Modernizing and simplifying the organization -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- units that are dependent upon several supervisory authorities,’ Pooling tools explains Pierre Doucelance, project leader at the CNRS Resources and Research Offices. The idea, first suggested in 2008 in a report This work gave rise to a partnership agreement between all three by François d’Aubert, former Deputy Research Minister, was slow to parties in December 2011, for the development of three initial win favor within CNRS. ‘At the time, the report advocated to entrust management tools: Geslab (for financial management), Caplab (for funding exclusively to universities,’ recalls Pierre Doucelance. ‘This describing laboratories’ scientific activities) and Dialog (for preparing was inconceivable for CNRS. Our relations have improved since then. resource requests). ‘These projects will start in 2012 with a joint Now our common objective is to provide units with shared manage- governance, operational teams, and a long-term financing agree- ment tools so that all partners have the same information on avai- ment,’ says Pierre Doucelance. ‘They should be completed by 2014, lable resources.’ or perhaps 2015 for Caplab.’ Other joint projects will be launched in the meantime, notably a single financial and accounting reference system to harmonize all administrative procedures, such as setting Complementary initiatives up and carrying over funding, managing research contracts, etc. ‘A full-fledged revolution,’ according to Pierre Doucelance. However, delegating global management is not sufficient to address the need for simplified laboratory management. Although 16 units switched to global delegation in 2010, another 22 in 2011, and a Sharing services further 72 are expected to follow suit by the end of 2012, they repre- sent a small percentage of the units associating CNRS with partner The March 2011 protocol also accelerated the development of the universities. Hence the agreement signed in March 2011 by CNRS, ‘shared services center’ concept. ‘This is a joint research manage- the Conference of University Presidents, and the Universities and ment structure intended to give all parties better access to skills and Higher-Education Institutions Mutualization Agency (AMUE) for the resources,’ explains Pierre Doucelance. ‘The idea had cropped up launch of additional initiatives. ‘This protocol follows the November before the March 2011 protocol was signed, and we had begun to 2010 framework agreement between CNRS and the CPU,’ notes consider it with the University of Strasbourg. We therefore set up Pierre Doucelance. ‘Seven working groups, bringing together mana- a working group to define the goals and prerequisites of a shared gerial staff from CNRS, universities, and other research organizations services center and to put them in writing for all interested organi- were set up to propose innovative solutions to modernize and pool zations.’ After the kickoff in Strasbourg (see p 58), another center the resources, processes, and organization methods of all parties may be set up at the University of Aix-Marseille. Due to the extensive involved. The goal was to simplify laboratory management in the transformations required, this is again a long-term project. short- to medium-term, while reasserting the concerted scientific governance of joint research units.’ Simplifying the management of very large-scale research infrastructures (TGIR) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Interview with Michel Kochoyan, Director of the TGIR Committee What is the role of CNRS in terms of very large-scale research and a budget of several million euros) from the smaller ones, which would infrastructures? depend on the CNRS budget. We are currently discussing this proposal CNRS works with French, European, and international partners to manage with the public authorities. very large-scale research infrastructures (TGIR) for the entire scientific community. These infrastructures, initially created to meet the needs of What about governance? physics research, often had an international dimension. Other fields (the TGIRs are shared infrastructures, and are therefore closely associated with humanities and social sciences, life sciences, ecology, etc.) have also set the notion of service. However, the most recent ones have not reached up TGIRs over the past decade. These projects often have a distributed the maturity level of ‘traditional’ TGIRs created in the physics fied. This architecture, i.e. they are made up of a network of centers across the is true in particular of the humanities (ADONIS, CORPUS) and social country. CNRS currently manages 36 TGIRs. sciences (PROGEDO) as well as the life sciences, which gather several CNRS partner universities with no TGIR experience. Joining CNRS provides How are they managed financially? them with an opportunity to acquire the know-how and best practice we TGIRs have a specific budget, approved line by line by the French have developed over the years. Furthermore, most of these infrastructures Parliament. While this management method ensures budget stability involve several scientific fields and thus benefit from the multidisciplinary for international infrastructures, it is fairly restrictive for smaller facilities. and nationwide vision specific to CNRS. This prompted us, in 2011, to envisage simplifying TGIR management, to differentiate the largest structures (i.e. with an international dimension 59 2011 A year at CNRS
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