Eight public bodies including BRGM have signed a charter of openness to society. In this way BRGM is renewing its commitment to transparency for the purposes of public debate and decision making.
27 November 2020
Charter for opening up public research, expertise and health and environmental risk assessment bodies to society

Charter for opening up public research, expertise and health and environmental risk assessment bodies to society.

© République française

On 27 November 2020, Anses, BRGM, Ifremer, Ineris, INRAE, IRSN, Gustave Eiffel University and Santé publique France signed a charter of openness to society. Adopted by several public bodies in 2008 and signed by BRGM in 2016, the charter of openness to society now extends to new signatories: Ifremer and, as part of their respective reorganisation, INRAE and Gustave Eiffel University. 

Enhanced and regular dialogue is one of the essential pillars of public trust in scientific research and expert knowledge. With their involvement in missions of general interest, the eight signatory bodies share the same values of independence, transparency and maintaining the scientific quality of their work. These values are based on the same requirements for competence, sharing and impartiality. 

Encouraging transparency and the sharing of scientific knowledge 

Through their research activities, expert knowledge and/or scientific and technical evaluation, these eight public bodies share one and the same goal: to improve understanding of risks and of the resources to prevent and reduce them. They also share the same conviction that this ambition must support citizens concerned about health and environmental risks who are increasingly anxious to take an active part in understanding and assessing the risks. 

By signing this charter, they confirm their intention to pursue the process of opening up and supplementing their work by means of enhanced public dialogue through 3 commitments:  

  • To support stakeholders and society in acquiring competence. 
  • To share the available scientific knowledge.  
  • To make their work more transparent. 

In order to do so, every organisation undertakes to deploy specific and sustainable arrangements to implement fruitful public dialogue through 3 common objectives: 

  • To strengthen the capacity of personnel and students to conduct public dialogue. 
  • To identify and mobilise the resources required for public involvement. 
  • To develop tools to manage and publicise the approach. 

United around this charter of openness to society, the signatories share their best practices and feedback and harmonise their activities to work towards a common goal: to improve the quality of their contributions to public policies and to society.