Faced with the global health crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, public research has been mobilized, all over the world, to try to understand the origins of the virus, to learn how to detect it, to think about possible treatments and measures sanitary facilities to be set up… In France, from 1er January 2020 to 1er March 2021, 530 million euros were allocated to public research as part of the fight against Covid-19, according to the audit by the Court of Auditors, the results of which were made public Thursday, July 29. It is three times less than in Germany or England.
“This effort [français] is less, in absolute as well as relatively, than that granted by other European countries with comparable means and scientific background “, notes the Court of Auditors in its audit. Germany and the UK have invested € 1.5 billion and € 1.3 billion, respectively, in public research to fight the pandemic. The difference in funding explains, in part, the French delay in the field of research against the coronavirus, the most glaring example of which remains the lack of design of a vaccine.
In addition, France faces systemic difficulties, according to the Court of Auditors. “Unlike other countries with a strong scientific tradition in biomedical matters, the overall strategy, steering and structuring have been insufficient”, she notes. Many actors invest in the field of public research – ministries, European Union, funding agencies, private companies -, and funding is found scattered in a “Considerable number of calls for projects” launched by multiple organizations, from research establishments to universities, including university hospital centers (CHUs). “Funding has proven to be too dispersed to respond to the challenges of the crisis, particularly in terms of vaccine research, specifies the report. The lack of organization accentuated their scattering. ”
Priority to fundamental research
However, the Court of Auditors underlines the responsiveness and collaborative work observed on certain sites, in Lyon for example, where “A plurality of actors participated in a coordinated manner in the same research operations: university, CHU, COMUE [Communauté d’universités et établissements], region, competitiveness cluster and foundation, which seems to be the guarantee of greater efficiency ”. It therefore recommends the establishment of financial support “As close as possible to the field”, and bringing together the various public research operators such as research organizations, universities and teaching hospitals.
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