Inserm (Institut National de Sante et de Recherche Medicale) was created in 1964 as a public institution with scientific and technical vocation, under the dual auspices of the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Higher Education and Research. INSERM is the only French public research body entirely dedicated to human health, with research committed to study all diseases, whether common or rare, through integration of biological, medical and public health research.
Inserm's principal mission is to promote integration of:
- Basic research, defined as "curiosity-driven research" and designed to explore the unknown, without any specific objective;
- Clinical research, conducted with patients;
- Therapeutic or diagnostic research, the purpose of which is to study diseases;
- Public health research, aimed at gaining a better understanding of health mechanisms, notably through the study of particular population groups.
In order to fulfill this mission, INSERM works in close partnership with other public or private research institutions and care centers, in particular hospitals. Today, 80% of Inserm's 316 research laboratories are housed within university hospitals or cancer treatment centers, the others being located on research campuses of CNRS, Institut Pasteur and Institut Curie.
- 8269 personnels
- 316 Inserm Research Units
- 6 Inserm Units abroad
- 25 research centers
- 54 Clinical Research Centers (CIC)
- 12 epidemiological clinical centers
- 548 effective R&D industrial contracts
- 731 patents in Inserm's portfolio
National Alliance for Life Sciences and Health
In April 2009, the mission entrusted to Inserm by the Government was enlarged to cover all the
life and health sciences, when Inserm and seven other organisations(1) joined forces to found the
National Alliance for Life and Health Sciences, divided into ten Multi-Body Subject-Specific
Institutes (Instituts thématiques multi organismes - ITMO), and piloted by a Life Sciences and
Health Research's Coordination Council.
- Multi-Body Subject-Specific Institutes (ITMOs) :
- Molecular and structural bases of life sciences
- Cellular biology, development and evolution
- Genetics, genomics and bioinformatics
- Neurosciences, cognitive sciences, neurology and psychiatry
- Cancer
- Microbiology and infectious diseases
- Circulation, metabolism, nutrition
- Immunology, hematology, lung disease
- Public health
- Health technologies
- The Alliance has two major challenges to take up:
- to acquire strategic analysis and programmation capacities at a national level and to take
part in the animation of the scientific community;
- to promote the development of large research clusters and projects, and the setting up of
biological and computational resources.
(1) CNRS, CEA, INRA, INRIA, IRD, Institut Pasteur, Conférence des Présidents d'Université (CPU)
