The quality management programme aims to define the organisational structure, each individual's responsibilities, and the procedures and resources necessary to implement an effective quality management policy that aligns with the organisation’s strategy and drives user satisfaction. It helps to standardise practices, ensure the traceability of operations, capitalise on the organisation's knowledge and increase the understanding of its context and evolution (open science, the Nagoya protocol, the General Data Protection Regulation etc.).
As a public-sector player at the heart of the French research funding ecosystem, ANR began to develop its quality management programme in 2007. ANR's quality policy is based on three priorities:
As part of its quality programme, ANR has achieved ISO 9001 certification, the international standard benchmark, for its project selection processes. This certification, awarded in 2018 by Afnor, covers all stages of the Agency's selection processes, from receipt of proposals in response to calls launched by ANR to the signing of agreements with the selected projects. Based on efficiency and performance indicators, it guarantees the quality of the project selection process within the shortest timescale with respect for accepted international principles: impartiality, equal treatment, confidentiality, ethics, scientific integrity and transparency.
In order to guarantee the reliability of its procedures and strengthen its risk management, ANR works to identify, analyse and prioritise the major risks, their causes and their potential impact on all its activities. It defines associated action plans that bring the quality and internal control programmes together to identify corrective actions and reinforce their effectiveness.
The ANR quality management programme is part of a broader continuous improvement approach to respond to the needs and expectations of all the stakeholders (research institutions, funding bodies etc.) with which it interacts. In this context, the Agency has launched several measures to simplify its procedures and documents, including its Work Programme and its financial regulations, to improve their legibility and relieve the administrative burden on scientific teams. It also draws on regular exchanges with scientific stakeholders and research institutions, such as the discussions during the ANR Tour, to better identify their needs and adapt its processes.
