The Headquarters (HQ) of the Polar Institute hosts thirty or so permanent members, some of whom are on leave from the CNRS. The rest of the personnel are employed under private law contracts and are regarded as staff members. This staff is distributed among the following structures:
The Institute uses fixed-term contracts in order to temporarily add personnel to its teams at the headquarters.
Some of the headquarters personnel carry out missions in the field and therefore they are present in the Arctic, Antarctic or in the Subantarctic Islands during the summer campaign.
Two different categories of Institute personnel work in the field:
The profiles and distribution of the personnel vary depending on the Polar Institute’s responsibilities at the various sites.
In the Subantarctic Islands, the Institute is only responsible for the management of the huts and not the stations themselves, and for the implementation of scientific projects; therefore, its overwintering personnel is primarily made up of scientists and several support functions (IT, electronics, coordination). During the summer campaign, members of the ‘Subantarctic operations’ department carry out activities with the overwintering personnel, and are sometimes accompanied by one or two ‘technical’ personnel (e.g. carpenter, boilermaker) from the summer campaign depending on the intended work sites.
In the Arctic, the stations are managed by a private Norwegian company. Therefore, only personnel from the ‘Arctic Scientific Operations’ department join the overwintering team during the summer.
The Institute is governed by a board of directors (BOD) made up of representatives of the signatory members of the public interest group who have votes corresponding to the rights mentioned in the agreement.
The following people are consultants on the Board of Directors: a representative of the Minister for the Environment, a representative of the Minister for Overseas Departments and Territories, the government commissioner, the State Controller, the Director of the Institute as well as two eminent outside figures designated by the Board of Directors for their expertise.
Members of the Board of Directors are appointed for a renewable four-year term. The BOD elects its Chair from among the outside figures for a renewable four-year term.
Chair: Yvon Le Maho
The French Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation (MESRI): Alain Lagrange (49% of rights)
The Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs: Anisse Ben Younes (1% of rights)
Ifremer: Patrick Vincent (5% of rights)
TAAF: Christine Geoffroy (1% of rights)
CNRS: Nicolas Arnaud (36% of rights)
Météo France: Alain Soulan (1% of rights)
French Polar Expeditions (EPF): Jean-Claude Duplessy (1% of rights)
CEA: Vincent Berger (5% of rights)
CNES: Juliette Lambin (1% of rights)
Ministry of the Overseas: Camille Servetto
Ministry for the Ecological and Inclusive Transition: Carole Semichon
Government commissioner: Laurence Pinson
Controller-General of Economics and Finances: Ronald Gourlay
Outside figure: Fatima Laggoun
The role of the Board of Directors (BOD) is to:
The Board of Directors appoints a Director for a renewable term of four years. It also has the authority to terminate the Director’s term of office. If that mandate is interrupted, for whatever reason, the Director is replaced for the remainder of the term of office. Their replacement attends General Assembly and Board of Directors meetings with a consultative vote.
The Director is responsible for running the Institute under the authority of the Board of Directors, and under the terms and conditions set by the BOD. The Director submits an annual management report to the Board of Directors every year.
The Board of Directors traditionally meets three times a year, in March, June and December.
The Council for Polar Scientific and Technological Programs is responsible for assessing the scientific or technological value of terrestrial scientific projects submitted to the Institute, in addition to making recommendations on the implementation of these projects, on the Institute’s scientific and technical actions and on the Institute’s international scientific and logistical cooperation policy.
The CPST is made up of sixteen members: the Chair of the Polar Environment Committee is an ex-officio member. The five member organizations of the GIP propose a member who is chosen for their skills from among the various different actors in the scientific programmes carried out in Polar Regions.
The Minister of Research proposes 10 members- five French specialists in the major scientific fields related to the Institute’s missions and five foreign specialists.
CPST members exercise their mandate free of charge over a four-year mandate period that can be renewed once.
Chair:
Vice-Chair:
Chair of the Polar Science and Technology committee, ex-officio member: Jean-Philippe Siblet, Director of the Natural Heritage Mixed Service Unit (UMS PatriNat).
Appointed members:
Jean-Daniel Paris, Laboratory of Climate and Environmental Sciences
Étienne Berthier, Laboratory for Studies in Geophysics and Space Oceanography (LEGOS)
Matthieu Chevallier, Head of the Marine Forecasting and Oceanography Department, Forecasting Operations Department, Météo France
Lénaïck Menot, Deep-sea Environment Laboratory, Ifremer
Didier Swingedouw, Oceanic and continental environments and paleoenvironments, the Bordeaux Astronomical Observatory (OASU)
Vincent Coudé du Foresto, Laboratory of Space Studies and Instrumentation in Astrophysics (LESIA), Paris Observatory
Massimo Frezzotti, Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development (ENEA)
Christèle Guivel, Laboratory of Planetology and Geodynamics
Roland Neuber, Alfred Wegener Institute
Matthieu Le Corre, Marine Ecology in the tropical Pacific and Indian Oceans UMR (Mixed Research Unit)
Warwick Vincent, Center for Nordic Studies (CNS)
Patricia Gibert, Biometry and Evolutionary Biology laboratory (LBBE)
Najat Bhiry, Center for Nordic Studies (CNS)
Virginie Vate, GSRL group (Societies, religions, secularism group)
José Carlos Caétano Xavier, Marine and Environmental Sciences Centre (MARE), Coimbra
Invited members:
Marie-Noëlle Houssais, INSU
Sylvain Lamare, INEE
Stéphanie Vermeersch INSHS
Claude Bachelard, TAAF medicine
Paul Laforêt, TAAF medicine