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GEIPAN

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GEIPAN (Groupe d’études et d’informations sur les phénomènes aérospatiaux non identifiés) is France’s UAP investigation unit, operating since 1977 within the French space agency CNES. As of 2026 it has archived approximately 5,300 cases, of which 2-3% remain unexplained (see src-academic-uap-stigma-2026-04). GEIPAN is the longest continuously running government UAP program in the world and is cited frequently as a model for institutional UAP investigation in international comparisons.

GEIPAN operates under tri-ministerial oversight: Economy/Finance, Higher Education/Research, and Armed Forces. The office classifies investigated sightings along two axes — abnormality and reliability — and explicitly frames its scope as “not a research group focusing on UFOs, extraterrestrial life or other paranormal phenomena” (src-france-national-assembly-uap-conference-2026-05).

Per src-canada-sky-canada-project-2025-02, MP larry-maguire names France and the United States as the two key international partners with which a future Canadian UAP lead would coordinate — placing GEIPAN alongside aaro as the institutional templates for a Canadian body.

Leadership

The GEPAN → SEPRA → GEIPAN naming evolution reflects successive reorganizations within CNES.

Classification system

GEIPAN handles several dozen to 200 cases per year, using a four-category system: A (fully identified), B (probably identified), C (unidentified for lack of data), D (remains unidentified after investigation). As of the June 29, 2026 colloquium, category D — “the most tantalizing” — stands at just 3.1% of cases, versus 38.8% in category B. Director frederic-courtade states that neither GEIPAN nor cnes researches category-D cases directly; that responsibility is deferred to academic researchers and universities (“there is no ufology at CNES”) (src-france-assembly-uap-colloquium-recap-2026-06).

June 29, 2026 — National Assembly symposium

GEIPAN was a named institutional supporter of the June 29, 2026 French National Assembly symposium on UAP (“UAP Research Beyond Fantasy”), organized by MP arnaud-saint-martin (LFI) with co-organizer MP pierre-henriet (HOR) — the first such event in French parliamentary history. frederic-courtade spoke on Roundtable 2 (physical, biological, and materials studies) alongside gilles-munsch, who detailed GEIPAN’s evidentiary methodology (witness testimony vs. instrumental data, and each technology’s limits). Data scientist michael-vaillant called for international scientific standards. The full preliminary program was published May 31, 2026 (src-france-uap-colloquium-program-2026-05, src-france-national-assembly-uap-conference-2026-05); the event itself is recapped in src-france-assembly-uap-colloquium-recap-2026-06.

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