The idea for this Meeting on the Development of Research in the Indian Ocean originated 14 months ago in Paris, during the National Meeting on Overseas Research. From the initiative of the President of the Regional Council of La Réunion, the Senator Paul Vergès, and after months of preparation in partnership with researchers active on the island, the Meeting was held at the beginning of June 2003 for 3 days at Saint-Denis de La Réunion.

This was a " first " in many ways :

• A first because for the first time a great number of researchers from the Indian Ocean region were brought together, coming from 12 countries with which La Réunion now cooperates scientifically or plans to. All in all, more than 350 people participated in the Meeting.
  
  
• For La Réunion, this gathering was a major event, for regional integration and the development of economic, cultural and scientific cooperation are essential elements for its future.
  
  
• A first because the Meeting was the product of a tight collaboration between the Regional Council, the C3I group (IRD, CIRAD, IIFREMER and INRA), the University of La Réunion and the local services of the French State, in particular the Delegation for Research and Technology. An event of such amplitude could not have taken place without this cooperative work, which proved to be so fruitful for the concerted development of research in La Réunion. The common feeling between the La Réunion actors on this stage also helped secure a stronger position for this French and European island in the zone.
  
  
• A first because the meeting, beyond those exchanges that took place in the Workshops, allowed those actors from La Réunion to present to their foreign counterparts the available research infrastructures and the quality of their studies, which, although often unknown, hold an international level of excellence.
  
  
• A first because international organisations were present for the first time in La Réunion to discuss questions tied to research and development: international research organisations (like WMO), international financial backers (like the World Bank and the UNDP) and international organisations of cooperation and exchange (COMESA).

The objectives of the Meeting were to identify shared research problematics in the Indian Ocean region, to contribute to the emergence of research and educational projects, to optimise means and complementarities with co-development as the end, and to set up the basics of structuration in the Indian Ocean research realm, by linking it to other world and particularly European research groups and areas.

The themes proposed for discussion were: water, demographics, health, protection and development of biodiversity, climatic change, marine and coastal areas, energy, new technologies for sustainable development, social sciences and the humanities. All these were introduced as central problematics for the zone.

From now on, this initiative can be perpetuated through :

• Organising sustainable cooperation in the Indian Ocean zone based on shared, pressing themes,
  
  
• Pursuing this fruitful collaboration between researchers and those in the research field, in particular those involved in the institutional realm,
  
  
• Avoiding the pitful of a " self-centred " regional cooperation through La Réunion's membership with Europe as an outermost region,
  
  
• Reinforcing relations with regional and international cooperation organisations, in association with national governments and European institutions.

The publication of the Reports of the Meeting and the creation of an Internet site dedicated to the Meeting are part of this will to solidify these attempts and to put scientific cooperation in the service of regional development in a real and lasting way.

La Réunion Region