Since its founding, the Imagine Institute has been governed as a scientific cooperation foundation (FCS). This unique legal structure facilitates public-private partnerships and provides additional flexibility and responsiveness in contrast to traditional structures.

Imagine Institute

The need to combine public and private funds

To date, the Imagine Institute’s initial endowment has been made up primarily of public funding (€12.9 million given by the founding members) and the funding to construct the building which houses the Institute (€60 million).

In March 2011, the Imagine Institute benefited from a grant of €64.7 million over 10 years, as part of the French Investments for the Future program for its University Hospital Institute (IHU) project. Competing against 19 national projects, the Imagine Institute came first out of the 6 selected projects.

 

A flexible and responsive structure

In 2018, the operating and investment budget provided by the Imagine Institute’s founding members (Inserm, Université Paris Cité, AP-HP) was €25 million. The research teams raised an additional €16 million in subsidies.

The Imagine Foundation provides an “acceleration” budget of €19 million in addition to this operating budget. The latter allows the Institute to provide the best talent and equipment for its research teams in order to accelerate discoveries and help patients.

This acceleration budget comes from the University Hospital Institute (IHU) status obtained as part of the French “Investments for the Future” program from the State in 2011, but also from exceptional public subsidies won in the context of the highly competitive national or regional calls for tenders (RHU, DIM, ANR) awarded after selection by an international jury. To that, funds provided by industrial partnerships are added, as well as €5 million from the generosity of donors, individuals and companies, who take action with the Imagine Institute to develop the medicine of tomorrow for children with genetic diseases.