The Instituto Franco-Argentino de Estudios sobre el Clima y sus Impactos (in French: Institut Franco-Argentin d’Études sur le Climat et ses Impacts, acronym IFAECI) is an International Research Laboratory (CNRS IRL 3351), jointly sponsored by the Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (CONICET) and the Universidad de Buenos Aires (UBA) from Argentina, and the Centre de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) and the Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD) from France. The IFAECI headquarters is located at the Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales (FCEN) of the UBA.

In 2009, Dr Catherine Bréchignac, former CNRS CEO, and Dr Lino Barañao, former Minister of Science, Technology and Productive Innovation of Argentina (MINCyT) discussed the creation of a French-Argentine joint research institute. The French-Argentine investigation has more than 200 years of cooperation in many scientific fields (Wesfreid et al., 2014). The diplomatic and scientific agendas however concurred on focusing on a climate-related agenda as a potential theme for the new institute. Dr Mario Nuñez (then Director of the CIMA, Centro de Investigaciones del Mar y la Atmósfera, Center for Sea and Atmosphere Research in English) and Dr Hervé Le Treut (then Director of the IPSL, Institut Pierre-Simon Laplace, Pierre-Simon Laplace Institute in English) prepared an agreement to create the IFAECI, which was signed by CNRS, CONICET, and UBA in November 2009.

As a consequence of the creation of IFAECI, Dr H. Le Treut was granted the Leloir Award, the highest decoration of the MINCyT, and Dr M. Nuñez with the ECOS-Sud Award, a special award on the 25th anniversary of the French-Argentine program. In January 2010, IFAECI started its activities and its scientific council was established. During two workshops (December 2010 and May 2011), scientists from Argentina and France generated the basis of the scientific agenda and a network of investigators, including people from CIMA as well as other CONICET institutes, UBA departments, and institutes depending on other ministries. The scientific agenda mostly focused on the physical basis of climate and its impact on the climate system and ecosystems. IFAECI was then renewed in 2014 and 2019 for periods of five years.

In 2019, IFAECI incorporated as a sponsoring institution the Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD, Institute for Research and Development in English) to open a societal dimension on the IFAECI climate agenda. IFAECI has had four Directors since its creation:

• Dr Mario Nuñez was appointed as the first IFAECI Director until 2011,
• Dr Carolina Vera (2011-2016).
• Dr Claudia Simionato (2016-2023)
• Dr Pedro Flombaum (current director)

These replacements were done in the spirit of the sponsoring agreement, which establishes that the CIMA Director is appointed IFAECI director.

The present-day direction team is completed by 3 deputy directors: Dr François De Vleeschouwer (CNRS), Dr Diego Moreira (CONICET, UBA), and Dr Denisse Sciamarella (CNRS).