Departmental councils

Departmental councils are composed of the following:

 

1) Ex officio members:

• Entity heads in the department

• Heads of CNRS Associated Research Units or Inserm units who do not manage an Institut Pasteur entity within the department

 

2) Elected members representing the 9 categories of staff in the department, namely:

• Research assistants, research associates or OREX staff (CR1 and CR2 level), university lecturers, university lecturers/consultants or equivalent (state employees or staff under permanent contract)

• Research directors, heads of department and professors or OREX staff (DR1 and DR2 level), university professors, university professors/consultants or equivalent (state employees or staff under permanent contract)

• Clinical research officers

• Research engineers

• Research technicians

• Technical research assistants (laboratory technicians)

• Assistants

• Junior scientists (PhD students)

• Other contract scientists (assistants, research associates (CR) or senior researchers (DR) on a fixed-term contract)

Each staff category with at least five members in the department must be represented on the council by at least one elected member. To be eligible to vote or stand for election, staff must:

a) have a contract that runs for at least a further 6 months from the election date

b) spend at least 50% of their time on campus

c) not be an ex officio member of the departmental council

Entity heads are responsible for updating the lists in each department. For staff members working for more than one entity in different departments, the department they are eligible to vote or stand for election in is the department they are considered to belong to for administrative purposes.

If a staff category is represented by fewer than five members, these staff are invited to vote in a similar category. If a category has more than 15 members, two representatives from the category will be elected.

Elections are organized by the head of department and are held every two years. The list of staff eligible to stand for election in each category is sent to all staff in that category, who elect their representative(s) by a secret ballot organized and centralized in the department secretariat.

For each category, the person or two people with the most votes is/are elected and the person with the next most becomes the alternate. If an elected member leaves or is unable to sit on the council, he or she will be replaced by the alternate, who will be given voting rights. If an elected member's staff category changes during the term, he or she will be replaced by the alternate for the rest of the term.

In the event of a tie, the youngest staff member is elected.

If there are no voters for a category, that category will not have a representative on the departmental council.

The term of office of elected members is two years (renewable).

 

3) Invited members: entity heads who have chosen the department as a secondary affiliation for their unit. These members do not have voting rights.

 

The departmental council can form a bureau (on a proposal from the head of department) and, if necessary, specialized committees (e.g. to organize seminars and scientific events, offer expertise, etc.). It appoints the departmental representatives requested by the Institut Pasteur management (e.g. for research applications or relations with the Institut Pasteur International Network, etc.). These representatives report to the head of department.

The council meets at least three times a year on the invitation of the head of department, who draws up the agenda. It must be convened if a request is made by a majority of its members, on the basis of an agenda that they have drawn up. The council discusses all issues relating to the department's missions and important questions concerning the operation of the department (departmental budget, shared equipment and resources, health and security, relations with the other departments and the Institut Pasteur as a whole, etc.). It operates by consensus or by vote. The conclusions of the council's discussions are set down in a written report that is sent to all members of the department.

Reasoned opinions issued by the council are forwarded to the senior management by the head of department.

The council does not have the right to vote on the composition of the department and any potential changes in this respect.

 

Read organisation memo 0093