Fondation Pour l’Audition was created by Françoise Bettencourt Meyers, Jean-Pierre Meyers and the Bettencourt Schueller Foundation. It has been recognized as a public-interest organization since October 2016.
Its ambition is to unite talents to promote breakthroughs in hearing science and improve the everyday lives of people with hearing loss.
In Paris and nationwide, the Foundation aims to cooordinate research, healthcare and prevention campaigns. Every step taken will bring us closer to the the solution, offering people with hearing loss equal opportunities in education, working life and society at large.
Fondation Pour l’Audition is funded by the Bettencourt Schueller Foundation, Françoise Bettencourt Meyers and Jean-Pierre Meyers.
The Foundation has also received a five-year endowment from the French National Agency for Research (ANR) for the LIGHT4DEAF teaching hospital research project on Usher syndrome.
Fondation Pour l’Audition also accepts donations and legacies.
Our ears our fragile. Each contains a mere 3,500 sensory cells (hair cells), which do not regenerate after damage. In addition to genetic pathologies or natural aging, this sensory organ may be exposed to acoustic traumas such as loud music, bacterial infections, viruses and ototoxic medication.
Besides hearing loss, the ear can be subject to pathologies such as tinnitus (ringing in the ears) and hyperacusis (increased sensitivity to sound).
Anyone can be impacted by hearing loss at any stage of their lives, particularly as part of the natural aging process. Certain behaviors may eliminate or minimize the risks to help preserve hearing health.
Hearing loss is an impaired ability to perceive sound. There are two main types of hearing loss: conductive hearing loss (involving the ability to conduct sound into the inner ear) and sensorineural hearing loss (involving damaged pathways from the inner ear to the brain). Presbycusis is the term used to describe hearing loss due to aging.
Hearing loss ranges from a minor impairment to profound deafness. It can be temporary, permanent, sudden or acquired gradually at different stages of life.
The overall level of hearing loss is calculated in decibels for the ear that hears best, as follows:
- Mild hearing loss: 20-39 dB of hearing loss. The person asks others to repeat what they have said after a loss of 30 dB, on high-pitched sounds
- Moderate hearing loss: 40-69 dB of hearing loss. At 40 dB of hearing disability, the person can only hear others when they raise their voices.
- Severe hearing loss: 70-89 dB of hearing loss
- Profound hearing loss: more than 90 dB of hearing loss. Here, the person cannot follow a conversation at all.
Presbycusis is the natural loss of hearing due to “normal” aging of the ear.
Hyperacusis is a disorder that occurs when a person’s hearing is overdeveloped. This causes hyper-fragile hearing or a heightened sensitivity to noisy environments, often associated with pain and tinnitus.
Tinnitus or ringing in the ears is the perception of sounds that do not come from an external source. This does not mean auditory hallucination but noise generated by the auditory pathways.
To avoid hearing loss, it is important to take frequent breaks from exposure to loud noise, by stepping away from the source.
You can also use acoustic earplugs that reduce the intensity of noise without altering the frequencies.
Smartphone apps can be used to measure noise levels in different environments, but these measurements do not take into account the way people perceive noise. Only a consultation with an ENT specialist can provide this information.
Fondation Pour l’Audition has teamed up with l’École des Parents et des Éducateurs d’Ile de France (EPE-IDF) to offer a support program for parents as soon as they find out their child has hearing loss.
For more information on the program and how to sign up, please phone École des Parents on +33 1 44 93 44 84 or send an email
Depending on the severity and type of hearing loss, the solutions range from hearing aids to cochlear implants. Your ENT specialist can suggest the right solution for your needs.
To fight isolation by maintaining social and family ties, Fondation Pour l’Audition supports associations and field initiatives aimed at improving everyday life for people impacted directly or indirectly by hearing loss.
Fondation Pour l’Audition has four priorities:
- Improving diagnostics and treatment through vocational training
- Supporting education and improving everyday life for people with hearing loss and their families
- Encouraging innovation to help people with hearing loss
- Informing, raising awareness, conducting prevention campaigns and advising the general public on hearing health issues
Focused on both prevention and day-to-day assistance, this essential action involves calls for projects, field projects and ad-hoc requests for support.
Fondation Pour l’Audition aims to accelerate research and scientific innovation.
To achieve this objective, the Foundation supports:
- French hearing research laboratories, through calls for projects and scientific prizes
- The new Hearing Institute, the first interdisciplinary hearing research center, bringing together the best scientific and medical teams worldwide to advance research and offer new solutions.
Situated in the heart of Paris, this strategic Fondation Pour l’Audition project will open its doors in 2019. Directed by Professor Christine Petit, the Hearing Institute will be coupled with a clinical audiology research unit.
Working closely with Necker-Enfants Malades and Pitié-Salpêtrière hospitals, this premier fundamental research center is designed as an accelerator for translational research and clinical practice, uniting international talents to more quickly offer innovative solutions for all.
This pioneering and forward-looking multidisciplinary project will involve doctors, researchers, innovation stakeholders, manufacturers, associations and patients working together to speed up progress and ensure that hearing loss is no longer inevitable.
Fondation Pour l’Audition has committed to an ambitious program to combine research, healthcare and prevention campaigns. Among the action taken to improve hearing health, Fondation Pour l’Audition awards three annual scientific prizes to encourage young French talents and honor scientific breakthroughs in France and worldwide.
The Fondation Pour l’Audition Early Career Scientific Prize: every year, two French researchers receive this award in recognition of the excellence of their work and its impact on the hearing sciences in two categories (clinical research and fundamental research).
The Fondation Pour l’Audition Scientific Grand Prize: this award is designed to honor the work of a scientist or doctor having made a major breakthrough in hearing health, offering new prospects for all. Since these breakthroughs go beyond borders, Fondation Pour l’Audition aims to support French or international experts who are accelerating hearing research.
There are several ways to support Fondation Pour l’Audition. First, you can make a donation to support the Foundation’s research programs or initiatives to help people with hearing loss, through our “Donations” or “Sponsorship” pages.
Since the Foundation is working to raise awareness of the risks of hearing loss, you can also contribute by writing an article on a hearing-related topic for our blog or by sharing our news on your social networks.
You can make a donation online or send a check to Fondation Pour l’Audition, 13 rue Moreau, 75012 Paris, France. In both cases, you will receive a fiscal receipt.
If you pay income tax, any donations made to Fondation Pour l’Audition may entitle you to a tax credit. In France, this amounts to 66% of each donation (up to a maximum of 20% of your taxable income). Similarly, French companies may deduct 60% of their donations from corporate tax (up to a maximum of 0.5% of their revenues). People who pay real-estate wealth tax in France may deduct up to 75% of the donations made (up to an annual maximum of €50,000).
As a public-interest organization, Fondation Pour l’Audition is able to receive legacies. To leave a legacy, please send an email or call +33 1 55 78 20 10.
Sponsoring Fondation Pour l’Audition means supporting excellence in hearing health research and the launch of innovative initiatives to help people impacted by hearing loss.
You can sponsor the Foundation in several ways: funds, skills sponsorship or in-kind support. Fondation Pour l’Audition can suggest different ways for your organization to help further the major cause that is hearing health. For more information, please contact the Foundation.
Please consult the “Partners” page to see all the list of Fondation Pour l’Audition’s partners.
Please consult our recruitment page to respond to job offers or send a speculative application.
To suggest an article or a testimonial for the Fondation Pour l’Audition blog, please consult the “Testimonial” page.
To contact Fondation Pour l’Audition, please use the contact form or send an email