In his reference book: How Institutions Think, Mr Douglas (1986) analyses how, through the institutionalisation process, at the same time an organisational identity, legitimate rules of behaviour and sharing of authority and resources are built. Each institution thus develops an order of its own and a challenge to part of that structure leads to a challenge to the whole. We propose mobilising the ‘grid-group’ culturalist model developed by Mr Douglas (1986) to analyse how, within a given policy (scientific policy), different arrangements organise specific organisational processes that oblige partners to take on specific roles. Public action can mobilise instruments that promote bureaucratic governance (mobilising programmes) or competition (competitiveness centres). FNRS, for its part, is organising ‘mutualist’ collaboration, which forces the group to maintain its borders, through repeated work to hunt sorciers and opposition to attempts at bureaucratisation. The analytical framework will take up the typology developed by Hood (2008) for the governance methods specific to public administrations, distinguishing, on the basis of the ‘grid/group’ approach, four basic methods: random/mutuality/orpharchy/market. It makes it possible to highlight how organisations operate internally and to analyse their transformation dynamics. The institutions are changing to adapt to their environment and expectations, or to formulate reforms that strengthen their own logic.