Organization and scope of the TGIR French oceanographic fleet

Putting an end to more than twenty years of debate, the unification of the fleet was carried out at 1 January 2018 within Ifremer.

The abutment of the fleet at Ifremer was based on the following principles:
• budget unification,
• the definition of specifications for the use of the fleet, and the unification of programming,
• setting up a dedicated structure within Ifremer and a dedicated governance.

Since 1 January 2018, Ifremer has received a single grant from MESRI for the management of the entire unified fleet.

Ifremer has replaced IPEV for the management of Marion Dufresne as sub-charterer of the TAAF and has reconstituted within Genavir a team of operators of equipment and scientific instrumentation. IRD chartered its vessels to Ifremer, which subsequently transferred them for management to GIE Genavir. Due to the lack of time for the establishment of a complete agreement on the transfer of CNRS seamen, and in a transitional manner, the CNRS will continue to operate all or part of its fleet in 2018 (Ifremer - CNRS convention).

A fleet management department, the DFO, is created within Ifremer. It brings together all the technical resources directly dedicated to the TGIR within the institute, and ensures the programming of all the resources of the TGIR. The DFO is organized around a Naval Operations Pole, two engineering units (NSE for ships and equipment and SM for submarine systems), and a management team. It is under Quality Assurance.

The new structure is characterized by a governance which ensure compliance with the terms of reference and involve all stakeholders in a balanced manner:
• setting up a steering committee to which the fleet management reports. It is chaired by the ministry in charge of research. It is composed of a representative of the CNRS, IRD, Ifremer as well as university users (network of marine universities). The decisions of the committee are taken unanimously by consensus among the various members;
• A scientific governance is set up (Scientific Advisory Board) and the evaluation structures (CNFH and CNFC) continue in their role of scientific evaluation of proposals of campaigns.