Agnès Mignot: “Giving research back its research time”
Recently appointed Vice President for Research Simplification and National Program Monitoring, Agnès Mignot is no stranger to the university. A researcher at the Institute of Evolutionary Sciences in Montpellier, she has been working for many years to improve relations between research and administration, but is also committed to the Nagoya Protocol and to greater recognition for women in research.
Name?
Agnès Mignot.
Position
I am a professor at the University of Montpellier and currently serve as Vice President in charge of major national projects and administrative simplification.
Is this new?
A few months ago, the Minister of Higher Education and Research universities embark on a simplification process to free up more time for research, i.e., for Professors, teacher-researchers, researchers, and support staff. Among other things, I am responsible for overseeing these actions.
Any other responsibilities during your term?
Higher education and research are organized around very large projects that are funded at the national level. Through its Professors researchers, the University is heavily involved in these exploratory research programs, known as PEPRs, so I also have to monitor these various projects.
First term at UM?
No, this isn't exactly my first term at UM. I was already Deputy Vice President in charge of relations between administration and research. President Augé asked me to focus on facilitating relations between the administration and the research community... With everything that unit directors, administrative managers, and, on a daily basis, researchers, Professors research support staff have to deal with.
Nagoya Protocol?
Yes, I am a project manager for the University of Montpellier working on the Nagoya Protocol and its implementation from a highly administrative, legislative, and research perspective. The Nagoya Protocol was signed as part of the Convention on Biological Diversity, which aims to protect biodiversity and prevent biopiracy on an international scale. This requires a great deal of support for researchers, Professors teacher-researchers.
Are you a researcher yourself?
I am a teacher-researcher and I am very committed to both roles. My laboratory today is the Institute of Evolutionary Sciences. It is a unit that focuses on all the mechanisms of evolution, adaptation, and speciation of species. We have paleontologists who study the long term, and people who study the short term, focusing on the mechanisms of adaptation in very small organisms. And then there are people who study issues related to animals or plants, which is more relevant to my work, since I am interested in the evolution of flowering plants.
Women in science?
There aren't that many of us. Gender ratio indicators, i.e., the proportion of men and women in different structures, are often generalized, and while overall we're not too far from 50/50 when you look at the details... We're far from 50/50 in positions of responsibility or when you look at individual disciplines. This means that in areas where gender parity is necessary—selection committees for recruitment, central councils of universities or higher education and research institutions of any kind—women ultimately pay a heavy price because they are fewer in number and must effectively do more than their male counterparts.
Your magic formula?
What has been extremely beneficial, both for me and in the assignments I have had to carry out, is working as a team, which means trusting each other. It starts with getting to know the jobs of the people you're going to be working with, so that you can effectively help them develop their activities and find areas for improvement. And these often come from people's everyday experiences. So, whether it's in teaching, research, or administration, teamwork is really, really what I emphasize.