Newly Elected President of France, Nicolas Sarkozy, and the Potential for French Science. (May 7, 2007)

    On the 19^th of April the journal Nature published an editorial and a series of interviews regarding the views on science policy of the then three leading candidates vying for the French presidency. As it has turned out, Nicolas Sarkozy has emerged triumphant, so that as of May 7, 2007 his views are the only ones of concern.

In its editorial Nature makes the somewhat disheartening point that "Sarkozy perhaps articulates the need for reform most clearly. He proposes the transformation of the research agencies — whose labs currently perform the majority of French research — into research councils that would fund labs within a powerful and autonomous university system. [But a]ppealing as that sounds, it is essentially the same reform programme that Chirac and successive conservative governments supported but failed to implement. Many of Sarkozy's science advisers are familiar from earlier administrations. The campaign rhetoric of every conservative government over the past quarter-century has been to declare research a 'national priority', only to change its tune once elected. Chirac, for example, promised in 2002 that the "commitment to research must be historic", only to make harsh cuts that provoked historic street demonstrations."

Nature's Declan Butler submitted a list of questions on research issues to the leading candidates.

Some excerpts of what M. Sarkozy replied:

It's true that we've had various warning signs over the past few years that the relative position of French science in the world is being eroded. France nonetheless maintains

AP Photo/Laurent Rebours

 expertise of the highest international level in many disciplines, in particular in mathematics, physics and engineering.

 

Research and higher education will be at the forefront of my priorities. Although this will be realized in the shape of more resources — €4 billion [US$5.4 billion] extra for research, and  €5 billion for higher education — it will also involve deep reforms in the way the system works. Reform without resources would be as fruitless as resources without reform.

 

I want to favour powerful and autonomous universities, which will be reinstated at the core of our research effort, and to reinforce a culture of scientific evaluation by promoting competitive grants.

 

Research students will come into their own when French universities finally have available the finances and the autonomy they need to be centres of excellence — something that is already the case for courses in law, medicine and economics.

 

Research needs to play a bigger role at the Grandes Ecoles (higher education establishments outside the mainstream framework of the public universities. They are generally focused on a single subject area, such as engineering, business or administration), and the best university students should be able to switch to those courses. [And then follows the noteworthy comment] Universities could benefit from the Grandes Ecoles' business know-how, and the access their students enjoy to highly responsible jobs. I want PhD students to be able to access opportunities beyond the areas of research and education.

 

As of the day after the elections, I will be ready to launch a major reform of French universities designed to give them much more autonomy. This will include powers to recruit, to fix salaries, to decide how they organize themselves, to build endowments and to diversify their funding sources. I will also rebuild the way that they are governed, restructuring their executive boards and the ways they choose their presidents.

 

[And as regards innovation] everywhere in the world, from emerging economies to developed and ostensibly free-market countries, the state intervenes to encourage innovation, and to build and reinforce the industrial and technological sectors of the future.

 

[As to nuclear power's current 75% share of French electricity generation] The nuclear sector is of absolute strategic importance... we have committed to a series of third-generation reactors, the EPR, and a research programme into fourth-generation reactors.

The Journal Science reports he "has also suggested turning the big research institutions, such as the National Center for Scientific Research [CNRS], into U.S.-style granting agencies that would reward proposals rather than employ scientists."

Sauvons la Recherche (SLR) president, Bertrand Monthubert, told Science that Sarkozy seems set to rush his higher education plans through Parliament without proper consultation by the scientific community, "What works in Britain or the U.S. doesn't necessarily work in France."

On the other hand Jean-Robert Pitte, president of the University of Paris-Sorbonne says, "For me, [Sarkozy's election] is a great hope," and feels that the reforms should also include the right for universities to raise tuition fees and to select the best students rather than admitting everyone who qualifies, and added,  "I hope the government will be courageous and hard."

But the voice of French cynicism has also been raised, Science's Martin Enserink writes, "Bernard Bobe, an economist at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Chimie in Paris, is not convinced that drastic changes in the research and education system will be a high priority for Sarkozy, who has announced ambitious plans on a range of other issues. France's science system has proven extremely resistant to reform, Bobe notes; 'I think Sarkozy has the courage, but I'm not sure he has the ambition' to succeed where others failed."

Certainly there are strong signs that President Sarkozy intends to reduce the proportion of public funding for the universities in what he's saying. How will this wash up and how the sector will react will be of more than passing interest.

Nature has made transcripts of the full replies in French and English translation of the three leading candidates in PDF format at  http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v446/n7138/suppinfo/446847a.html.