The foundation's statute and operations

Research foundations

DigestScience is a research foundation which funds scientific excellence.

By leveraging funding from corporate bodies and private donors, DigestScience promotes the development of research programmes on digestive tract diseases and nutrition by concentrating on its core objective - improving patient care and quality of life.

An officially approved charity

DigestScience has been officially approved as a charity by virtue of the French governmental decree dated 21th july 2008.

This approval gives DigestScience legitimacy for its activities in the public good. It also provides our partners and donors with tax incentives for each of their contributions.

The Foundation's governing bodies

The Administrative Board

The Foundation is administered by an Administrative Board which features 3 colleges and a government commissioner.

The founders:

• Professor Pierre Desreumaux, life member
• Lesaffre Group
• Roquette Frères

The founders came up with the idea for the Foundation and the corporate founders provided the initial funding.

The qualified persons:

• Jacques Bernard (Vice-Chairman of the François Aupetit Patient Association (AFA))
• Professor Antoine Cortot (Clinical Chair, Lille University Medical Centre)
• Dr Lionel Bueno (Research Director, INRA Toulouse)
• Professor Dominique Turck (Clinical Chair, Lille University Medical Centre)

The Board's qualified persons are chosen for their widely acknowledged excellence in DigestScience's fields of operation.

Statutory members

• Lille University Medical Centre
• University of Lille 2
• Inserm

The government commissioner

A government commissioner (appointed by the French Interior Minister of the Interior, following advice from the Minister for Research) attends Board meeting and has a consultative role. He/she checks compliance with the Foundation's statutes and monitors its charitable work in the public good.

The Scientific Advisory Board

A 6-member international Scientific Advisory Board guides DigestScience's Administrative Board in terms of the funded research topics.

For more information:

• The DigestScience Foundation's statutes (PDF file, document in French)
• The Foundation's corporate bylaws (PDF file, document in French)