Arame DIEYE and Nicolás GARCÍA-SEYDA won the Innovation 2025 Awards at the Blue Africa Summit in Tangiers on October 9. They were chosen from among six young researchers and doctoral students for their innovative projects to promote the sustainability of coasts and oceans.

This third English-language edition, with the theme "Littoraux et Océans" (Coastlines and Oceans), highlighted original projects thatto the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) linked to the preservation and sustainable development of marine and coastal environments. The six nominees selected by the science and innovation expert committee were :

- Arame DIEYE (UMR PALOC, LEGOS & LOSEC Laboratories) - Guinea-Bissau

- Tobias FISCHER (UMR SECOPOL) - French Polynesia

- Nicolas GARCIA-SEYDA (UMR ENTROPIE) - New Caledonia

- Fanny RIOUAL (UMR LEMAR) - Peru

- Badara SANE (UMR LOCEAN) - Senegal

- Huyen Thanh TRAN (LMI LOTUS) - Vietnam and Southeast Asia

Find IRD LeMag articles on each nominee by clicking on their name.

The nominees benefited from structured support, including training in project management and entrepreneurship organized in Hanoi in July.e in Hanoi in July, followed by a three-month maturation phase, supervised by the development managers of the various SPVs and the two coaches from the July training session. In October, following the maturation phase, they benefited from pitch coaching, which enabled them to better present their projects to the jury and the public. This support enabled them to refine their ideas, strengthen the viability of their proposals and prepare effectively for the final pitch session.

It was during the pitch session organized at the Blue Africa Summit that everything came together. In front of a large audience, made up of players from the political, scientific and socio-economic worlds, each nominee was given three minutes to convince, followed by a question-and-answer session with the jury. At the end of these exchanges, the jury deliberated to select the two projects that were the most convincing in terms of impact, innovativeness and clarity of presentation.

Arame DIEYE and Nicolás GARCÍA-SEYDA stood out from the crowd thanks to the quality of their projects and pitches, and were awarded the Trophées de l'innovation 2025. Their initiatives embody the scientific rigor, innovation and capacity for action needed to meet the major challenges of sustainable development.

Arame DIEYE,

winner of the Application Innovation prize, is developing a real-time early warning system to prevent coastal flooding in rice paddies.

Nicolás GARCÍA-SEYDA,

winner of the Innovation de Rupture award, is developing an innovative solution to protect corals by relying on the motility of micro-organisms.

The aim is to provide farmers and technicians with early warning so that they can protect their crops and infrastructure in the event of flooding. She explains that the Innovation Trophies have been a real source of motivation to take this solution forward, and help to better address the impacts of coastal flooding on rice-growing areas and African coastlines. The next stage of her project will be to develop a mobile application to automate forecasts and make the tool more accessible to users.

It is based on the motility of micro-organisms capable of strengthening their resilience in the face of environmental disturbances. He describes the Innovation Awards as a stimulating and rewarding experience, which enabled him to present his project in a new way. The next stage of his project will be to carry out a proof of concept in an aquarium in New Caledonia as soon as possible.