Sélim Louafi is a Social Scientist at the Centre International de Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement (Cirad, Montpellier, France). He is Assistant Deputy Director of the AGAP Research Unit mainly composed of biologists and geneticists and that deals with Genetic Improvement and adaptation of tropical and Mediterranean Plants. His main interest in on science and policy interface in the field of life sciences, and more specifically agricultural biodiversity and biotechnology. From 2007 to 2009, he served as Senior Officer at the Secretariat of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (FAO) where he was in charge, amongst other things, of the implementation of the Multilateral System of Access and Benefit Sharing. He is also member of the Economic, Ethical and Social Committee of the French High Council on Biotechnologies, an independent body in charge of advising the French government on biotechnology issues. He was part of the team of the first external evaluation of the International Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) that has been presented at the last IPBES plenary in May 2019.