On July 17, 2025, the French Red Cross – PIROI (Indian Ocean Regional Intervention Platform) and the University of Réunion Island signed a new framework partnership agreement to renew their collaboration. This mutual commitment aims to build lasting cooperation around training, research, and expertise in the field of disaster risk management and climate change adaptation in the Indian Ocean.

A partnership serving regional resilience

Established in Réunion for twenty-five years, the CRF-PIROI is implementing a regional cooperation program, in conjunction with the National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies in the area. Inaugurated in 2024, the PIROI Center is a regional center of expertise, training, and innovation dedicated to risk management and climate change. It embodies the CRF-PIROI's desire to share its expertise with stakeholders.
institutional, academic and humanitarian organizations in the region.

The University of Réunion, through its Human and Environmental Sciences Training and Research Unit (UFR SHE), shares this ambition. Committed to the challenges of sustainable development in island territories, it actively participates in developing the skills of future professionals in the environment, construction, and crisis management sectors.

Five years of fruitful collaboration

This partnership is notably renewed around the Master's in Risks and Environment, a training course launched in 2020 by the University of Reunion, in conjunction with the CRF-PIROI and which has more than a hundred graduates.

These two years of study, in alternation, aim to provide students with the necessary tools to:

• support local risk management policies,
• conduct studies and projects related to natural hazards,
• understand the challenges of adaptation to global change,
• and participate in international and humanitarian cooperation actions.

In this context, the CRF-PIROI is involved in several Master's teaching units, mobilizing the expertise of its teams and network. Sessions led by its technical experts are hosted at the PIROI Center, which has become a resource center for regional university training.

Expanded cooperation across the Indian Ocean

Beyond the Master's degree, the agreement concluded between CRF-PIROI and the University of Reunion opens the way to a
broader cooperation, designed on the scale of the Indian Ocean. The common objective is to create a regional hub for training and expertise to address climate and humanitarian risks.

Among the upcoming projects:

• The creation of a university diploma in “Disaster Risk Management”, targeting professionals already in post, in particular public officials as well as employees of local and regional associations and NGOs, in order to strengthen their capacities in the field.
• Support for the regional university network, with establishments in the Comoros, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mozambique, Seychelles and Tanzania, to promote exchanges, pooling and recognition of training.
• The promotion and support of research, with the aim of producing and disseminating knowledge useful to those involved in crisis management.

Through this signature, the CRF-PIROI and the University of Reunion intend to strengthen the human and scientific capacities of the region in the face of the growing challenges posed by natural disasters and climate change, in a spirit of solidarity, efficiency and sustainability.