The Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD) is the National Research Institute for Sustainable Development in France, an internationally recognized multidisciplinary organization working primarily in partnership with inter-tropical countries. Two units of IRD are participating in this consortium:

1. MERIT (IRD-Paris) has expertise in basic research on antimalarial drugs, particularly atovaquone-proguanil for more than 10 years. MERIT also has a long experience in capacity building and implementation of clinical research studies in malaria in pregnant women and newborns in West Africa;
2. MIVEGEC (IRD-Montpelier) focuses on finding mechanisms altering pathogen transmission, especially at the vector level.