Bureau de Recherches Géologiques et Minières

BRGM is France's public reference institution in Earth Science applications for the management of surface and subsurface resources and risks. It is the French Geological Survey. BRGM was founded in 1959. It is a public establishment of an industrial and commercial nature (EPIC). Reporting to the Ministries in charge of Research, Ecology and the Economy, it is based at Orléans. Michèle Rousseau is its chair and managing director and Christophe Poinssot its deputy managing director. BRGM's scope covers several activities: scientific research expertise, innovation and transfer, analysis and experimentation, mining risk prevention and safety, higher education, ongoing vocational training, dissemination of knowledge and open science. It employs more than 1,000 people, including over 700 engineers and researchers, at its 27 regional branches in Metropolitan France and French overseas territories. Its teams operate in some thirty countries. BRGM's scientific strategy is based on six major scientific and societal challenges: geology and knowledge of the subsurface, management of groundwater, risks and spatial planning, mineral resources and the circular economy, energy transition and underground space, data, digital services and infrastructure. The French Geological Survey [Bureau de recherches géologiques et minières (BRGM)] was officially created by a decree on 23 October 1959. It is the result of the merger of several French geological and mining establishments, namely: the Bureau of Geological, Geophysical and Mining Research (BRGGM), itself heir to the Bureau of Geological and Geophysical Research (BRGG) founded in 1941 by Edmond Friedel and Pierre Pruvost, then intended to map the subsurface of France; the Mining Bureau of Overseas France (BUMIFOM), the Bureau of Mining Research in Algeria (BRMA), the French Guiana Mining Bureau (BMG). BRGM developed its organisation and activities throughout the 1960s. During this decade, it gradually extended its coverage of the national territory, while its scope extended beyond the borders of France.