It is an appointment that will necessarily be scrutinized.
The six founding members of the IHU Méditerranée Infection and the president of the Institute headed by Didier Raoult announced this Friday the launch of the recruitment of a successor to the controversial professor, who will be appointed no later than June 30, 2022.
"A recruitment committee will be created for this purpose and an international call for tenders will be launched", specifies a joint statement from the founding members of the University Hospital Institute (IHU) and the University of Aix Marseille, where the meeting was held this Friday.
The call for tenders will be launched within a few weeks, said a source within the university.
The recruitment process, which must first be submitted to the approval of a board of directors of 18 members - including the six founders - scheduled for November 23, "will lead to the appointment of the new director or the new director of the board. no later than June 30, 2022 for taking up a post no later than September 30, 2022 ”, according to the press release.
This leaves the opportunity for Didier Raoult, retired since August 31 as a university professor-hospital practitioner, to remain at the head of the IHU for an additional year, as he had expressed the wish on September 10 to the BFMTV channel, until the designation of the successor.
Source of tension in the scientific world
According to the statutes of the IHU, "the director is appointed, after advice from the board of directors, by the president" of this body.
The new director of public assistance for hospitals in Marseille (AP-HM) François Crémieux, of which the IHU is part, told Le Monde in August his desire to launch the process of recruiting the 69-year-old professor in September.
In addition to the AP-HM and Aix Marseille University (AMU), the Research Institute for Development (IRD), the French Blood Establishment (EFS), the Mérieux Institute and the Army Health Service ( SSA) are also among the founding members of the IHU.
Read alsoDidier Raoult: five minutes to understand the sidelining of the director of the IHU in Marseille
The EFS had indicated, ahead of the meeting, to address "the necessary changes" in the governance of the IHU "with the desire to preserve this extremely important tool for transfusion safety, which houses the expert laboratory on emerging viruses" .
For its part, the IRD assured that it would be "attached to a clear and transparent procedure to find a scientific personality carrying the best project for the future of the IHU".
Promoter of a controversial treatment of Covid-19 patients via a bi therapy combining hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin, Professor Didier Raoult has aroused tensions in the scientific and political world after comments on vaccination.
