Hosting Structures

All data producers labelled by the CNRS fall into one of the following categories:

• Research Federations (FRs): FRs (fédérations de Recherche) are entities which bring together all or part of research structures, Transitional Research Groups (FREs – Formations de Recherche en Evolution), research teams and/or research bodies, in order to coordinate their scientific activities and pool all or part of their resources (financial, human, material, etc.);

• Earth Science and Astronomy Observatories (OSUs): OSUs (Observatoires des Sciences de l’Univers) are research observatories whose role is to provide the French and international scientific community with services related to their research activities (training, dissemination of knowledge, etc.). Other specific tasks may be added depending on research topics, as is the case in the field of oceanography, where OSUs contribute to the advancement of knowledge and to research programs for the exploitation and protection of the marine environment with a multidisciplinary perspective;

• Joint Research Units (UMRs): UMRs (Unités Mixtes de Recherche) are laboratories recognized and supported by the CNRS, as well as one or more academic bodies. These units bring together teacher-researchers (or lecturers), researchers, engineers and technicians working on common topics;

• International Joint Units (UMIs): UMIs (Unités Mixtes Internationales) are laboratories similar to the UMRs, except that they are placed under the joint authority of the CNRS and one or more foreign-based institutions. Often, these entities have close relationships with French laboratories and originate from a prior highly structured collaboration between French and foreign research teams for which they facilitate the exchange of resources (human, financial, material).

In addition to all these data producers labelled by the CNRS, certain entities are created within other “Etablissements Publics” such as IFREMER, and produce, collect, verify, exploit and release data as part of their own tasks.