diff --git a/shared/views/autocomplete.py b/shared/views/autocomplete.py
index 708fe554..095dc3f8 100644
--- a/shared/views/autocomplete.py
+++ b/shared/views/autocomplete.py
@@ -1,20 +1,13 @@
-from typing import Generic, Iterable, Type, TypeVar
-
-from dal import autocomplete  # type: ignore
-from django.db.models import Model, Q
-
-M = TypeVar("M", bound=Model)
+from dal import autocomplete
+from django.db.models import Q
 
 
-class ModelSearch(Generic[M]):
+class ModelSearch:
     """Basic search engine for models based on filtering.
 
-    As the type hints indicate, the class is generic with respect to the model. This
-    means that the ``search`` method only returns instances of the model specified as
-    the ``model`` class attribute in subclasses.
-
-    The ``search_fields`` attributes indicates which fields to search in during the
-    search.
+    The class should be configured through its ``model`` class attribute: the ``search``
+    method will return a queryset of instances of this model. The ``search_fields``
+    attributes indicates which fields to search in.
 
     Example:
 
@@ -28,12 +21,10 @@ class ModelSearch(Generic[M]):
     >>> user_search.search(["toto", "foo"])  # returns a queryset of Users
     """
 
-    # This says that `model` is the class corresponding to the type variable M (or a
-    # subclass).
-    model: Type[M]
-    search_fields: Iterable[str]
+    model = None
+    search_fields = []
 
-    def get_queryset_filter(self, keywords: Iterable[str]) -> Q:
+    def get_queryset_filter(self, keywords):
         filter_q = Q()
 
         if not keywords:
@@ -47,7 +38,7 @@ class ModelSearch(Generic[M]):
 
         return filter_q
 
-    def search(self, keywords: Iterable[str]) -> Iterable[M]:
+    def search(self, keywords):
         """Returns the queryset of model instances matching all the keywords.
 
         The semantic of the search is the following: a model instance appears in the