Practical links

French organisations for the scientific research

• Le CNRS, centre national de la recherche scientifique : cnrs.fr

• Le ministère de la Recherche : recherche.gouv.fr

Inserm, Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale

Improving Human Health

Created in 1964, Inserm is a public institution with a scientific and technical vocation, under the dual auspices of the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Research. Inserm is the only French public research body entirely dedicated to human health. Its researchers are committed to studying all diseases, whether common or rare, through their research in the fields of biology, medicine and public health. It’s counterpart in the United Kingdom would be the Medical Research Council, MRC.

Inserm’s principal mission is to facilitate exchange between :

• Basic research, sometimes defined as “guided by curiosity”, designed to shed light on the unknown, without any specific objective;
• Clinical research, conducted in patients;
• Therapeutic or diagnostic research, the purpose of which is to study diseases;
• Public health research, aimed at gaining a better understanding of health mechanisms, notably through the study of particular population groups.

In order to fulfil this mission, the Institute has worked in close partnership with other public or private research institutions and care centres such as Hospitals from the outset. Today, 85% of Inserm’s 360 research laboratories are housed within university hospital or cancer treatment centres, the others being located on research campuses of the CNRS (French scientific research institute) or of the Pasteur and Curie Institutes.

Inserm in Figures:

• 24 Clinical Research Centres (CIC)
• 13,000 people (including 6000 researchers) work in Inserm’s 360 research units located all over France.
• 400 Inserm partner companies
• 1000 contracts with industry
• 600 patent family portfolios
• 60 new innovative companies

For more information : http://www.inserm.fr

Institut Curie

Founded by Marie Curie and Claudius Régaud, the Curie Institute, is a private non-profit foundation, accredited public utility since 1921. For over eighty years, true to the wishes of its founders, the Curie Institute has been pursuing two connected goals in the fight against cancer : patient management and oncology research.

In Paris and in Orsay, over 1,700 people currently work for the Curie Institute’s Hospital and Research centre. Interdisciplinary cooperation between clinicians and scientists is at the heart of the Curie Institue’s culture and know-how, aiming to make the very most recent progress in cancer research available to patients as quickly as possible.

The Research centre is made up of number of laboratories associated with the CNRS or Inserm (France’s national research institutions), furthering our understanding of how normal and cancerous cells work, in order to improve the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cancer.

Supporting the meeting of doctors and researchers around innovating programs, on ultramodern technical platforms (genomic, cellular biology, bioinformatic, banks of tissues and serum), the Department of transfer and pre-clinical development occupies an essential key position to ensure the fast passage of progress of research towards the patient, the passage from the concept to the medical practice.

Every year, some 75,000 people including 7,500 new patients come to the Hospital, a private institution working within the French national hospital system, for outpatient visits and tests.

Thanks to the support and generosity of our donors, the Curie Institute can prepare for the future and meet new scientific challenges.

For more information : http://www.curie.fr/

Institut Pasteur

Institut Pasteur is a non-profit private foundation, which contributes to the prevention and treatment of disease, primarily infectious diseases, through research, education, and public health activities.

The Institut Pasteur foundation has set itself the following objectives:

• The study of infectious, parasitic and immune-system diseases, together with the means of preventing and fighting such diseases;
• The pursuit and development of research into micro-organisms, their role in natural, normal or pathological processes, and the reactions that they induce;
• The study and teaching of all aspects of microbiology, together with the training of scientific and technical personnel, with a view to promoting research in fundamental and applied microbiology;
• The study of all theoretical or practical phenomena related to microbiology, immunology or, generally, fundamental or applied biology, and research in these fields.

Our Values

Institut Pasteur is led by:

• An ideal: helping to fight against disease - primarily infectious diseases - through research, education, and public health activities;
• High expectations: striving for excellence in every one of our missions;
• A humanist vision of the world and generosity to others.

Three spheres of activity:

 The Institut Pasteur brings together three fields of activity -which are : research, education and public health- on its Parisian campus with almost 2500 individuals, within an independent international network of Pasteur institutes, which constitutes an original and autonomous body, the only one of its kind in the world.

Research:

Research in biology, with a priority for the fight against:

• Infectious diseases (microbiology);
• Viral diseases (hepatitis, influenza, AIDS, rabies, poliomyelitis, haemorrhagic fever etc.);
• Bacterial diseases (tuberculosis, whooping cough, meningitis, cholera, diarrhoea etc.);
• Parasitic diseases (malaria etc.).
• Our researchers also study other diseases such as certain types of cancer, genetic diseases, neurodegenerative diseases, and allergy. Main fields of research: microbiology, immunology, molecular biology, neurobiology, genomics and post-genomics.

Education:

• Every year, approximately 250 young scientists from all over the world follow high-level courses in microbiology and immunology as part of the institute’s teaching programme, and over 800 trainees belonging to 60 different nationalities come to perfect their skills in the institute’s laboratories.

Public health activities:

• Our medical centre provides to the population the following services : Vaccinations and advice to travellers (influenza, tetanus, hepatitis, diphtheria, etc.); Infectious and tropical diseases; Travel medicine; Allergy; Rabies centre; Screening centre (AIDS, hepatitis C); Analysis laboratory.

The International Network of Pasteur Institutes provides similar services, specific to the countries in which they are located. 22 National Reference Centres and 8 World Health Organization Collaborating Centres efficiently monitor infectious diseases in France and throughout the world.

In order to enable the results of its research to be of rapid benefit to the general public, in the form of new products, technologies or services, the Institut Pasteur has established close partnerships with industry in a number of fields including :

• human health, by improving and developing medicinal products, vaccines (against tuberculosis, whooping cough, malaria, gastric ulcers etc.), and diagnostic tests (for dengue, listeriosis, tuberculosis etc.);
• the environment;
• the food industry;
• hygiene.

This valorisation of its research also represents a source of financing enabling the Institut Pasteur to pursue its missions.

For more information : http://www.pasteur.fr/

• GIP ANR, agence national de la recherche : gip-anr.fr

• INRIA, institut national de recherche en informatique et en automatique : inria.fr

• IRD, institut de recherche pour le développement : ird.fr

• ADIT, agence pour la diffusion de l’information technologique en France : adit.fr

• ABG, Association Bernard Gregory. promotion de la recherche dans le monde socio-économique et aide à l’insertion professionnelle en entreprise des jeunes docteurs: abg.asso.fr

• OST, Observatoire des sciences et des techniques: http://www.obs-ost.fr/en.html

study in France

All the information on one website EduFrance

Research opportunities in France and mobility information

ERA-MORE (European Research Area - MObile REsearcher) France : www.eracareers.fr

France Contact, At France Contact’s, guest researchers and grant holders can find assistance to prepare and facilitate their visits to France, and develop further exchanges: www.francecontact.net

Kastler Foundation, The Kastler Foundation provides many practical services for guest researchers : www.fnak.fr

CPU (Conference of University Presidents), The CPU brings together all types of institutions in the University sector. The CPU portal presents the French map of Mobility Centres and gives information on each of them. The CPU has the responsability of the “Human Ressources and Mobility” NCP (National Contact Point): www.cpu.fr/mobility

Scientific Employement in France, France’s academic and government research job opportunities: www.emploi-scientifique.info