France has allocated €1,890,000 to finance 54 regional cooperation projects across the Pacific, the Permanent Secretariat for the Pacific in Nouméa announced, as part of the 2026 Pacific Fund steering committee awards. The funding, drawn from the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs (MEAE) and implemented locally under Ambassador Véronique Roger‑Lacan, is targeted at health, climate, human and sporting exchanges, and cultural initiatives linking French territories with Pacific island states.
The largest single thematic allocations are €230,000 for high‑level scientific health collaborations, €259,000 for climate research, €297,000 for human and sports exchanges, and €488,000 for cultural and Francophonie activities. Among the health projects funded is the “Bright Pacific” consortium led by the Louis Malardé Institute (French Polynesia) in partnership with Fiji National University’s College of Medicine, the Oceania University of Medicine in Samoa and the Scientific Research Organisation of Samoa — a programme designed to strengthen health risk surveillance capacities across participating island states.
Other health grants include support for training 50 Vanuatu educators in HIV/AIDS prevention through the Polynesian association Agir contre le SIDA, work by the Pasteur Institute of New Caledonia on zoonotic risk assessment in Vanuatu, and the POLYBIO project from Louis Malardé to investigate and seek international recognition for the anticancer properties of traditional Pacific plants.
Climate projects backed by the fund include “Calmar”, a Queensland University of Technology initiative with the University of New Caledonia to convert organic waste in New Caledonia into biofuel, and Reef‑up, an Institute of Research for Development (IRD) partnership with the Palau International Reef Center testing methods to improve juvenile coral resilience to climate stress. The Pacific Community’s (SPC) “Naurora” project also received backing to use Nauru coral records to reconstruct centuries of ocean climate change and its impact on reef ecosystems.
The human exchanges envelope supports five sports exchange projects — focusing on rugby and rowing among others — and includes a disability‑inclusion project linked to the Pacific Games slated for Tahiti in 2027. Funding was also allocated to five vocational training exchanges that will send young people from French territories to English‑speaking Pacific establishments for internships in hospitality, mechanics, electrical trades and language training.
Cultural funding of €488,000 will support major regional festivals and audiovisual initiatives. Grants include backing for FIFO (Festival International du film documentaire Océanien) in French Polynesia and RECIF in New Caledonia, support for FIFO’s Ocean Lab to train young Pacific audiovisual producers, financing for a Pacific islands writers’ residency and the 26th Tahiti Book Fair, and backing for the Urban Film Festival to take place in Papua New Guinea and New Caledonia. Separately, the Pacific Fund renewed a €350,000 endowment for “Pasifika Echoes”, a Pacific Community programme to foster audiovisual creation and safeguard Pacific audiovisual heritage.
The steering committee said the Pacific Fund’s 2026 selections emphasize pooling the expertise of French Pacific communities — New Caledonia, French Polynesia and Wallis and Futuna — for the benefit of partner island states, including Australia, Fiji, Nauru, New Zealand, Tokelau, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Samoa and Tonga. Implemented from Nouméa to remain close to the territories, the fund aims to back concrete, often innovative initiatives that might not otherwise attract funding and to align with regional priorities such as the Pacific Community’s strategic planning.
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