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- 60 years old, married, 3 children
- Engineering degree from ENITA, Bordeaux
- Hobbies: digital photography, gardening (collection of ancient tomato varieties), woodturning, reading, DIY
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André Fauré
Unit Director and winner of the 2011 Engineer’s Award
(09/12/2011)
© INRA, C. Slagmulder
André Fauré, Director of research support services at INRA Toulouse, is the brains behind the scene. He designs tools, applications and solutions to optimize the centre’s administration. After starting his career in aquaculture research, he later became manager of an experimental unit in aquaculture and secretary general at INRA Tours and INRA Toulouse. He later led the implementation of INRA’s national procurement policy. Mr Fauré excels in his ability to develop innovative ways to modernise administrative services and mobilise teams to apply these new solutions.
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André Fauré is the Gyro Gearloose of INRA’s administrative services, where instead of math symbols he sees invoices and orders: “I always try to optimize what I do to further improve my methods and those of my departments. Acquiring better organisational skills and automating repetitive tasks makes operations more efficient”. This IT aficionado has developed over a dozen applications — databases, automatic processing systems, indicators and dashboards — to streamline and improve management and communication between units. “Administrative culture is conservative by nature. Like in research, systems need to be overhauled using innovation and trustworthy, accessible and operational tools”.
Keeping it creative
André Fauré’s creative talents first emerged in his former life as a researcher in aquaculture research. After completing engineering studies at ENITA in Bordeaux, Mr Fauré worked as a consulting engineer for ten years at the CEMAGREF in Bordeaux and later in Brittany studying the impact of aquaculture on the natural environment. In 1984 he was named manager of a joint INRA-Ifremer experimental research unit, where he developed all of the unit’s management tools and designed an automatic system for measuring fish which made data collection during experiments quicker and more reliable.
In 1996, André Fauré was named Secretary General of the INRA Centre in Tours. “I left research and crossed over to the dark side of the force — support services. Contrary to popular belief, however, research management is an innovation hotspot!” In 2001 he transferred to INRA headquarters to implement the institute’s new procurement policy. He developed a centralised procurement database with monitoring and analysis tools and oversaw the creation of an innovative purchasing management system for research units: the procurement intranet. In 2006, Mr Fauré took over Pegase, a management modernisation and streamlining programme, for which he overhauled management processes such as transportation ticket purchasing (national market, introduction of the Logee card and Affaires card) and mission procedures (introduction of the Ulysse system and post-mission reviews).
Keeping it human
André Fauré was transferred to his home region, Toulouse, in 2007 — a return to his roots and to the field. He works with a team of 60 people as Director of Support Services at the INRA centre in Toulouse. “Encouraging teams to work towards a shared goal of change requires a climate of confidence. Each person involved has unimaginable potential and resources. Finding the right balance is a delicate process and great care is needed to not leave anyone behind. He spends half an hour every day compiling a bibliography on organisational management and managing change: “it helps me see where I am in the management process and study the wealth of external ideas available which provide a new perspective.”
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 On winning the award?
“I would never have won this award without the team I work with! I’ve been able to change things thanks to the active support of the centre’s succesive presidents. It’s nice to feel useful”. |
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Date of creation : 09/12/2011
Date of last update : 09/01/2012
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