Tribune. Everyone agrees that research is a priority, a source of development for a nation like ours. However, it must be admitted that France is steadily declining in the international hierarchy in many disciplines, both in fundamental research and in finalized research. This decline has worsened over the past fifteen years, partly for lack of sufficient state support, despite publicity effects, but also due to inappropriate choices in the organization of research. .
The health crisis triggered by the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus has highlighted the weaknesses of health research and innovation in France. The country of Pasteur remained behind in the race for the development of a vaccine at the same time when RNA vaccines, after fifteen years of research, were brilliantly demonstrating their effectiveness.
To remedy the difficulties of French research and stop its decline, the following seven actions are urgently needed:
– Bring the funding of research in France to the level of the large countries which choose science. Funding in France for research and development is only 2.21% of GDP (with a total of 50.6 billion euros), below that of Germany (3.04%) and the United States (2.79%). Between 2011 and 2018, loans to the health sector alone decreased by 28% in France, while they increased by 11% in Germany and 16% in Great Britain. The recent vote on the research programming law is a first, somewhat slow step towards a research budget of 3% of GDP.
– Enhance the importance of science to the political class. At the highest levels, those of government and senior civil service, almost the entire political class is formed by a single school, the National School of Administration, where the teaching of science and technology is practically non-existent. . Very often, people with scientific training are relegated to so-called “technical” positions. In the current government, the hierarchy places the Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation at 14e rank out of 16 in protocol order, which says a lot about the lack of interest in science.
The demobilizing weight of the administration
– Rethink the governance of major research organizations and universities. At the CNRS, two drifts have emerged: the sharp reduction in investment and operating credits (nearly 85% of the State’s endowment is consumed by the wage bill) and a lower visibility of the exact and natural sciences.
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