France's Stimulus Plans for Research Begin to Take Shape. (November 21, 2009)

 If the recommendations of a panel chaired by two former French prime ministers -- Alain Juppé (L.) and Michel Rocard -- are implemented by President Nicolas Sarkozy's government, French science will get the most extreme makeover it has ever experienced.

 The 128 page report  was delivered to Mr Sarkozy on Thursday with the recommendation that €35 billion be invested "in the future" of which €22 billion should be borrowed on the financial markets, the reason why the plan has been nicknamed the Big Loan.

The French President is to announce his government's reply to the recommendations sometime early next month; he may change the size and/or the recommendations per se of the plan but he has previously indicated that the stimulus should be between €25 billion and €50 billion to revitalise French research, higher education, innovation, and technology. The plan would also give the 5-year-old National Research Agency (ANR), whose €800 million budget has been flat for several years, considerably more clout.

The principal recommendations of INVESTIR POUR L’AVENIR: Priorités stratégiques d’investissement et emprunt national (INVESTING FOR THE FUTURE: strategic investment priorities and the national debt:):

              Note: 1€ = A$1.63

•  €10 billion for the consolidation of top research and higher education centres in 5 to 10 world-class campuses—a proposal echoing the governments' Campus Plan, which has by no means struck universal approval in France's higher education and research sectors.

• €2 billion, to be distributed by ANR on a project basis, for science, innovation in higher education, and grants to bring top French talent abroad back home,

• €3.5 billion, also through ANR, for the creation of three to five world-class "innovation campuses" and other means to turn research into marketable products and services,

• €0.5 billion for making science careers more attractive to young people—especially girls—and to create a "positive attitude towards science" among the public,

• €1 billion for research on biofuels and another €1 billion to support high-quality biomedical research,

• €2.5 billion for developing clean new energy technology and another €1 billion for "nuclear technologies of tomorrow,"

• €1 billion for "cars of the future," €2.5 billion on aeronautic and space technology, and €4 billion for new information and communication technologies.