Promised Reformation of French Science Gains Momentum. (December 11, 2008)

In a meeting requiring French police presence to keep protesting researchers at bay the Board of the National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) put through reforms which Nature reports will "split the agency into nine semi-autonomous institutes, with a recommendation for a tenth in computing".

In addition the journal reports that the newspaper Libération has revealed a draft proposal for the reform of the French life sciences which recommends the formation within two years of an overarching research council — the National Institute of Life Sciences — to coordinate policy at the national biomedical agency INSERM, the health-related life sciences within the CNRS and other research agencies as appropriate.

Then in reference to the recent recommendation made by an invited foreign panel led by Elias Zerhouni, former head of the US National Institutes of Health "the report also suggests regrouping all life sciences within a single research agency".