Presentation

Evaluate, prevent, control

Our research activities supporting public policy and our services supporting businesses contribute to the evaluation and prevention of the risks that economic activities present to the environment, health and safety of people and goods.

We continue to develop our scientific and technical competences in the areas of accidental risks, chronic risks, and ground and underground risks.

The Institute accompanies innovation by taking into account upstream the risks linked to new products, new technologies or processes.

An expert on risks, which comes from know-how in the fields of mines, energy and chemistry

Ineris, a public establishment of an industrial and commercial nature under the tutelage of the Ministry of the Environment, was created in 1990. The result of a restructuration of the Centre of Studies and Research of Collieries of France (Cerchar) and the Institute of Applied Chemical Research (Ircha), the Institute capitalises upon nearly 70 years of expertise and know-how.

Activity fields

Chronic risks

• Measurement and forecasting of air quality
• Pollution of aquatic environments
• Toxicity of chemical substances for man and ecosystems
• Population exposure
• Costs and effectiveness of pollution prevention
• Electromagnetic fields
• Circular economy and waste
• Polluted sites and ground
• Nanometric substances

Accidental risks

• Industrial safety
• Transport of dangerous materials
• Safety of substances and chemical processes
• Safety equipment
• Fire, explosion, toxic dispersion
• Malevolence
• Nanosecurity
• New energies

Ground/underground risks

• Mines, aftermines and extractive industries
• Dissolution cavities, rocky fronts and gradients
• Geotechnical works, dams and geostructures
• Underground storage, reservoirs and deep foraging

Certification

• Explosive atmospheres
• Ecotechnologies
• Operational safety
• Nanotechnologies
• Pyrotechnics

Often unique testing methods

• Emission test bed
• Explosion / dispersion platform
• Geotechnical underground platform
• Mesocosms
• Fire platform
• SNano platform
• Battery safety platform
• Ardevie, trial platform for « waste behaviour »

Expertise available in emergency situations

Our 24-hour a day operational services such as the Emergency situations support unit (CASU), PRév’air (forecasting pollution at a national scale) and Cenaris (National Monitoring Centre for Ground and Underground risks) illustrate the very operational nature of the Institute’s expertise.

Governance

Ineris’s governance is made up of:

• A board of directors, made up of a nonexecutive president, eight representatives of the State, eight members who are qualified or represent competences or concerned economic activities and eight staff representatives;
• A scientific board, which examines the Institute’s orientations and scientific activity and analyses their results;
• Three specialised commissions which give their opinion on the programmes, monitor their performance and results, and evaluate the teams
• The research and expertise orientation commission, which gathers the Institute’s stakeholders.

Ethics

An independent committee monitors the application of ethics framing the independence of INERIS’s opinions. It reports directly to the board of directors.
 

Standards and accreditations

Ineris is ISO 9001 certified. Several laboratories are Cofrac accredited (trials, sampling, interlaboratory comparisons, industrial product certification) and one laboratory is GLP -compliant (bioassays).