“We are in the dark”: employees of the French Polar Institute wonder about their future

2024-04-13 00:42:03

IPEV in danger? Staff at the French Polar Institute Paul-Émile Victor (Ipev), which carries out scientific research in Antarctica and the Arctic, are concerned about a proposed merger with Ifremer (French Research Institute for exploitation of the sea), fearing that it would weaken their already under-resourced establishment.

At the end of March, the General Directorate for Research and Innovation (DGRI) came to present to Ipev staff in Plouzané (Finistère) an “integration” project in an Ifremer department, also based in Plouzané , according to a staff letter consulted by AFP. The ministry, for its part, clarified on Friday during a press point that it was a “reconciliation” with Ifremer. Under no circumstances will Ipev disappear from the landscape,” he assured.

Minister of Higher Education and Research Sylvie Retailleau could provide clarifications next week, during a trip to the Svalbard archipelago in Norway where she will meet scientists from the Franco-German Awipev research base.

“For the moment, we are in the dark with two speeches: the DGRI which talks to us about integration, the ministry of rapprochement. Two completely different scenarios,” Catherine Ritz, president of the general assembly of Ipev financiers, who employs around fifty permanent agents, told AFP. “Staff fear being drowned in a large institute”, Ifremer employs 1,500 employees, specifies the manager. “Ipev and Ifremer do not have the same expertise,” she also argues, stressing that Ipev’s financing “in deficit every year does not allow it to fulfill its missions.”

Less agility for recruitment?

Integration would lead to a “dissolution” of the current status of Ipev, a public interest group (GIP) which gives it “agility” in terms of recruitment, which according to it the status of Ifremer does not allow. (public and commercial establishment). “Each year, Ipev recruits around 200 contract workers to go to polar stations. Sometimes we have to recruit someone in a week to leave for 14 months,” explains Catherine Ritz.

“There is no fixed model for the moment,” the ministry was told. The objective of the merger is to “strengthen Ipev and the French capacity to carry out research in polar areas”. In November 2023, President Emmanuel Macron announced an investment of one billion euros in polar research by 2030.