Turkey in wolves BRGM is has been that of feathers

Gold crazy. It was known yet since the epic of the conquistadors, victims of the "wrath of God", as the famous Werner Herzog film Aguirre. It probably killed the ambitions the France mining, laid on the frail shoulders of the BRGM. This public research institution based in Orléans was created just fifty years ago by the meeting of the French expertise in geological mapping and mineral exploration. At a time when the mine physically existed in France and remained at the heart of the concerns of our élitesindustrielles. It only remains today as a symbol, that of the body of the mine, supposed to shelter the cream of our engineers.

Great explorers, geologists of the geological and mining research office unearthed the most fabulous mines of gold or copper in the world, in Europe, Africa or South America. Pathetic businessmen, released by a fickle guardianship, they have lost their shirts in repeated scandals. Ten years of a way of cross stations draw a beautiful map of the world: Salsigne in France, Neves Corvo to the Portugal, Angovia in Côte d'Ivoire and especially the Pearl of Yanacocha in the Peru. Incredible story where met for ten years of corrupt policies, shady industrialists, CIA agents and a few French barbouzes (1). Turkey in wolves, BRGM is has been that of feathers...

As to symbolically this chapter, the pattern of mining activity is retired this month. Its division today than 14 of the total budget for the BRGM, represents less than the water quality monitoring. It is not the only one to leave the ship. Many of his mining colleagues are parties, and not only in retirement, but in the industry, with Areva or Total also.

Yet, ironically, at the time where the world is sinking into crisis the BRGM, he found the force. While staff were divided by two good years (1980), the recruitment starts rising and especially revenue climb sharply rising 20 per year, 140 million last year. While the budgetary allocations in the State are relatively stable, its total resources have doubled in six years.

After ten years of purge, marked by the withdrawal of the mining sector and other competitive activities such as engineering, BRGM resurfaced. It is a positioning started in the early 2000s in the direction of the environment: pollution of soil, water, alternative energy, carbon dioxide storage, increase in natural hazards. As all experts in geology, BRGM found thanks, particularly to the State in times of disasters: drought, floods, earthquakes... Disasters, which create a strong demand for expertise of the soil and subsoil. This activity is much less cyclical and gourmet capital as mining exploration, but it may seem less strategic industrially and further away from the historical skills of the organization. Suddenly, the BRGM is found on a strong growth market, the environment, but on which, as he is not alone, he must more that before to justify its existence. Especially in a political context of renovation and rationalization of research French very apparatus crumbled in a myriad of small organizations.

Find growth by keeping its identity, an issue any conventional sum of any business in deep mutation. But it is also little or no number of these applied research organizations born post-war to accompany or drive industrial sectors. As CEA for nuclear power, the Inra for Agronomy, CNES for the space, Inria for computing. All were as both researcher BRGM, Board and shareholder, one foot in the laboratories, another in the boards of Directors. What to do at the time where the chain no longer exists or no longer need guardianship It is therefore to find both a vision and an identity that the BRGM is engaged in a strategic foresight exercise on the horizon of 2020 (2). For a body of applied research, is not fundamentally different from a business. It's the same way to find the optimal allocation of its resources to achieve a competitive advantage. He also was a shareholder, the State. It also has customers: the public authorities, communities, organizations and foreign countries and companies. And then it's competitors: in Africa or elsewhere, it happens to us, British and German counterparts, and in France it must justify its value to other active organizations in geology or the environment.

The Organization has identified nine major factors that may relate to the. Also well global trends, such as climate change, the strain on natural resources, increasing risks, public information, or assistance in development, but also of most national developments even policies, such as the need for training or the stress of the reform of the State.

With these strengths, BRGM can count on its strengths, including its skills in areas such as mapping, mineral resources, hydrology, and even the biométallurgie. Hence the idea to focus on a few key actions that should carry it on the next decade, with application to both public and private: mapping of the basement, storage of CO2 in underground tanks, geothermal energy, mineral resources, risks, etc. Beyond these themes, to consolidate his place in the world of tomorrow, he opened three major projects. On the one hand, the acceleration in the field of dissemination online data (superb site Infoterre cards) and training. Then, he aims to install in Orleans as early as the next re-entry a "BRGM School" providing engineers the geological expertise. An ambition laudable but which faces the fragmentation of the formations in this area. The France has more mines but still four schools of mines over a special school in Nancy, not to mention the universities. Therefore, the battle is not yet won, and it will probably only at the price of some groups. Finally, the last dimension is geographical and institutional. It absolutely must work in network.

Because, with 1,000 people and 140 million budget, the BRGM knows that it is too small to compete, for example, with his American counterpart ten times larger. It must therefore fit into a "Europeanisation" of the applied geology. It is already underway, with the common EuroGeoSurveys association has its own strategic plan. This strategic reorientation will be enough to wear the BRGM for twenty years and him to forget the chills of the adventure of the gold for the benefit of those of the storage of CO2 Two areas that have less in common to be just as much exposed to "the wrath of God".