewhere, we have the ability to bring together people with different yet highly complementary areas of expertise and research interests.
Is that why Montpellier was chosen to host this center?
The strength of the water sciences community in Montpellier lies in its ability to be multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary. This is what sets us apart from other sites in France that do excellent work but lack this distinctive feature. This interdisciplinary approach was already at the heart of the Mediterranean Institute for Water and the Environment (IM2E), and it is this distinctive feature—our main strength—that we have carried forward into our project to establish a UNESCO Center.
And isn't it hard to get all these people to work together?
We have worked hard to establish this collective and coordinate the activities of these teams. An IFR (Federative Research Institute) had laid the groundwork for this collective before ceasing operations in 2010. We then built on that work by creating IM2E on January1, 2015, which provided a gathering place for all these stakeholders to define collective strategies. And, of course, there was the creation of Muse.
What role did Muse actually play?
In a way, the UNESCO Center is somewhat the result of the Muse project. Through Kim Waters, Muse encouraged us to identify initiatives and projects capable of increasing our international appeal and visibility. More directly, Muse gave us the financial capacity to launch research projects that typically foreshadowed what projects led by the UNESCO Center would look like. I’m not sure if we would have been able to establish this Center without Muse’s help. It’s that trust and support that make us believe in it. And in return, I hope that with this Center, we’ll do our part to ensure the Muse project’s long-term success.
What are the main points of the projects you'll be working on now?
When we work with UNESCO, we are working with the United Nations, and so the overarching framework is the Sustainable Development Goals.SDG 6, of course, is 100% dedicated to issues of water supply and sanitation, as are a number of other SDGs as well. Today, more than 2 billion people lack access to either safe drinking water or reliable sanitation systems, which contributes to making water the leading vector of disease—a paradox that is all the more striking given how essential water is.
Do you have any specific areas of focus?
We have structured this research project around five main areas, ranging from the characterization of fundamental processes to approaches focused on the functioning of societies—what we refer to as socio-hydro-systems. This includes, for example, the vulnerability of these systems to anthropogenic pressures, as well as the availability and quality of water resources in relation to climate change. But it also includes research on social dynamics and the trade-offs that must be found between, for example, land use and water resource management policies. We make the most of this diversity of scientific expertise that characterizes Montpellier. This is the challenge we have decided to take on: promoting interdisciplinarity in order to address the critical issues emerging in the field of water in the coming years.
This agreement is signed for six years—and then what?
The Center has been established through October 14, 2026, but there is no reason why it should not be renewed after that. The Delft Center has, in fact, been in existence for about sixty years.
We imagine this agreement will open many doors for you…
Yes, the international recognition and visibility provided by UNESCO are a major asset that will enable us to take our work to the next level. Our goal is to play a significant role in the network of UNESCO Centers and Chairs—what is known as the “UNESCO water family.” This gives us the opportunity to interact with all the other Centers—in Delft, the Netherlands; Łódź, Poland; Dundee, Scotland; the United States; and Japan. This openness will strengthen our networks and open up opportunities for exchange through student programs and research visits.
With the South, too?
UNESCO has a very strong impact in the Global South, where it helps build scientific communities through the international programs it implements. We already have the IRD and CIRAD networks, which are highly structured and often long-established, and here again, UNESCO will provide us with opportunities to develop these networks. This is all the more true because many of us are deeply involved in major UNESCO programs, particularly within the Intergovernmental Hydrological Program (IHP).
In terms of training, what will this center offer?
Theissue of education is very important to UNESCO. So, as far as we’re concerned, the idea isn’t to create additional programs, but rather to promote the Montpellier area’s top-tier programs to make them even more attractive than they already are—whether it’s the Master’s in Water,Polytech/STE, Institut Agro – MontpellierSupagro,AgroParisTech, orthe École des Mines d’Alès… And in particular, by opening them up even further to students from the Global South.
And in financial terms, does UNESCO provide any support?
UNESCO has limited funding capacity; however, it will likely be easier to secure funding as a UNESCO Center. It’s not the same thing, for example, to approach major national and international foundations as “just” the director of IM2E as it is to do so as the director of a major UNESCO Center. For us, this should make a big difference.