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One of the aims of the Pasteur 2030 Strategic Plan is to strengthen the Institut Pasteur's position as a leader and expert in understanding and controlling emerging infections, especially vector-borne infections. 
    
In 2023, to increase its impact, and the impact of France, in this area, the Institut Pasteur embarked on the construction of a research center that will offer scientific and technological expertise of the highest caliber. The infrastructure will enable scientists to pursue ambitious research projects, consolidating the Institut Pasteur's position as a global reference in the field.

The first spades went into the ground in March 2024 for a complete overhaul of the historical Darré and Borrel buildings. The new center is set to be operational in three years' time, in mid-May 2028. 

The infrastructure will be available to the entire campus and equipped with state-of-the-art technological capabilities, especially specific laboratories to study the most critical pathogens in optimal safety conditions, as well as the sophisticated imaging technologies that are now crucial for this type of research.

The center, which is being developed in line with the latest environmental standards, will include spaces to facilitate collaboration within and between buildings, cross-disciplinarity, and training for early career scientists. It will be a clear illustration of the tremendous potential of multidisciplinary alliances. 
 

This is a flagship project under Priority 2 of the Pasteur 2030 Strategic Plan (see the newsletter article from June 13), but it will also be of great benefit for the work being carried out under Scientific Priority 1.

Spotlight on the services provided by the core facilities in the future center on September 12 at 2pm 

On September 12, the project team will be holding a staff meeting to reveal more about the services provided by the core facilities in the new center, while also sharing the latest news on how the building is progressing.
 

Speakers: 
     
•    Introduction by Anna Kehres, CMTV Infrastructure Project Manager.  
•    Information about the services provided in the vector production and experimental host and vector infection spaces by Sabine Thiberge, Head of the CEPIA, and Caroline Manet, research engineer in the Central Animal Facility.
•    Presentation of the BSL3 bioimaging facility by Nathalie Aulner, Head of the Photonic BioImaging Core Facility (PBI), and the BSL3 nanoimaging facility by Matthijn Vos, Head of the NanoImaging Core Facility (PNI).
•    Report on how the building work is progressing by Pascal Tenegal, Head of the Real Estate and Technical 

•    The CMTV at the heart of scientific priorities 1 and 2” 
     

To join the meeting, click on this link: Join the meeting now

Meet the expanded team coordinating the CMTV project

CSR teams

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Hélène da Conceiçao, Patricia Ranga, Jean-Sébastien Clément

1. What motivates you most about participating in this project?

The CMTV project brings together science, public health, and society. What motivates us is the strength of a collective participating in a project to protect populations from the health challenges posed by vector-borne diseases, which are exacerbated by climate change. It is a unique opportunity to put the Institut Pasteur's CSR commitments into practice in an infrastructure dedicated to global health issues.

2. How does your expertise contribute to the success of this project? What are the main challenges regarding CMTV for your department?

Our contribution is based on two complementary areas:

1)    Making environmental regulatory constraints and, more broadly, CSR commitments, real levers of sustainability for CMTV. The main challenge is to integrate complex technical requirements (energy performance, biodiversity, water management, life cycle analysis, sobriety and resilience, etc.) into the heart of a historic and dense site, without compromising scientific ambitions or safety requirements.

2) Making the project visible, engaging, and credible from a CSR perspective (sustainability, impact, inclusion). This involves translating the complexity of the project and the research into clear, accessible, and accurate messages, and orchestrating a demanding dialogue with all stakeholders: Pasteurians—in particular the GreenTeam—CSR partners, academic communities, institutional and associative actors. The challenge is to capture attention on a specialized subject, explain the issues at stake, and generate support, without ever sacrificing scientific rigor.

3. If you had to describe the CMTV project in three words?

Impact, sustainability, and mutualization.

Financial Affairs Department

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Thierry Ribaut, Christophe Rousseau, Véronique Bonnet 
Alongside Juan Alarcon, Carlos Lopez Velazquez, Cynthia Neveu, Arnaud Thery, Fatima-Ezzahra Harrak, Najat Benkanoun, Odile Godard, Emmanuel Salé, Valérie Leroy

1. What motivates you most about participating in this project?

What motivates us most about participating in this project is the prospect of collectively contributing to the creation of an infrastructure capable of hosting large-scale research projects, enabling the Pasteur Institute to position itself as a global leader in the field of infectious and vector-borne diseases. We also want to demonstrate our agility in developing innovative financial strategies, whether in terms of procurement or economic models, within a particularly complex project environment subject to a tight schedule. Finally, we are driven by the idea of contributing to a major scientific project with strong social dimensions, particularly professional integration, while conducting in-depth sourcing work to identify the best partners.

2. How does your expertise contribute to the success of this project? What are the main challenges facing your department with regard to CMTV?

Our various areas of expertise within the Finance Department contribute to the success of CMTV, thanks to the strong commitment of our teams. Across the board, the main challenges for the Finance Department concern investment control, balancing scientific requirements, costs, and deadlines, managing an exceptional volume of financial flows, and securing external financing.

In project management and investment control, we have worked closely with the teams concerned to set up tools to monitor and manage the proper execution of the real estate (construction economics), equipment, and overall project budget components, with a particular focus on managing and anticipating completion costs. The main challenge is to control investments throughout the project.

Within the Procurement Department, we have developed a responsible purchasing strategy rolled out in several phases, incorporating innovative CSR criteria and supported by a supplier charter that is now widely adopted. The main challenge lies in reconciling high scientific standards with cost control and adherence to the schedule.

In management control, we establish a business case to measure the financial impacts and evaluate the benefits of the project, with the aim of maximizing its profitability. We aim for the most accurate financial figures possible, aligned with the expectations and priorities of each stakeholder.

In accounts payable, we ensure the rigorous and diligent processing of work in progress (invoices) and their timely payment, in order to avoid any delays that could impact the completion of the project. The main challenge lies in the volume of financial flows generated by this project.

Finally, in cash management, we apply our expertise in financing and loan negotiation, and actively contribute to discussions and arguments in favor of financing by the Region.

3. If you had to describe the CMTV project in three words? 
Innovative, because this research project incorporates cutting-edge technologies and approaches in the service of science. Responsible, because it includes CSR criteria, with professional integration and concrete environmental commitments. Ambitious: due to its size, its geographical location, its innovative nature through the scientific and technological objectives that will be proposed, and collectively supported by a cross-functional team. 

Human Resources Department 

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Laurent Depigny

1. What motivates you most about participating in this project?

The opportunity to contribute to this strategic and innovative project aimed at building a future research center of the highest scientific and technological caliber, which will enable us to better combat emerging infectious diseases, is a major source of motivation.

Furthermore, as professionals from a support function, this project allows us to collaborate and exchange ideas with the various teams involved: scientific functions, technology platforms, project management, other support functions, etc.

2. How does your expertise contribute to the success of this project? What are the main challenges regarding CMTV for your department?

The human resources department plays an important role in the success of the project. It regularly informs employee representative bodies of progress at each stage to ensure transparency and social dialogue. It manages staffing and supports the upskilling of the teams that will integrate the infrastructure, coordinating recruitment, internal mobility, and training initiatives. It also prepares and leads the change upstream and then at the time of moving into the new building, supporting managers and teams to ensure a smooth and secure transition.

The main challenges are to provide the project with the necessary human resources from the outset and to enable everyone to do their job with passion in optimal working conditions, ensuring a high level of safety and risk prevention.

3.    If you had to describe the CMTV project in three words?

Innovation, synergy, and collaboration.

Department of Communications and Public Affairs

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Margot Provot

1. What motivates you most about participating in this project?

I am delighted to be contributing to this flagship project of the Pasteur 2030 strategic plan. The prospect of offering researchers an environment conducive to major advances in vector-borne diseases is particularly motivating, especially as it will enhance the Pasteur Institute's international scientific reputation. Being part of the project team is also a source of learning and inspiration, thanks to the expertise of a multidisciplinary, skilled, and fully committed team.

2. How does your expertise contribute to the success of this project? What are the main challenges regarding CMTV for your department?

As the CMTV representative for the Communications and Public Affairs Department, I act as the link between the project team and internal stakeholders. There are two challenges: internally, to unite Pasteurians around the future center; externally, to increase the visibility of a center that is unique in Europe and to encourage support from local residents and partners. The magnificent mural that now adorns the Institute's gates, created by my colleagues Laurence Isnard and Kadidia Simeon, illustrates this bridge between the campus, the Pasteurian community, the museum renovation project, and the general public. The main challenge is to coordinate internal mobilization and external outreach over time, synchronizing our communication efforts with those of the project.

3.    If you had to describe the CMTV project in three words?

Ambitious, strategic, collective!

Delegate for Safety and Security 

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Romain Girod

1. What motivates you most about participating in this project?

As a medical entomologist by training and career, this project, which aims to bring together unprecedented human and technological resources for research into emerging infectious diseases, particularly those transmitted by vectors, is naturally very close to my heart. Contributing to making ambitious and collaborative research and public health programs possible, particularly with the Pasteur Network, is a great source of motivation for me.

2. How does your expertise contribute to the success of this project? What are the main challenges for your department with regard to CMTV?

The challenge for me is to optimize the organization of research operations that will be carried out within the future infrastructure in order to enable the Pasteur scientific community to develop research focused on understanding host-vector-pathogen interactions and reducing the effects of environmental changes, particularly climate change, on human health.

3.    If you had to describe the CMTV project in three words?

Integrative, ambitious, innovative