A new system of governance is being introduced for the Institut Pasteur International Network and its 33 members, which since 2011 have been part of the Pasteur International Network association, which was chaired by the Institut Pasteur President Stewart Cole. Ten years on, the Network is adopting a more participatory, balanced mode of governance and a more structured business model. The articles of association of the Association representing the Institut Pasteur International Network have been amended, and the Association will now be known as the Pasteur Network. A Sheltered Foundation is also being established, based at the Institut Pasteur, to serve as a financial body for the Network in addition to the Association. The organizational structure and new identity of the Pasteur Network reflect a continued commitment to tackling diseases, especially infectious and emerging diseases, through a One Health approach based on international solidarity and the development of a single voice.
Pasteur Network: a global scientific community with shared values and a future-oriented approach
The Pasteur Network comprises 33 member institutions in 25 countries worldwide, all united by shared Pasteurian missions and values and a commitment to public health. With institutions in several endemic areas in four broad regions (Africa, the Americas, and the Asia-Pacific and Euro-Mediterranean regions), the Pasteur Network has time and again demonstrated its major role as a sentinel for emerging infectious diseases. The first Institut Pasteur outside France was set up by Albert Calmette in Saigon in 1891. Its role was to administer vaccines for rabies and smallpox in Indochina. The Pasteur Network gradually expanded from around 20 members in the 1960s to 33 in November 2019, when the Pasteur-USP Scientific Platform in Sao Paulo, Brazil, joined the Association.
The Pasteur Network is now looking to the future with a strategy of consolidation aimed at optimizing the Network's impact on global health. A new organizational structure, designed to represent all the Pasteur Network members more fairly and to facilitate a concerted approach to the major challenges of the 21st century such as the response to the COVID-19 pandemic, was adopted on Tuesday June 8, 2021 at the Extraordinary General Meeting of the Pasteur International Network Association and the 53rd Council of Directors. It was presented and approved on June 4 at the meeting of the Institut Pasteur Board of Governors.
Stewart Cole, President of the Institut Pasteur and President of the Pasteur Network Foundation
In its 2019-2023 strategic plan, the Institut Pasteur pledged to come up with proposals that would provide the Pasteur Network with a more balanced, participatory system of governance and a more structured business model. The new articles of association of the Pasteur Network Association and the establishment of the Pasteur Network Foundation represent a major step forward towards a more modern, efficient Network
Pasteur Network: shared governance and a stronger business model
The Pasteur Network is composed of a series of bodies with different legal statuses, some with legal personality and some without, all of which are linked by their compliance with the Charter of Pasteurian Values and the Pasteur Network scientific strategy, which is regularly updated, as well as their involvement in shared missions that reflect the specific characteristics of each region in which the Association's members are based.
The role of the global Network will continue to be to help improve human health, particularly by tackling infectious agents, through biomedical research, public health activities, education and training, as well as innovation and technology transfer.
These missions are largely carried out by means of a One Health approach and with the aim of promoting sustainable development by building up local capabilities, while respecting human rights and the environment.
To this end, a Sheltered Foundation has been established at the Institut Pasteur to help develop a more efficient, structured business model. The Foundation will contribute to the development of the Pasteur Network through capacity-building and infrastructure-strengthening measures.
As well as working to consolidate and increase funding for the Pasteur Network, which has a seed fund, the Foundation will now take the lead in the major international programs it supports, which are intended to strengthen the capacities and infrastructure of its founders and partners. It also manages funds that encourage mobility (the Calmette & Yersin program and Four-Year Research Groups – G4s) and cooperation within the Pasteur Network (Pasteur International Joint Research Unit – PIU).
The Pasteur International Network Association is changing and will now be known as the Pasteur Network association, after the Network that it represents legally. Its articles of association will also be amended to lay the ground for a more balanced, participatory system of governance. The Association is the representative body for the Pasteur Network; it is also responsible for setting up and coordinating research projects involving several of its members, and for leading the Network at regional and interregional level. To give the regions a greater voice, two representatives are now elected for each region, increasing the number of representatives to 8 (including the President), compared with 5 previously.
Amadou Alpha Sall, General Administrator of the Institut Pasteur de Dakar and President of the Pasteur Network.
Under the previous system, only the President of the Institut Pasteur served as President of the Association. The new governance of the Pasteur Network, which is present on every continent, will strengthen the synergies between its members and help develop the Network at global level. This change highlights the commitment of the Pasteur Network scientific community to a strategy of international solidarity that reflects shared Pasteurian values.
These changes will enable the Association to act in cooperation and in perfect synergy with the Foundation set up to serve the Pasteur Network members.
Pasteur Network: a new identity to strengthen visibility on the international stage
To implement this change and highlight the convergence of the institutions bound together in this consortium, the identity of the Institut Pasteur International Network is changing. Its name is now the Pasteur Network, and it has been given a new visual identity.
The Network, the members based in 25 countries, the Association and the Sheltered Foundation will now all use the same "Pasteur Network" name and brand, as they work together to promote their shared Pasteurian values, which include humanitarianism, universalism, rigor and dedication, freedom of initiative, knowledge transfer and free access to information.
