France's €5 billion "Operation Campus" Picks First Six Winners. (June 6, 2008)

French President Nicolas Sarkozy's campaign promise to raise a number of his nation's universities to elite status is coming to fruition but at the expense of France's traditionally egalitarian funding system, evoking not unexpected criticism from some quarters.

Alain Trautmann, the founder of Sauvons la Recherche, a researchers' movement, told Science that what is really needed is a "Marshall Plan" to "spruce up all campuses across the country".

Most of the €5 (A$8.1) billion that the Sarkozy government has earmarked for its "Operation Campus" was derived from the sale of shares in the state's electricity company, EDF.

An eight-member panel has now selected six university clusters to receive up to €500 (A$811) million each for much needed upgrading and additions to infrastructure and has asked seven others to rework their proposals and compete for the four remaining grants.

The government's stated its overall objective is to elevate the selected groups into first rank research universities comparable to the world's best.

According to the report in this week's Science: "Each of the six winning proposals comes from collections of universities and other schools in individual cities  -- Toulouse, Grenoble, Strasbourg, Montpellier, Lyon, and Bordeaux -- that have agreed to merge or at least strike up tight collaborations that will increase their clout and attractiveness. 'We have never received amounts like this before,' says Alain Beretz, president of the University Louis Pasteur in Strasbourg, one of the winners."

Finally, at least one cluster from the Paris region is expected to gain one of the remaining four grants.