Mission Europe pour la Recherche: towards a one-stop shop for European research funding

Improving and strengthening support for Aix-Marseille research units in obtaining European subsidies for their research and innovation projects is the ambition of Mission Europe pour la Recherche (MER). Set up by Aix-Marseille Université (AMU), CNRS, Inserm and IRD, MER was officially launched on the 16th of February with the signing of a partnership agreement between the four institutions. 

Resulting from a long-standing collaboration between the four partner institutions, this 'one-stop shop' is based on a shared operating model. Innovative and ambitious, this pioneering project has been built jointly over more than a year, with the shared objective of offering a better service to research units and researchers. Thanks to the sharing of skills, resources and knowledge, the Mission Europe pour la Recherche aims to simplify and improve the support given to research units in order to increase their participation in European calls for projects and improve success rates. It is open to all scientists covered by the four founding institutions, regardless of their employer.

The financial support

The MER is the academic community's first response to the recommendations of the Gillet report, submitted to the Minister for Higher Education and Research in June 2023. The report recommended simplifying administration and improving coordination between universities and research organisations.

Since January 2024, the staff at the Mission Europe pour la Recherche works closely together in two main departments:

• The Detection Unit, which is responsible for promoting European programmes, informing teams, identifying calls tailored to the needs of the research units, detecting new projects and identifying project leaders;
• The Engineering Department is involved in the project set up, negotiation and implementation phases, interacting with the management units and project sponsors. The financial management of the projects obtained remains the responsibility of the Managing Trustee.

The project received financial support from France 2030 as part of the call for projects "Accelerating the development strategies of higher education and research establishments" and also from the "Fonds de transformation de l'action publique" (Public Action Transformation Fund).