The French Minister for Ecological Transition, Barbara Pompili, Alain Dorison, Chairman of the lneris Board of Directors, and Raymond Cointe, CEO, signed a new Contract of Objectives and Performance (COP) on December 21, 2020. This contract defines lneris' strategic orientations for the next five years with a strong ambition: to secure the ecological transition and the renewal of industry.
The 5th lneris COP confirms lneris' "tripod" operating model, which combines its public policy support activities with its applied research and business services. This model gives the Institute's expertise a unique operational character, combining public interest, field experience and academic excellence.
Against the backdrop of the modernization of public action, which has led to a reduction in the Institute's workforce, this new COP provides for a more marked development of its partnerships in the public and private sectors, and a tightening of its focus on three main themes:
- Continuing to work on its historical foundation, understanding and managing risks on an industrial site or regional scale;
- Responding to strong societal expectations by deepening its expertise in characterizing the hazards of chemical substances and their impact on humans and biodiversity;
- Support the ecological transition by devoting a growing share of its resources to managing the risks associated with the energy transition and the circular economy.
The COP, a reference framework, management and transparency tool
In particular, the 2021-2025 strategy aims to respond to the need, fuelled by feedback from the mobilization of lneris during the fire at the Lubrizol site in Rouen in 2019, to significantly extend its capacity to support public authorities in emergency or environmental crisis situations. It also aims to strengthen the Institute's positioning in a facet of biodiversity preservation that is all too often overlooked: the assessment and control of the ecotoxicity of chemical substances. Finally, in addition to continuing to modernize the extensive experimental resources available at lneris, it provides for the further development of digital models and artificial intelligence, both for specific lneris uses and to understand the key technical and organizational issues for risk management in the industry of the future.
The COP - which can be revised and does not include a commitment of resources - is a management and dialogue tool between lneris, a government operator, and its supervisory body, the French Ministry of Ecological Transition. It sets the guidelines for the operator's action and defines the terms and conditions for their implementation. These guidelines are translated into twenty objectives and actions, with milestones and performance indicators.