Research on Drug Abuse and Alcoholism at the National Institute of Health and Medical Research (INSERM)

Research on Drug Abuse and Alcoholism at the National Institute of Health and Medical Research (INSERM) F. Facy, M. Verron INSERM U 302, Equipe d’Epidémiologie en Santé Mentale, Le Vésinet, France INSERM (National Institute of Health and Medical Research) [ 1 ‚ 2] is the main public organization dedicated to medical and health research carried out in parallel at university level and by the CNRS (National Center for Scientific Research). Since 1981, this institute, which is a so-called EPST, a public establishment devoted to science and technology, is placed under the joint authority of the Ministry of Research and the Ministry of Health. The majority of its resources comes from the national budget for research and development. The institute is governed by an administrative board and directed by a general director, appointed by the council of ministers. A scientific council defines the institute’s scientific policy and also acts as an advisory committee. Each of the 11 specialized scientific committees is responsible for a particular domain of biomedical research. The so-called ‘intercommittees’ stimulate and finance research in domains of greater priority which cannot be dealt with by the specialized committees [3]. Among the 5,000 employees of INSERM, 2,000 are researchers (25% of them are medical doctors). These researchers contribute to around 20% of the scientific publications in France. A decree issued in November 1983 defines the objectives of the institute. The primary objective is to acquire new knowledge but interactions with society are also an important task. The goal is to initiate and promote health research and its various elements: personal and collective factors, physical, mental and social aspects... All the branches of science should contribute to progress in health and medicine and help to prevent and treat diseases in order to improve the general state of health of the population. The outcome of the research should gain in value through a national as well an international diffusion and should be available to public bodies. Research training is also an important objective. To fulfil these objectives, INSERM relies on shared service departments and also on research units (248 in 1994) which are created for 4 years and may be twice renewed. The results of each unit are examined and evaluated by the specialized scientific committees. The institute has contracts with external laboratories and has established networks in clinical and public health which are comprised of various teams (CNRS, INSERM, academic, industrial etc.). The priority of INSERM is the quality of the research and not the choice of the topics. Until now, researchers have been free to choose the topic on which they consider they are most competent. This Table 1. Research on drug addiction according to domain Domains Coordinator and subject Fundamental research