Food, Global Health Reading time 2 min
COVID-19: first results of implementing the INRAE crisis plan
On March 19, Philippe Mauguin, INRAE Chair & CEO, made an initial assessment of how the institute has put into effect government directives and business continuity plans.
Published on 19 March 2020
Philippe Mauguin emphasizes that during this crisis INRAE has shown proof of the strength of its organisation:
- We have collectively put into application the government’s recent decisions and we have organised ourselves in a very short time in order to continue to perform our important duties and to ensure the continuity of our missions.
- Thanks to the mobilisation of all, and under the coordination of the Presidents of Centres, Research Support Directors and Unit Heads, and with the support of the Division Heads, the critical activities have been identified and pursued, such as the safety and security of our facilities, ensuring payroll services, keeping heavy equipment in operation, as well as experimental and observation facilities including experimental units and animal care facilities.
- With the exception of research activities on the coronavirus, the vast majority of our research activities requiring staff members to be onsite have been stopped in accordance with government recommendations.
To take into account and provide support for the impacts that this crisis is having on the daily lives of our staff and their longer-term consequences, measures have been taken:
- Contracts with funding bodies (ANR, Europe, etc.) will be renegotiated to take into account these periods of interruption.
- Social measures will be applied so that no staff member will be penalized: all staff members will keep their entitlements for leave and for TOIL (RTT), contractual staff and interns will continue to be paid. We will provide full support to our PhD students so that they can finish their theses under good conditions.
- After consulting staff representatives, INRAE’s Chair & CEO has proposed to the government to postpone the professional elections which were planned in the first semester, so that they can be held under good conditions in order to continue to ensure the vitality of our social dialogue. A permanent link has been kept with the social organisations from the start of this health crisis. The Committees for Health, Safety, and Working Conditions (CHSCTs) which will be held on a national level and in the centres by audio conference in the coming weeks will also make it possible to carry on these discussions.
- INRAE’s management is requested to take special care in coordinating their teams, whether they be scientific, technical or administrative, with the means at their disposal. Although social distancing is needed to slow the virus’s transmission, we must avoid complete social isolation.