18/06/2021 3 min

Gabrielle Bouleau re-elected as Chair of ANSES's Committee for Ethical Standards and Prevention of Conflicts of Interest

Gabrielle Bouleau was re-elected as Chair of ANSES's Committee for Ethical Standards and Prevention of Conflicts of Interest on 16 June 2021. A chief engineer in bridges, water and forestry at INRAE, Gabrielle Bouleau is an expert in environmental policy. As head of ANSES's Ethics Committee, she remains committed to ensuring that the Agency's expert appraisal work complies with the principles of independence.

Gabrielle BOULEAU is in charge of "public policies, risks and adaptation" at INRAE's EcoSocio Department. Author of a book "Politisation des enjeux écologiques. De la forme au motif environnemental" on the politicisation of environmental issues, she is also responsible for two Master's modules at the École des Ponts engineering school.

Gabrielle Bouleau joined the Interdisciplinary Laboratory in Social Sciences and Innovation (LISIS) in January 2020. In her work, she examines how the political agenda takes account of new environmental issues and how these issues are translated into public policy and new activities.

As Chair of ANSES's Ethics Committee, she ensures that the Agency remains independent and pluralistic, in order to promote balanced debate and quality expert appraisals.

"Once again elected Chair of ANSES's Ethics Committee, I am keen to help shed greater light on the issues at stake in the formal requests we receive, in order to clarify the problems and promote pluralism in our deliberations. There are significant uncertainties and risks in health and environmental safety. The challenge with ethical standards is to guarantee the rules of independence, transparency and plurality of experts so that, even in the absence of certainty, they can produce credible opinions that help in decision-making and provide insights on the need for additional knowledge in order to progress."

Gabrielle Bouleau's background

Gabrielle Bouleau graduated with an engineering degree in 1995 and began her career as head of the public engineering department with the Departmental Directorate for Agriculture and Forestry of the Drôme in south-east France. She then worked in engineer training before moving into research with the French National School of Rural Engineering, Water and Forestry (ENGREF). In 2005, she joined the Cemagref research institute and, in 2007, she obtained a PhD in environmental science on changing water policies and indicators in France. After a post-doctoral position at the University of California, Berkeley, she shifted the focus of her work to political science and obtained an accreditation to supervise research in this field in 2017. In 2018, she became Deputy Scientific Director of the Territories Department at Irstea and led the "adaptive resource management" strategic scientific challenge. Since 2020, she has been responsible for adaptation, risks and public policies in the EcoSocio Department at INRAE. Gabrielle Bouleau is the author of several books and scientific papers.

ANSES Committee for Ethical Standards and Prevention of Conflicts of Interest

On its founding in 2010, ANSES set up a Committee for Ethical Standards and Prevention of Conflicts of Interest. A key component of Agency governance, its role is to issue opinions on matters relating to ethics and the independence of the Agency's work. The committee was renewed on 16 April 2021. It has eight members appointed by ministerial order for a five-year term. Gabrielle Bouleau was re-elected President by the committee members on 16 June 2021.