Status

The French Polar Institute has the status of a public interest group (GIP).

A GIP is a legal body governed by public law with administrative and financial autonomy. It is established by agreement approved by the Government either between several legal bodies governed by public law, or between one or several of them and one or several legal bodies governed by public law regardless of the domain and the operational purposes, for a suitable duration for these activities.

The group must carry out general interest, non-profit activities. Any surpluses must not be considered as profit to be shared but can be allocated to the subsequent financial year as provisions. Therefore, this requirement does not prevent the group from carrying out industrial and commercial activities.

One advantage of a GIP is that it is possible for individual bodies to pursue a particular activity and to set up a partnership between several legal bodies as per flexible and suitable statutory rules. It provides more freedom to carry out actions than is possible with a public institution status and it is more secure than an associative status.