Organization of the Jacques Monod Conférences

The Institutes are assisted in the selection of submissions by a Scientific Committee appointed for a four year period.

The members of the Scientific Committee are : Yohanns BELLAICHE, Yves GAUDIN, Vincent GELI, DAgnès MIGNOT, Jane LECOMTE, Stéphane BLANC, Thierry GALLI, Pierre JALINOT, Thierry GAUDE (chair).

Each project is evaluated by two or three reviewers. Results of the evaluation are communicated to the Chairman of each project by the President of the Scientific Committee after agreement of the results by the Institute of Life Sciences.

Each conference is presided over by a Chairman, a top researcher in his field, who is given the task to organize the scientific programme. He is aided by a Vice-Chairman who can qualify to be the Chairman for a future conference if its renewal is approved by the Scientific Committee and the Institutes. The Chairman or the Vice-Chairman should belong to a French laboratory, the other to a European laboratory outside France.

The chairman has the overall responsibility for the scientific organization, selecting the invited speakers and other participants, financial aspects, balancing the budget, as well as assuring promotion and success of the Conference. Aided by the Vice-Chairman, the Chairman is in charge of the scientific programme and of the budget of the Conference which is financed for the most part by the CNRS. The Chairman also applies for financial support from other organisms. He receives the help of the Secretary of the Jacques Monod Conferences for these tasks as well as the material considerations for the Conference.

After the Conference, the Chairman will write a brief report for the Scientific Committee of the Jacques Monod Conferences summarizing the principal scientific advances presented during the Conference as well as their discussions. If possible, it should indicate the original scientific development that will interest the Intitutes.

On behalf of CNRS Biology the Chairman invites twenty five to thirty speakers, who form the core of each Jacques Monod Conferences.The Chairman and Vice-Chairman are also considered Speakers. Invited speakers are comprised of 7 or 8 lecturers outside Europe (limited to one or two scientists from such distant countries as Japan, Australia, etc., due to travel costs), 9 to 11 European -but not French- lecturers, and 9 to 11 French lecturers. These proportions may vary according to scientific quality which prevails over other considerations. Attention will be paid to a balanced ratio of female versus male lecturers.

Added to the invited Speakers list are those scientists - if their applications are selected by the Chairman - who will be invited to participate in the conference. Applications must be submitted on the SciencesConf website before the dead-line mentioned on the advertisements. The application must include the candidate's curriculum vitae, a maximum of one page summary of his/her research programme, together with a list of his/her main publications and a brief summary of the proposed presentation. The selection is made by the President with assistance of the Vice- President. Except for particular cases approved by the Chairman it is recommended that all selected participants present their work during the conference, either in poster form or by a brief in-session talk. The Chairman chooses the form in which the presentations are made.

The Institutes hope that as many young researchers as possible attend the Jacques Monod Conferences and present their work.

• Participation of the CNRS, Inserm and other organizations

The Institutes contribution to Conference funding ranges between 25,000 and 30,000 €. Financial support from other organizations is encouraged but should be lower than the CNRS funding so that CNRS and Inserm remain the unique visible organizers of the Conference. Sponsoring by private companies is not excluded as long as the advantages granted in exchange (for instance sponsorship of the conferences, help for attendance of young researchers, promotion in scientific magazines) is clearly defined

• Speakers

With a given budget, the Chairman decides how he wants to take care of the travel expenses (on the basis of the most economical rates or fixed amount) and accommodations for speakers. Any stay outside of the Conference location will not be paid for. Invited speakers receive appropriate information for organization of their trip and stay, at least two months prior to the conference.

• Participants

Participants are required to pay a registration fee (as low as possible), finance their own trip and pay a fixed amount (460 € in CNRS facilities) for their accommodations and meals. Participants selected for a conference will receive all necessary information concerning travel and stay, in time.

The Jacques Monod Conferences are held in CNRS facilities at Roscoff (Brittany), which can accommodate 80 to 115 people. Exceptionally, other locations in France may be chosen by the Chairman but require a justification and an agreement from CNRS Biology.

Conference lasts three and a half days.

Organization of the sessions is left to the Chairman's initiative. The overall purpose should give each participants the possibility to present work either as an oral communication or poster (for the latter, sufficient time should be appropriated for its discussion). The programme can consist of - for example - 20/30 min. guests lectures in addition to one or two longer key-note addresses. The programme should be flexible enough to allow for the presentation of new findings obtained after the programme's finalization. It shoud leave enough time for informal discussions facilitating further collaborations.

Recordings, pictures as well as any reference to presentations and discussions are forbiden. The publication of any articles following the conferences are not allowed either.

All invited speakers and selected participants undertake to be present for the entire duration of the conference.

Any scientist interested in organising a Jacques Monod Conference must provide an application containing the following:

A provisional budget and the list of public and private organizations which will be solicited to participate in funding the Conference and the expected amount of their contribution.

The file must be sent by e-mail to the Secretary of the Jacques Monod Conferences (conf.monod@services.cnrs.fr) each year before January 18 for a meeting to be held the following year. The applications are examined by the Scientific Committee giving the results to CNRS Biology before March 26. The Institute takes and communicates its final decision to the President of the Scientific Committee before April 30.

• The general title of the Conference.
• The surname, first name, address and curriculum vitae of the Chairman and of the Vice-Chairman with a list of their principal publications and invited lectures for the last three years. If the Chairman belongs to a French laboratory, it is mandatory that the Vice-Chairman belongs to a foreign (generally European) laboratory. There can only be one Chairman and one Vice-Chairman. There is no organization committee.
• The list of Speakers the Chairman wishes to invite, indicating their laboratory, research subject, and references concerning the three main publications of the preceding three years. (Unless there is a scientific justification, the Chairman should not invite several scientists from the same laboratory).
• An estimation of the number of participants and of the European laboratories potentially interested.
• The Conference site and dates proposed.
• A paper (maximum five pages) on the topics to be dealt with during the conference.
• A draft programme.

A provisional budget and the list of public and private organizations which will be solicited to participate in funding the Conference and the expected amount of their contribution.

The file must be sent by e-mail to the Secretary of the Jacques Monod Conferences (conf.monod@services.cnrs.fr) each year before January 18 for a meeting to be held the following year. The applications are examined by the Scientific Committee giving the results to the Institute of Biological Sciences before March 26. The Institute takes and communicates its final decision to the President of the Scientific Committee before April 30.

The request for renewal must be presented by the Vice- Chairman of the first conference who, if the renewal is accepted, will become Chairman of the next conference.

The Vice-Chairman of a conference organized in a given year who would like to renew the same conference two or three years later under his chairmanship, must therefore submit a renewal application containing the same information as above. In addition the description of the topics should show that the programme will not be a repetition of the previous programme. The emphasis should be on the conceptual and technical advances made since the previous conference justifying its renewal. The list of invited speakers should include at least 50 % of first time speakers, who did not attend the previous conference.

The first phase to prepare a renewal takes place during the first conference: the Chairman requests attending participants to elect a future Vice- Chairman to aid the future Chairman in his task, if the conference is renewed.

After the application's acceptance of his file in March (year of application), the Chairman officially invites the speakers on behalf of CNRS and Inserm, respecting the proposals indicated in his project and/or requests modifications to be presented by the Scientific Committee.
He must, by July 22, (year of application), provide the final list of speakers (after they have been approved), indicating the surname, first name, professional address and final title of the talk, for each.

This information is essential to draw up the advertisement of the Conferences Jacques Monod. It will also be circulated to the research laboratories of the CNRS., Inserm, and to researchers having participated in the Jacques Monod Conferences during the previous four years. All other forms of advertising for any Jacques Monod Conference is highly encouraged. It will be made at the initiative of the Chairman and funded on his budget.

We would reiterate that organizations outside the CNRS and Inserm should not appear as co-organizers of any CJM on advertisements or documents related to a Conference. In case of sponsoring, their contribution may be mentioned by a logo at the bottom of the documents.

Each conference President is encouraged to take necessary steps to establish contact with journalists (from Science, Nature, etc...) to facilitate the circulation of the scientific information and promote international impact of the Jacques Monod Conferences.