“France’s dropout in terms of innovation has largely contributed to its loss of competitiveness”

Lhe pandemic has played a role in revealing the weaknesses and shortcomings of capitalism in different countries. In France, it has highlighted, among other things, a research and development (R&D) ecosystem that has become unsuitable. Our stall in terms of innovation has largely contributed to our loss of competitiveness, with chronic deficits in our trade balance and market share losses for twenty years.

In fact, France, considered the 7^e world power in terms of its gross domestic product (GDP), only ranks 13^e place with regard to the share allocated to gross domestic expenditure on R&D: it is outstripped in particular by South Korea (4.8%), the United States (3.4%) and Japan (3.3%) . Within the European Union, it is overtaken by the Scandinavian countries, led by Sweden, and by its German neighbor (3.1%).

France suffers from two main pitfalls: the low level of funding allocated to researchers and the low level of their remuneration. State-funded R&D expenditure is comparable in the United States and France (0.7% of GDP), and slightly higher in Germany (0.9%). But what makes the United States strong is all the other funding allocated to basic research by public agencies (National Science Foundation, National Institute of Health, NASA, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, etc.) and sponsorship institutions. . The three largest of these institutions had a budget of 78 billion euros for research in 2022, compared to 11 billion in France for all the major research operators. Finally, according to the Economic Research Institute, a university professor would earn 45% more than the average salary in France, against 63% in Germany and 77% in the United States. This results in less attractiveness of research professions and a brain drain.

As for private R&D, the proportion of companies carrying out R&D is low in France: there are only 25,000 out of more than 4 million companies. Over the last twenty years, the weight of French groups has fallen by a third in the world ranking of the largest private investors in R&D. Among the top 20, there are 10 American companies, 4 German and… none French. This decline is mainly due to the absence of new French innovators; France is thus depriving itself of new “disruptive” companies, those which are the most dynamic in terms of employment and growth.

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