French Public Research Fourteen Months Later. (February 25, 2005)

    Between February and April last year^{1, 2, 3} we reported on a contretemps between the French government and the French scientific community which culminated with Alain Trautmann, Leader of Save [French] Research saying "it's a great day for French Science." The activism of the scientists  led to a cabinet reshuffle which saw François Fillon, installed as minister for education, higher education and research, while  François d'Aubert, became junior minister for research. But then some six weeks ago  (January 7)⁴  TFW noted "with year's end Science reports that early signals about the plan 'are not good.'

Now comes the next chapter and the Chirac government is seeing just how few additional resources it has to allocate to public research to quell the "insurgents". Science continues to use its pages to make the international scientific community aware of events as they unfold and has turned over the editorial page of its February 25^th issue to "French Public Research -- Saved?"

The author, Jean-Michel Claverie is a Research Director at CNRS' Institut de Biologie Structurale et Microbiologie in Marseilles, France. He is the head of the newly created Structural and Genetic Information Laboratory. And just to seal his credentials in 2003 he co-authored Bioinformatics for Dummies.

For those who hadn't been following the saga Claverie gives the following thumbnail history:

    On 7 January 2004, an open letter to the French government and the launch of the petition "SAUVONS LA RECHERCHE" (Save Research) started the most powerful and spontaneous protest of scientists throughout France since the 1960s. The flash point was reached after a succession of catastrophic research budgets for 3 years in a row, exacerbated by last-minute funding freezes and the elimination of 30% of the entry-level permanent research positions. This amounted to sacrificing a whole generation of young scientists. The petition gathered 75,000 signatures among working scientists and support from more than 80% of the general public. After a series of street demonstrations in French university towns, nearly half of all French laboratory directors from the main research agencies gathered on 27 March in Paris to post their resignations. A week later, after an opposition landslide in the regional elections, President Jacques Chirac disowned the research policies of his previous government and asked the newly appointed ministers for education and research to reestablish the lost academic positions, and even added 1050 university lecturer positions. After 6 months of self-organized debates in all major scientific centres, 1000 French delegates met in Grenoble on 29 October to finalize a voluminous report meant to inspire future reforms. Top government officials and national leaders of all major political parties attended this meeting.

 But as always the devil is in the detail. Claverie points out that of the €9.27 billion (A$15.6 billion) , allocated in the 2005 budget for civilian R&D (a 10% increase) one-third is for fiscal measures to promote industrial R&D, and another one-third is dedicated to an ill-defined National Agency for Research. The upshot is that France devotes just on 0.60% of its GDP to civilian public research, still 40% short of the EU's 1% goal for 2010 and remains significantly below the level reached in 2001 (0.74%).

While there is understandable cynicism regarding the government's performance there are wider reaching concerns that remain unaddressed. For example the civil servant status of publicly employed researchers from the beginning of their signing on is tantamount to  an unbreakable tenure which coupled to a low salary scale leads to underperformance and a reduced ability to hire fresh research blood. Claverie believes that "[o]ffering more attractive (better salary, less teaching) and more numerous (but perhaps less secure) entry-level jobs will be key to retaining our most promising young scientists as well as attracting foreign-based talent."

From outward appearances the government is a bit windy of crossing swords with the public researchers again. It has now postponed the presentation of its budget proposals until June and has promised additional rounds of consultation.