Rouages: “Ensuring the financial sustainability of the I-Site program of excellence”
Elisa Pincin is the head of the “I-Site Excellence Program and Annual Resources” department. As part of the Finance Division, she helps ensure the effective management of annual resources and safeguards the financial sustainability of the I-Site Excellence Program, which was extended through 2022. She explains this mission to us this month as part of the Rouages video series produced by the University of Montpellier.
Located between the President’s Office and the Institute of Botany, on the edge of the Jardin des Plantes, is the University of Montpellier’s Office of Financial Affairs, where some forty staff members work. On the second floor, Elsa Pincin, glasses perched on her nose, is working to set up the brand-new department she heads: the I-Site Excellence Program and Annual Resources Department, created following the permanent establishment of the I-Site in March 2022 after four years of piloting.“For now, there are three of us on this team, and we’re currently recruiting for a fourth staff member. It’s a department still in its early stages—it was only established last November—so we’re growing little by little,” explains the department head.
I-Site Excellence Program
This is a massive undertaking for the University of Montpellier, which, by securing this long-term funding, has set aside a budget of 550 million euros—or 17 million euros per year. Managing this budget clearly called for the creation of a separate department. “The I-Site Excellence Program (PEI) is a somewhat unique form of funding because we have this €17 million coming in every year—which is fairly standard—but unlike other funding sources, we can spread the expenditure over several fiscal years. We therefore need to ensure that the curves don’t intersect,” explains Elisa Pincin.
The PEI’s initiatives, defined by the strategic committee, take the form of calls for proposals in a variety of fields: research, training, mobility, and student initiatives. Elisa Pincin’s team then liaises with the successful applicants to manage the allocated funding and ensure the program’s sustainability. She has several IT tools at her disposal, such as the Sifac financial and budget management software and the Amphi platform. “The management of Amphi is coordinated by the steering committee, with whom we work closely. This platform allows us to generate reports using dashboards, manage the allocation of funds, and liaise with project leaders. For this reason, it is essential in our field to be comfortable not only with numbers, of course, but also with IT tools,” explains the department head.
Manage annual resources
In fact, the young woman had been working in the Management Control Department until her new department was created. After earning a master’s degree in management control and organizational auditing from Montpellier Management, she completed her first year of an apprenticeship at an accounting firm before joining the Management Control Department for her second year, where she was offered a contract upon graduation. Elisa Pincin then passed the competitive exam and became a permanent employee.“At the Dpil, my main responsibility involved the financial management of the annual budgets for the academic departments, schools, and institutes under the direction of Virginie Pastoret. When she was appointed to the Daf, I chose to follow her to continue this work.”
Each year, the University receives a public service subsidy, known as the SCSP, from the government. Amounting to 320 million euros, this subsidy covers the salaries of all tenured faculty members as well as a large portion of the operating costs for all UM units, to which funds are reallocated based on various criteria.“There are also allocations tied to specific laws, such as ParcoursSup or the health studies reform, which have mobilized specific funds. In each situation, the process is the same: how we allocate the funds, how we implement them, with what monitoring, and what dashboards to ensure that the units can track their budget…”explains the manager.
The academic departments, schools, and institutes also have their own sources of revenue: grants, tuition fees, apprenticeship programs, continuing education, rental income from facilities, and so on. These resources must, of course, be monitored and may be subject to certain decisions by the management team, while respecting their financial autonomy. “All of this is part of an annual budget and management dialogue. We meet with the units, assess whether everything is running smoothly, and determine if budget adjustments are needed based on investments, operations, and other factors. We work closely with the budget department within the Finance Division.”
Accounting and Budget Analysis
To report on her responsibilities, Elisa Pincin contributes each year to the preparation of the financial analysis. This year-end report accompanies the budget and provides the authorizing officer—that is, the management team led by the president and the chief operating officer—with insights into the factors driving the financial results of the past year. “This is the most analytical part of my responsibilities. I contribute to the ‘annual resources and PEI’ section; however, everything that is multi-year—which represents a very large portion—is not within my scope, but rather falls under the Revenue and Multi-Year Operations Department, another department within the Finance Division.”
This is a task that the department head—a highly organized and meticulous person—particularly enjoys: “I know this might seem strange to some, but I like tackling complex issues to try to simplify them, present them clearly, and make them easy to understand. It’s something I enjoy; it just fits my personality.”