Why, when I receive funding from the University of Strasbourg or Inserm, do I have to follow CNRS purchasing procedures?

The single management delegation, also known as single management mandate, is a management model implemented in our institute since 1st January 2021. With this model, Inserm and the University of Strasbourg entrust CNRS with the management of their funding. In other words, the funding made available to the IGBMC by the 3 governing bodies (CNRS, Inserm, University of Strasbourg) is held in a single cash drawer, that of the CNRS. The CERBM GIE continues to manage research contracts (e.g. ANR, ARC etc.)

• Funding that Inserm entrusts the management to the CNRS are state subsidy (1.125 M€ per year), ATIP-Avenir research contracts, INCA research contracts for which an IGBMC researcher is coordinator.
• Funding that the University of Strasbourg entrusts the management to the CNRS are state subsidy (approximately 230 K€ per year), certain IdEx research contracts (Attractivité, Recherche exploratoire, Chercheurs post-doctoraux), the allocation for organisation of a thesis or HDR jury.

There are a few exceptions to this general rule:

• all USIAS funding. These are still managed by the University of Strasbourg,
• ERC research contracts. Payroll is managed by the researcher's employer. Operating expenses and internal services are managed by CERBM GIE,
• INCA research contracts for which an IGBMC researcher is a partner. These are managed by the CERBM GIE.

The aim is to cut management costs, reduce the time spent on staff training in the various Inserm and University softwares for our purchasing and finance services, and cope with staff departures that have not been replaced (e.g. 2 fewer staff in the finance service since 2020, and 3 fewer staff in the purchasing service since 2019, 2 of whom have been replaced with short-term contracts).

Roughly speaking, we can say that, for the IGBMC's purchasing and finance services, the administrative layer cake is split by 2. Before, 4 organizations managed our funding (CNRS, Inserm, University, CERBM GIE). With the delegation, there are only 2 managing bodies left (CNRS and CERBM GIE). This means that, before, where there were 4 sets of regulations, procedures, contracts and software to master, there are now only 2.

What single management delegation does not solve:

• There are still 2 management bodies, which means that certain tasks are duplicated.
• Funding outside the scope of the delegation (e.g. USIAS) requires additional specific processing workflow.
• Supplier prices may differ depending on whether the product is purchased by the CERBM GIE (private market) or by the CNRS (public market), leading to complications when ordering and invoicing.

CNRS is the most advanced in terms of accounting automation, and the only one capable of absorbing the surplus of invoices (those previously processed by Inserm and the University).

In terms of financial resources, there are now only 2 management bodies, but in terms of human resources 4 employers are still present. The single management delegation does not therefore affect the HR nor the Missions services, which continue to deal with the 4 employers and with their own regulations and softwares.