INSTITUT NATIONAL DE LA STATISTIQUE

Their core work

The Institut National de la Statistique (INSTAT) is Mali's official national statistics authority, headquartered in Bamako. Their core work is the collection, processing, and dissemination of demographic, social, and economic data for Mali and the broader West African region — census operations, household surveys, migration tracking, and population modelling. In H2020 projects, they function as a ground-truth data partner: providing primary statistical data on population dynamics, demographic trends, and mobility patterns that European-led research consortia cannot obtain from secondary sources alone. Their value in international research lies specifically in institutional access to Malian population registries and the capacity to validate model assumptions against real sub-Saharan field data.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

In their first H2020 involvement (DEMOSTAF, 2016-2019), INSTAT's role was focused on foundational demographic data quality: verifying, cross-checking, and making sub-Saharan population data usable for researchers. By their second project (HABITABLE, 2020-2024), the focus shifted substantially toward applied modelling — specifically, how climate change drives population displacement, habitability loss, and social tipping points in the Sahel. The trajectory suggests that INSTAT is evolving from a passive data provider into a substantive research partner at the intersection of climate science and migration policy, though the portfolio is too small to call this a firm trend.

INSTAT appears to be positioning itself as a Sahel-region data anchor for climate-migration research — a niche that will grow in relevance as EU climate adaptation funding increases and West African displacement becomes a higher policy priority.

How they like to work

INSTAT has never led an H2020 project — both participations are as partner or third party, reflecting the typical role of a national statistics institute from a non-EU country: a valued but supporting contributor. They have engaged with large consortia (37 unique partners across 20 countries from just two projects), indicating they work comfortably in broad, multi-national research teams. For a potential collaborator, this means INSTAT brings specific local data access rather than project management capacity, and they are experienced at operating within complex international consortia without needing to drive them.

Despite only two projects, INSTAT has connected with 37 distinct consortium partners across 20 countries — a surprisingly wide network for a non-EU national statistics body. This breadth reflects the large, geographically diverse consortia typical of MSCA-RISE and RIA climate research programmes.

What sets them apart

INSTAT is one of the very few sub-Saharan national statistics institutes with direct H2020 project experience, giving them credibility and process familiarity that most West African data institutions lack. For any consortium building research around Sahel climate adaptation, West African migration corridors, or sub-Saharan population dynamics, INSTAT offers something no European partner can replicate: institutional authority over Malian census and survey data, plus on-the-ground fieldwork capacity in one of the world's most climate-exposed regions. Their positioning is niche but hard to substitute.

Highlights from their portfolio

• HABITABLE
  Their largest and most recent project (EUR 149,962), linking climate change to habitability loss and migration scenarios — represents INSTAT's most substantive scientific contribution and clearest signal of future research direction.
• DEMOSTAF
  Their first H2020 engagement, focused on sub-Saharan demographic data quality — notable as the entry point that established INSTAT's credibility within the European research consortia ecosystem.