University head hits out at elimination of regional institutions from flagship French scheme

The results from the first round of a major French government funding call for research programmes in the humanities and social sciences show that assessors are biased in favour of big academic institutions in Paris, the president of Paul Valéry University in Montpellier has claimed.

Paul Valéry University was a member of two of the 21 consortia whose bids were knocked back by the preselection panel for the competition. Seventeen bids have been invited to submit full proposals to the €100 million scheme, with a deadline of 1 October.

Speaking to the news agency AEF Info, Paul Valéry president Anne Fraïsse said that six of France’s eight specialist humanities and social sciences institutions had been eliminated from the competition in the first round, and the two that remained in the running were both based in Paris. Fraïsse said that this revealed a “marked Parisianism” on the part of the preselection panel.

She said: “The results are surprising and reveal bias that is all the more worrying because it is denied by the [research] ministry.”

‘Unscientific approach’

Fraïsse also expressed dismay that the preselection panel was composed of ministry and government officials, with input from scientific experts only “where appropriate”. She said that her university was part of a consortium led by the University of Toulouse Jean-Jaurès that was told it was “too Occitan”—a reference to the region including both Toulouse and Montpellier. Fraïsse said that this was not a legitimate scientific criticism.

In addition to the rejection of bids involving the six regional specialist universities, Fraïsse estimates that 10 of the 17 preselected projects were led by France’s larger institutions, most of which were created as a result of mergers in recent years.

This will “further increase [funding] injustices between universities, which already seem so difficult to overcome”, Fraïsse said.

Earlier criticisms

The scheme is for themed research programmes of a minimum value of €5m. It is overseen by the ANR, France’s national funder.

The scheme was criticised shortly after its launch in March by the science campaign group Qualité de la Science Française for two reasons. First, for its deadline: applicants had barely two months to put bids together, and much of this time would be taken up in managing the bureaucratic arrangements of consortia, QSF said.

Second, QSF berated the imposition of research themes for the call. That so much funding was tied to themes would “restrict the creativity of academics and researchers and curtail their academic freedom”, the group said.

Research Professional News has approached both the Ministry of Higher Education and Research and the ANR for a response to Fraïsse’s comments.

Update (25 July): the ANR has told Research Professional News that it does not comment on the decisions of its selection panels.

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This week: PSL University appoints president, researchers win parliamentary seats and a neuroscience unit opens

In depth: Antoine Petit, the president of the CNRS, has urged the EU to incorporate the view in its next research and innovation programme that “fundamental research must not only be ‘curiosity-driven’ but also ‘goal-oriented’”.

Full story: French agency head wants ‘goal-oriented’ basic research in FP10

Also this week from Research Professional News

€100m social science scheme accused of ‘Parisian bias’—University head hits out at elimination of regional institutions from flagship scheme

Here is the rest of the French news this week…

PSL University appoints interim president

The economist El Mouhoub Mouhoud has been appointed interim president of PSL University following the unexpected resignation of Alain Fuchs. Mouhoud, who is president of Paris Dauphine University, part of the PSL grouping, has been appointed to a six-month term following a unanimous vote of the university board. Fuchs’s sudden resignation on 26 June, while he still had eight months of his mandate to run, was followed by the news that he was being investigated by the government’s education, sport and research inspectorate following undisclosed allegations. Mouhoud told the news agency AEF Info that he would pursue a collective mode of governance during his time in charge.

Six researchers become MPs

At least six academics were elected for the first time to the National Assembly on 7 July, according to the newspaper Libération. By the newspaper’s calculation, this brings the number of researchers in the chamber to 17 (out of 577 seats in total). The six academics identified are all on the left of the political spectrum and come from humanities and social sciences backgrounds. Claire Lejeune, a doctoral student in political ecology and now MP for the France Unbowed party, told Libération that she felt a duty to defend academic freedom, which she said was under threat from the rise of the French far right.

Boost for neuroscience research

A specialist research unit in cerebrovascular health has been opened in Bordeaux. The Vascular Brain Health Institute involves six main partner institutions including the University of Bordeaux, the national medical research agency Inserm and the digital research agency Inria. Work at the VBHI will seek to address four challenges: early diagnosis to detect and prevent vascular breakage; development of new therapeutic approaches; research on health disparities; and improved training in public health, data science and neuroscience.

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And further extension of association status should be encouraged, says CNRS president Antoine Petit

The president of the CNRS, France’s multidisciplinary research agency, has urged the EU to incorporate the view in its next research and innovation programme that “fundamental research must not only be ‘curiosity-driven’ but also ‘goal-oriented’”.

Antoine Petit said that the CNRS’s experience of working in collaboration with companies of all sizes “contradicts the idea that the needs of companies are limited to innovation issues at an advanced stage of development. Companies also need fundamental research and cooperation with academic players to anticipate and prepare for tomorrow’s innovations.”

Petit’s remarks were published by the CNRS on 17 July as a follow-up to the agency’s position paper, published earlier this month, on Framework Programme 10, which is due to succeed the EU’s current Horizon Europe R&I programme in 2028.

In that paper, the CNRS suggested a raft of changes in FP10 to strengthen the pipeline from fundamental research to societal impact.

International expansion

In his follow-up statement, which was presented as a Q&A, Petit addressed the growth in the number of non-EU countries associating with Horizon Europe, which could “raise questions, particularly on issues of equity in funding, strategic orientations or sovereignty”, according to the lead-in question.

In response, Petit stressed that cooperation was the lifeblood of research and he welcomed the association of new non-EU countries with FP10. He said that extension of association status should always be in accordance with the EU’s principles, including commitments to academic freedom, gender equality and open science.

He noted the efforts of the Widera work programme to support countries whose R&I performance lags behind the average, saying: “The CNRS robustly supports the strengthening of collaboration with less developed European countries, while urging scientific excellence never to be compromised.”

Elsewhere in the statement, Petit admitted that the CNRS’s call to more than double the funding for FP10 relative to Horizon Europe, by raising it to €200 billion, was “ambitious”. But he also said: “If Europe wants to count on the international scene, it must invest at least as much as its competitors.” Horizon Europe has a budget of about €93.5bn for 2021-27.

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This week: Election fallout, and the CNRS’s clean-energy partnership with former petrol institute

In depth: The French government has announced the six universities that will share €10.5 million to lead projects aimed at improving accessibility for students with disabilities.

Full story: France selects six universities to lead on disability access

Also this week from Research Professional News

Government rebukes union over lecturer application complaints—Union claims of a lack of consultation are unfounded, French government says

Here is the rest of the French news this week…

Caretaker government takes charge

The government led by prime minister Gabriel Attal, which included Sylvie Retailleau as minister for higher education and research, will stay on in a caretaker role until a new government is formed, following the second round of elections to the National Assembly on 7 July. Attal and his cabinet resigned on 16 July but were reappointed in a caretaker capacity. This means they cannot introduce new laws but will follow through on measures already agreed and will manage any emergencies that arise. The New Popular Front of left-wing parties won the most seats in the assembly but fell 111 short of a majority. Talks between parties to produce a coalition government have so far yielded no agreement and the New Popular Front appears to be fracturing, making a resolution look less likely.

CNRS inks deal with former petroleum institute

France’s multidisciplinary research agency has signed a deal to continue its joint research programmes with the private-public energy research institute Ifpen for a further five years. According to a statement from the CNRS, the agreement will focus on projects in renewable energy, particularly offshore wind, biomass, geothermal and hydrogen. Among other activities, the CNRS and Ifpen are co-leaders of the government’s industry-decarbonisation research programme, called Spleen. Ifpen was formerly known as the French Institute of Petroleum, and exists today as a public-interest organisation that receives half of its funding from the government and half from oil, gas and energy companies.

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Union’s claims of lack of consultation on new system are unfounded, French government says

The French research ministry has hit back at claims by the country’s main union for education staff that the implementation of a new application system for accreditations was taken without consultation and gives insufficient time to applicants.

In a statement on 12 July, the FSU sharply criticised what it called the “completely top-down decision, taken without consultation” to implement the Odyssey application system for academics seeking accreditation as lecturers.

Consultation allegations

The FSU said the relevant sections of the National Universities Council (CNU), on which university staff are represented, and universities themselves were informed by the ministry of the timetable for implementation of the new online Odyssey application system on 9 July.

It said the application window had been set between 15 October and 22 November for accreditations to take up positions in 2025. As the Odyssey system introduces a single-step application process, the application window had been shortened by as much as two months compared with previous years, the union said.

It said that such a timetable “does not take into account the reality of final thesis preparation by doctoral students and supervisors or of the necessary organisation for the defence of their theses”. Doctoral schools are not ready for such changes in their itineraries, the union added.

The FSU said the news would come as a “hefty blow for the many doctoral students—and lecturer candidates—whose defence of their PhDs is planned after 22 November”. Accordingly, the FSU called for the government to alter its timetable.

Ministry pushback

However, a spokesperson for the ministry told Research Professional News that the government had acted in accordance with protocol in implementing the changes.

They said: “Like every year, the calendar of human resources management operations, including the qualifications procedure for lecturer positions, was the subject of consultation during the first semester of 2024…between the human resources department of the higher education and research ministry, France Universités [the association of university leaders] and the permanent commission of sections of the CNU.”

The spokesperson also said the ministry extended the application deadline on the same day that FSU published its statement, which the union had not taken into account. The deadline was moved back to 6 December for candidates defending their PhD theses on or before 22 November, and to 17 January 2025 for those doing so between 23 November and 10 January 2025.

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Projects will pioneer and demonstrate inclusive best practice, government says

The French government has named the six universities that will share €10.5 million to lead projects aimed at improving accessibility for students with disabilities.

The funding scheme was announced in April 2023 in recognition of the fact that between 2017 and 2023 the number of students in French universities needing support for a disability had doubled.

The government said that it wanted the winning institutions to become “demonstrators of the best inclusive practices, with the tools to train in inclusive educational methods”.

Twenty-seven universities applied to the call. Each of the six winners will receive between €1.3m and €2m from the government, while adding their own funding, of up to €17.5m in total over three years, to the projects.

National impact

The winning universities are spread across France, although with more of a concentration towards the north of the country and with no winners on the Mediterranean coast. They are the University of Pau and the Pays de l’Adour, the University of Angers, Jean Moulin Lyon 3 University, the University of Western Brittany, the University of Lorraine, and Sorbonne Nouvelle University in Paris.

Several of the projects aim to have regional or national impacts. For example, the University of Angers has planned a campaign to communicate best practice across the country, and the Sorbonne Nouvelle University has said it will share the educational resources and expertise it develops with other establishments. 

Several projects also focus on the provision of support for integration into professional life at the end of courses. 

This funding call was informed by the government’s National Advisory Committee for People with Disabilities, and several members of the committee sat on the assessment panel.

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This week: union hails election result, next ANR president and three medal winners announced

In depth: The CNRS, France’s multidisciplinary research agency, has suggested a raft of changes to the three main pillars of the EU’s next research and innovation programme, which it says will strengthen the pipeline from fundamental research to societal impact.

Full story: CNRS pushes for pillar refurbishments in FP10

Also this week from Research Professional News

France chooses final projects for science and society network—Fourteen regional initiatives to share €10.3 million

Union hails election result

The FSU, the main union for education staff in France, has said its members are “hugely pleased” by the failure of the far-right National Rally party to win an outright majority in the second round of elections for the National Assembly on 7 July. The union had joined calls from across the higher education and research sector urging people not to vote for the party, which won 29 per cent of votes in the first round, securing 37 seats in the 577-seat assembly outright. A pact between the left-wing New Popular Front coalition and the centrist Together grouping meant that National Rally won 32 per cent of the vote share in the second round and picked up 88 extra seats, well short of a majority. The left New Popular Front is now the largest bloc in the National Assembly with 178 seats, but still 111 short of a majority. The result has plunged France into political limbo, with negotiations between various parties expected to continue for weeks in search of a viable majority.

Next ANR president announced

Claire Giry will take over from Thierry Damerval as president of the national funder, the ANR, in September. Giry is well known to researchers as she is the director-general for research and innovation at the ministry of higher education and research. Prior to her current role she was deputy director-general of Inserm, the medical research agency. She has a PhD in molecular and cellular biology but spent the majority of her career working in the civil service. Damerval had been head of the ANR since December 2017.

Innovative scientists honoured

The chemist Cyril Aymonier, the nanoscale physicist Lydéric Bocquet and quantum physicist Eleni Diamanti have been announced as the 2024 winners of the CNRS innovation medal, awarded annually to scientists based in France whose research “has led to remarkable technological, economic, therapeutic and social innovations”. All three winners work for the CNRS and will receive their awards in December.

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Fourteen regional initiatives to share €10.3 million

The French government has awarded the final tranche of funding to projects aiming to bring science, and scientists, into closer dialogue with the public and civil society.

The 14 projects awarded in the third and final round of the ‘science with and for society’ scheme will complete a national network of public engagement projects and share funding of €10.3 million over three years.

They were selected to ensure the inclusion of geographical areas not covered by the 20 projects awarded in the first two rounds, the government said. They include four projects in French overseas territories, as well as several initiatives in coastal regions of mainland France. In total, the 34 projects will receive a combined €23.8m.

Big winners

Two of the projects will be supported with more than €1m each. The Teepee project, led by the University of Tours and involving the University of Orléans, which was awarded €1.2m, will focus on links between art and science, and will also run initiatives looking at the ethics of research participation.

Aix-Marseille University was awarded €1m to build on its ongoing programme, the government said, “to support citizens in understanding the world around them thanks to an ever more open, accessible, interdisciplinary and participatory scientific approach”.

Public dialogue

The ‘science with and for society’ scheme was one of a handful of initiatives to improve links between science and society launched by the government in April 2021, as part of the multi-year LPR research programming law that came into force in December 2020.

Other measures included the ringfencing of 1 per cent of the budget of the national funder, the ANR, for such projects and a further competitive funding call, ‘excellence in all its forms’, focusing on research with a direct economic or social impact.

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French research agency aims for greater integration of fundamental research and innovation

The CNRS, France’s multidisciplinary research agency, has suggested a raft of changes to the EU’s next research and innovation programme to strengthen the pipeline from fundamental research to societal impact.

Its recommendations include modifications to the three main pillars of the programme, which is due to start in 2028 and is currently referred to as Framework Programme 10. It will follow the current programme, Horizon Europe.

In its position paper, published on 8 July, the CNRS says that “the continuum linking fundamental research and innovation should underlie the design of FP10”, and it encourages a stronger focus on global challenges.

Among the measures it proposes, the CNRS urges the EU “to pull out all the stops to build critical European masses around highly strategic topics (artificial intelligence, quantum technologies, new materials…) by creating and supporting over the next decade dedicated distributed or single-sited centres”.

Nonetheless, the CNRS stresses that excellence should be kept as the main criterion for funding, both for individual and collaborative actions, across FP10.

Shifting pillars

If followed, the CNRS recommendations would see the focus of pillar 1 shift from ‘excellent science’ to ‘excellent and innovative scientific research’, with greater support for collaborative research at technology-readiness levels 0 to 4. Low TRLs on a scale from 0 to 9 indicate that a project focuses on basic research, whereas higher ones indicate increasing readiness for commercialisation.

Pillar 2, meanwhile, would shift focus from ‘global challenges and European industrial competitiveness’ to ‘global challenges and European transformation’, supporting research at TRLs 1 to 6. Pillar 2 should include more support for “target-driven basic research” at low TRLs, the CNRS says.

The agency also recommends that some calls from successive annual work programmes of each cluster of Pillar 2 could “make it possible to fund long-term projects over the entire duration of the programme in which the consortia could evolve [via] a go/no-go assessment process”.

Pillar 3, currently under the heading ‘innovative Europe’, should be “entirely dedicated to ‘innovation and industrial competitiveness’”, but nonetheless should have calls on TRLs between 0 to 8 “to ensure the continuum between basic research and market-oriented projects”, the CNRS says.

It suggests a budget breakdown between the three pillars of 40 per cent, 40 per cent and 20 per cent for pillars 1, 2 and 3 respectively.

Sustainability concerns

Acknowledging the growing existential threat of the climate and ecological crises, the CNRS “strongly encourages [FP10] to support projects developed within a sustainable approach minimising their environmental impact”.

It says that a “buy less and buy better” approach should be adopted for cost eligibility rules under FP10. This could work, the CNRS adds, “by establishing an eco-bonus which would promote maintenance and repair of purchased equipment and the use of second-hand equipment”.

Elsewhere in the recommendations, the CNRS proposes boosting support to collaborative projects between young researchers through the European Research Council, with up to eight partners allowed on projects, all “funded by a substantial budget”.

The CNRS reiterates its support of the call to more than double the funding for FP10 relative to Horizon Europe, by raising it to €200 billion. Horizon Europe has a budget of about €93.5bn for 2021-27.

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This week: an Inria partnership deal and new members for the Udice university group

In depth: University leaders, researchers’ unions and senior academics from diverse disciplines have intensified their calls to voters to block the far-right National Rally party from a historic victory in the second round of legislative elections taking place in France on 7 July.

Full story: French research unites against National Rally

Also this week from Research Professional News

Jump in French PhD awards—But official figures also show decline in enrolment on international doctoral programmes

Here is the rest of the French news this week…

Udice admits three new members

The Udice group of French research universities has admitted three new members in its first expansion since its founding in 2020. The admission of the University of Lorraine, the University of Montpellier and the Polytechnic Institute of Paris, which is based on the Paris-Saclay campus, means the group now has 13 members. Udice said that the new members’ admission was unanimously accepted by the 10 founding members and would help the group fulfil its goal “to promote higher education and research establishments at the national, European and international level in all of their missions”.

Inria inks deal with engineering schools

Inria, the national agency for digital research, has signed a partnership deal with the Institut Mines-Télécom, a group of engineering and management schools. The deal builds on years of collaboration between the two entities and will focus on three key areas: digital networks; developing a joint approach to public policy, innovation and economic development; and support for startups in areas of economic and social challenges. Both institutions report to the Ministry of Economics, Finance and Industrial and Digital Sovereignty.

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But official figures also show decline in enrolment on international doctoral programmes

The number of people obtaining a PhD in France jumped by 9.6 per cent in 2023, according to official figures.

A report from the research ministry’s statistics office Sies noted that 15,187 people were awarded PhDs in 2023, compared with 13,852 in 2022, 13,588 in 2021 and 11,806 in 2020.

However, it said that the rise could be partially attributed to a “catch-up effect” after the Covid-19 pandemic.

Contrasting trends

The rise in doctoral awards over the past four years contrasts with the previous decade’s trend. Between 2012 and 2020, the report notes, the number of PhD awardees decreased by an average of 2.8 per cent each year.

It also contrasts with the decades-long decline in the number of students enrolling in doctoral studies, which is ongoing. Official figures show a year-on-year drop of 4 per cent in doctoral enrolments for the 2022-23 academic year.

Sies noted that the Covid-19 pandemic continued to effectively extend the duration of doctoral studies but that this effect was less pronounced in the 2023 cohort than for those obtaining their PhDs the previous year. For example, the proportion of doctoral awardees completing their studies in less than 40 months was 38 per cent in 2023, compared with 34 per cent in 2022 and 43 per cent in 2019.

International mobility

In its report, Sies also noted that the international mobility of PhD candidates had declined in the past year, continuing a trend that began around 12 years ago. For example, of people who started their doctoral studies in the 2022-23 academic year, only 6 per cent were enrolled on courses that involved international partners. This figure was down one percentage point on the previous year.

Sies said that the total number of doctoral students under joint international supervision had decreased by 15 per cent in 2022 versus 2021, reaching its lowest level since 2012.

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Calls from across science and academia urge voters to block ascent of far-right party

University leaders, researchers’ unions and senior academics from diverse disciplines have intensified their calls to voters to block the far-right National Rally party from a historic victory in the second round of legislative elections taking place in France on 7 July.

In a joint statement published as results from the first round of polling were still being finalised, four associations representing higher education institutions said the strong result for the National Rally in the first round on 30 June meant that the threat of a far-right government in France was now “immediate, real and unprecedented”.

Clear purpose

The four groups—France Universités, an association for university leaders; Cdefm, for management school heads; CDEFI, for engineering school presidents; and CGE, for the leaders of France’s grandes écoles—called on the threat to be confronted “with seriousness and determination”.

They said the threat went “beyond higher education and research establishments” but was nonetheless acute there. The groups singled out the EU’s academic exchange programme, Erasmus+, as being “in danger” should the National Rally come to power.

Researchers’ unions also repeated calls made in the run-up to the first round of voting to block the National Rally in the second round. The SNCS union, which represents public sector research staff, called for the establishment of a unified “republican front” that would “mobilise with absolute clarity of purpose as few far-right MPs as possible on 7 July”.

Greatest threat

In addition, senior academics and representatives of learned societies have raised their voices against the National Rally. On 1 July, a collective of more than 1,000 historians published an article in the newspaper Le Monde warning readers to “not be fooled by the rhetorical and tactical devices” they said the National Rally was using to improve its image. “This party does not represent the conservative or established right [in politics] but the greatest threat to republicanism and democracy,” the historians said. 

They said that a National Rally government would jeopardise the practice of historical research in France. The party’s educational positions, the historians said, were “entirely focused on the return to a national, and even nationalist, nostalgic and mollifying history—the antithesis of the requirements for historical research based on the critical method, nuanced inquiry and international cooperation”.

The historians also criticised the National Rally’s plans to bar dual nationals from senior public sector positions, which may include universities. This would lead to “unconscionable discrimination between several categories of French people”, they said.

CNRS appeal

The Coordination Group of Heads of the National Committee of Scientific Research (CoNRS), which oversee the work of the C3R, an independent consultative body for the CNRS, France’s largest research agency, were among the many scientific organisations expressing their opposition to the National Rally in the run-up to the first-round vote.

In its statement, CoNRS said that a National Rally government “would have disastrous consequences for French scientific research and harm its ability to respond to the major challenges of our time”. It called on the CNRS management “to take a clear position against the far-right” and also said it would work to mobilise the research community.

First-round results

The National Rally won 29 per cent of votes in the first round, with the New Popular Front, a coalition of left-wing parties, coming second with 28 per cent. The coalition centrist parties, called Together and including president Emmanuel Macron’s Renaissance party, won 20 per cent.

Constituencies that do not produce a majority winner then have a second-round run-off involving the top two candidates and any candidate who secured at least a 12.5 per cent vote share among people registered to vote.

In recent National Assembly elections only a handful of candidates were elected after the first round, but this time the National Rally won 37 seats outright and the New Popular Front 32 seats. There are 577 constituencies in total.

Both the New Popular Front and the centrist coalition have promised to stand down trailing candidates in second-round run-offs against the National Rally, but candidates in the left-wing coalition are complaining that some Together candidates are not observing this pact.

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This week: election manifestos, a neurodevelopment institute and a research programme for creatives

In depth: The next iteration of the EU’s research and innovation programme should involve “more integrated funding and greater fluidity between pillars”, an association of French university presidents has said.

Full story: Silos in EU R&I must end, say French university heads

Also this week from Research Professional News

French ocean scientists rally round ailing agency—Government funding for Ifremer is insufficient to meet demand, researchers say

Here is the rest of the French news this week…

Centrist and far-right manifestos neglect research

The election manifesto of the centrist coalition dominated by president Emmanuel Macron’s party Renaissance makes only two mentions of higher education or research, while that of the far-right National Rally makes none. The centrist manifesto’s two mentions are commitments to keep the cost of a meal in a student canteen to €1 for disadvantaged students, and “to continue to invest massively in research and technology”. Meanwhile, the Republicans, the establishment right-wing party, have not published a manifesto and are unlikely to, as they are embroiled in in-fighting after party leader Eric Ciotti’s controversial pledge to do a deal with the National Rally. The election, which is for seats in the National Assembly, the lower house of parliament, will take place over two rounds on 30 June and 7 July.

Neurodevelopment research institute opens

France’s first specialist Hospital-University Institute dedicated to learning and neurodevelopmental difficulties in children has opened. The Robert-Debré Children’s Brain Institute was opened on 20 June at the Robert-Debré Hospital in the north-east of Paris. Its partners include the ANR, the national research funder; Paris Cité University; Inserm, the national medical research agency; CEA, the national research agency for energy, defence and technology; and the Pasteur Institute.

Research programme to support creative industries launched

The government has launched a research and innovation programme intended to link researchers with actors in the French creative industries. The Iccare scheme has been allocated €25 million over six years and will oversee six main research projects. Solveig Serre, a historian and musicologist at the CNRS, France’s interdisciplinary research agency, will co-lead the programme. She said that the overarching goal was to build a national network of researchers in humanities, social sciences and computer sciences to better contribute to the cultural and creative sectors.

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Government funding for Ifremer is insufficient to meet demand, researchers say

France’s ocean research agency Ifremer is unable to fulfil its functions because its budgets are declining relative to expectations and it has a growing administrative burden, according to an open letter signed by more than 1,500 scientists.

The letter, published in the newspaper Le Monde on 24 June, said that scientists at Ifremer are increasingly having to “interrupt activities of high societal need due to lack of sustainable resources”.

The signatories, who include researchers from Ifremer, said that the agency’s diminishing capability to fulfil the demands placed on it is leading to a “flight towards the private sector, which offers better career prospects, financing and working conditions”.

This loss of expertise is further exacerbating Ifremer’s situation, the researchers said: “The French oceanographic fleet [for which Ifremer is responsible] is particularly affected, thus influencing, in a way that goes beyond Ifremer itself, the capacity of France to continue its research on the ocean.”

Rising demand

Ifremer’s difficulties come at a time when demand for its work has never been greater, the scientists said, with the climate and ecological crises both impacting ocean health. This has led to an increase in the missions allocated to the agency by the government, they added.

“Make no mistake: Ifremer does not have ‘too many missions’. It is precisely the diversity of our projects and expertise on the ocean that makes our institute strong and that allows us to respond to society’s questions. The problem is rather a lack of resources, both financial and human.”

In its most recent annual report, which covered 2022, Ifremer reported a total operating income of €276 million, up from €240m in 2021 but down from €294m in 2020. The institute, which was established 40 years ago, operates the ships of the French oceanographic fleet and has 24 stations in France and abroad.

The letter concluded by asking the public and the government for their “attention and support to give Ifremer the second wind it deserves”.

Research Professional News has asked Ifremer for comment.

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University leaders call for greater integration of training and innovation in Horizon Europe successor programme

The next iteration of the EU’s research and innovation programme should involve “more integrated funding and greater fluidity between pillars”, an association of French university presidents has said.

France Universités also recommended a greater involvement of social sciences in the programme, which is due to start in 2028, following on from the 2021-27 Horizon Europe iteration, and is currently referred to as Framework Programme 10.

Strategic support

The presidents published their response to the French government’s call for contributions on the future of the programme on 19 June. They listed 25 recommendations for FP10, many of which were concerned with joining up various elements of the programme as it is currently structured, with greater involvement from other EU programmes.

The organisation said that such integration would “better support the EU’s strategic objectives in terms of green and digital transitions, and…consolidate a socially responsible model of research and innovation”.

In keeping with this theme, France Universités’ first recommendation was for enhanced interplay between FP10 and other EU programmes, “in particular those directly linked to training or employment (for example, Erasmus+ and the European Social Fund) and with companies in need of research, innovation and skills infrastructures”.

Its second was for skills transfer and training to be integrated into the impact component of all funding proposals.

Innovation integration

The organisation also recommended ways for the European Research Council, which funds basic research, and the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions scheme for doctoral education and postdoctoral training to better integrate training and innovation elements.

For example, it suggested that students in MSCA doctoral networks “should be able to benefit from an additional year to advance the results of their research, in particular through the creation of a startup—in connection with the European Innovation Council—and given the status of ‘PhD entrepreneur’”.

France Universités also recommended greater integration of EU infrastructures, saying that research infrastructures and technological infrastructures should not be treated separately, to better support “a continuum of expertise and needs”.

Social sciences

The group devoted four of its recommendations to greater involvement of the social sciences and humanities in FP10. It said that clusters for these disciplines should be created and that they should be more closely involved in the other thematic clusters (there are six in Horizon Europe).

It recommended that social sciences and humanities researchers be involved in the assessment of funding applications across FP10, and it promoted the creation of a “space for societal evaluation and research”. This entity, France Universités said, would allow “analysis of results, prototypes [and] solutions at low technology readiness levels…identified as potentially interesting but which would benefit from a societal perspective before being pushed towards further development”.

France Universités also repeated a demand it made in May this year to double the funding for FP10 relative to Horizon Europe, which has a budget of about €93.5 billion for 2021-27.

It said the French government would submit its final proposals on FP10 to the European Commission in April 2025.

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This week: R&D dashboard update, military AI deal, environmental health projects

In depth: In a manifesto for the upcoming elections that focuses strongly on environmental initiatives, the New Popular Front (NFP) coalition of left-wing parties has pledged to push “a more ambitious” version of France’s LPR research programming law.

Full story:  Red coalition goes green for French election

Also this week from Research Professional News

France looks to grow mental health tech—Government plan proposes dedicated funding for researchers and innovators

Here is the rest of the French news this week…

France updates R&D dashboard

The French government has published the 2024 edition of its dashboard for higher education, research and innovation. Over several pages, the dashboard pulls together and presents data on spending, resources and staff in the sector. Although it is badged as the 2024 edition, most of the data uses facts and figures from 2021 and 2022 that have been finalised and approved by government statisticians. Among the top-line figures, the dashboard states that France’s total domestic spending on R&D is €57.4 billion per year, while there are just under 1.6 million students in French universities.

CEA and Thales do AI defence deal

The CEA, France’s national research agency for energy, defence and technology, has signed a deal with French IT company Thales to develop artificial intelligence applications for use in military and security settings. Under the partnership, which will initially run for three years, teams from both organisations will join together at Thales’ AI accelerator lab, Cortaix. A CEA statement said: “The common ambition [for the partnership] is to accelerate the integration of AI into the solutions offered to Thales customers, whose missions are ultra-critical.”

Environmental health projects awarded funding

The government has announced the winners of the second round of its grant scheme called Data for research and innovation in environmental health. Five winning projects have been awarded up to €115,000 each to build up data and resources on topics related to public health challenges linked to the environment. Inserm, the national medical research agency, was involved in three of the winning bids, which include a project on the links between heatwaves and hospitalisations and another on the impact of urban development on cardiovascular health.

The post France news roundup: 13-19 June appeared first on Research Professional News.

Government plan proposes dedicated funding for researchers and innovators

The French government has published a plan to boost innovation in digital mental health technology, which would give dedicated funding to the area.

The plan, which is still open to consultation, grew out of an initiative in the France 2030 Health Innovation Plan, which aims to increase activity and investment in biomedicine.

Research focus

Developed after discussions with 153 senior figures in healthcare practice, research and innovation, the proposals involve four strands of action, the first of which focuses on encouraging both fundamental and applied research.

This strand is divided into three parts. First, the plan suggests a mapping exercise to assess the needs of mental health services and patients in France. Second, it says that a French Digital Mental HealthTech Network should be created, joining together clinicians, patients, researchers and companies. The network would be given both national and international exposure, the plan says.

Finally, the government would support actors in the field financially, via both a dedicated competitive grants scheme and initiatives to encourage the growth and development of the network.

Clinical evidence

The second strand of the plan focuses on clinical evidence generation to support the use of digital tools in mental healthcare. This would involve joining up with the French digital health research programme and other dedicated mental health clinical research groups.

The third and fourth strands focus on the integration of digital mental health tools in practice and public engagement.

Due to restrictions on government communications in an election period, the plan was published with only minimal comment from the ministry of health.

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Left-wing bloc’s manifesto doubles down on environmental policy but gives scant attention to research

The New Popular Front, a coalition of left-wing parties, has pledged to push for “a more ambitious” version of France’s LPR research programming law, but it has not elaborated on how it will do this.

The NFP’s manifesto for the upcoming legislative election, the first to be published by a major contender, contains few other mentions of research or innovation policy, but it does detail several environmental initiatives that are likely to play well with researchers.

The document promises to “reinstate” the Ecophyto pesticide reduction plan. The government paused Ecophyto in February during nationwide protests by farmers, and it subsequently relaunched it in a version judged by many scientists to be much less ambitious on cuts in pesticide use. While it was paused, more than 1,000 French scientists signed open letters published in national newspapers calling on the government to fully reinstate the plan.

The only other mention for research in the coalition’s plans is a pledge to halt the merger, passed in the National Assembly in April, of the Nuclear Safety Authority and the Institute for Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety.

Higher education

There are three pledges involving universities. First, the NFP says it will abolish Parcoursup, an online application system that has introduced a degree of selection into undergraduate university admissions. Previously, any student who had passed the baccalaureate tests could subscribe to the course of their choice.

Second, it says it will subsidise meals in student restaurants so they cost €1. And third, there is a pledge to renovate campus sports facilities.

The relatively scant attention paid to higher education and research in the manifesto is perhaps surprising as the parties in the NFP, which include Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s France Unbowed party, the Socialist Party and the Ecologists, enjoy widespread support among both staff and students.

Greater attention is paid to environmental matters, with topline initiatives including a moratorium on all major roadbuilding projects, a return to debating the energy-climate law that was dropped by the government and the implementation of a climate plan aiming for carbon neutrality by 2050. In addition, the NFP promises to reverse redundancy programmes at regulatory agencies concerned with nature protection, including the French Biodiversity Agency.

Outside chance

Overall, the NFP promises a break from the pro-market policies of president Emmanuel Macron, saying it will reverse the controversial pension reforms he pushed through by decree, introduce price caps on food, energy and fuel and increase the minimum wage.

The NFP was established on 13 June, four days after Macron called a snap election for the National Assembly, the lower house of the French parliament. The election will take place over two rounds on 30 June and 7 July.

The parties and MPs involved in the NFP already had around a quarter of the seats in the National Assembly when it was dissolved, and the coalition has an outside chance of being the largest party.

However, the far-right National Rally is polling well despite widespread protests against it. The National Rally nonetheless risks being undone by tactical voting and the lack of a deal with other right-wing parties. Such a pact would mean that the right-wing vote would no longer be split in second-round run-offs involving the parties, which it has been previously.

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This week: research on light, a CNRS staff bonus and a pharma industry re-election

In depth: Nineteen French higher education unions have joined forces to urge their members to campaign and vote against the far-right National Rally in a snap election called by president Emmanuel Macron.

Full story: Researcher unions urge alliance against National Rally in election

Also this week from Research Professional News

Paris-Saclay elects president—University’s temporary administrator, Camille Galap, moves into top job

Here is the rest of the French news this week…

Research programme sees the light

The French government has launched a seven-year research programme focused on different aspects of light. The Luma programme has been allocated €40 million from the France 2030 innovation initiative and will be overseen by the CEA, the national research agency for energy, defence and technology, and the CNRS, France’s multidisciplinary research agency. The programme has three main strands: ‘smart photoscience’, investigating control of photoreactivity; ‘green photons’, aiming to produce sustainable light technologies; and ‘light for protection’, investigating applications for light technologies in health, environmental and heritage protection.

CNRS support staff awarded monthly bonus

From July, CNRS support staff will receive an extra €150 a month by way of an ongoing bonus approved by the board. More than 5,000 staff at the multidisciplinary research agency are due to receive the bonus, according to the SNCS-FSU union, which represents researchers. The union said it opposed the use of selective bonuses to remunerate staff and would continue to support salary rises for all staff. It therefore abstained when the vote for the bonuses was put to the CNRS board.

Pharma industry leader re-elected

Thierry Hulot, chief executive of the French arm of the US-headquartered multinational pharmaceutical company Merck, has been re-elected as president of Leem, a medicines industry association. Hulot, whose first term as president began in July 2022, said that in his second term he would continue to push for the simplification of financing and regulation of medicines in France. “Without economic sustainability for pharmaceutical companies, [France] will not be able to collectively achieve sovereignty in health matters,” Hulot said. 

The post France news roundup: 6-12 June appeared first on Research Professional News.

University’s temporary administrator, Camille Galap, moves into top job

Camille Galap, a senior university administrator and former professor of biology, has been appointed president of Paris-Saclay University.

Galap’s appointment brings to an end months of uncertainty, after the university board’s previous attempts to elect a leader failed to produce a favoured candidate.

Galap was appointed as provisional administrator of Paris-Saclay in March while the first three rounds of voting took place, but he stepped down at the end of May to enter the race himself.

He gained 20 votes from the 36-member board, one more than the number required. Yves Bernard, a former director of Polytech Paris-Saclay, which is part of the wider university, received 11 votes, and Souhil Megherbi, a professor of computer science, dropped out before the vote took place. There were five blank votes.

Bernard had competed against the university’s former president, Estelle Iacona, in the first rounds of the competition, but neither candidate could attract the 19 votes required for victory.

Iacona, who was president from 2022 until earlier this year, withdrew from the race at the end of May. In a letter to the board obtained by the newspaper Le Monde, Iacona said she wished “to leave the field open to a candidate who will be able to move away from debates about people and carry forward a project with untampered ambition, in continuity with the will of the communities and founders of Paris-Saclay University”.

Staff concerns

Galap held several senior positions in higher education before his appointment at Paris-Saclay, including spells as chief education officer of the Guadeloupe regional academic authority and as adviser on sites and institutions to the higher education and research ministry.

In his speech after being appointed, Galap said he had won thanks to his “recognised ability to listen to others, to foster dialogue, to rally and unite teams and, more generally, communities and institutions which I have had the honour of leading, which allows me to propose a daring, shared and appealing project and action plan”.

Speaking to Le Monde, Bernard, who had the backing of the important FSU and the CGT unions, said that Galap’s programme had echoed many elements of his own, including on “listening to staff and seeking to create social dialogue…So it’s a form of success if he honours this programme, which I want to believe he will”.

Paris-Saclay University was formed in 2019 after the merger of a handful of universities, grandes écoles and research organisations. While the university has performed well in international rankings, reports of discontent among staff have grown and may explain Iacona’s failure to achieve a second term as president.

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“Massive mobilisation” of university staff needed to prevent far-right victory, French unions say

Nineteen French higher education unions have joined forces to urge their members to campaign and vote against the far-right National Rally in a snap election called by president Emmanuel Macron.

In a televised address on 9 June, Macron said it was “time for clarification” after the National Rally, led by Marine Le Pen and her protégé Jordan Bardella, won around 31 per cent of the vote in the country’s election for the European Parliament.

The coalition of centrist parties containing Macron’s Renaissance won less than 15 per cent of the vote, while a coalition of pro-European centre-left parties led by MEP Raphaël Glucksmann won around 14 per cent.

The election called by Macron in response, which is for the lower house of the French parliament, the National Assembly, will take place over two rounds on 30 June and 7 July.

Sylvie Retailleau, minister for higher education and research, could lose her post if Renaissance loses ground.

‘Dire consequences’

The National Rally is now thought to have its best chance to date of gaining a foothold on power following its strong showing in the European election and thanks to the increasing likelihood of an electoral pact with the traditional right-wing Republicans party.

Such a pact would mean that the right-wing vote would no longer be split in second-round run-offs involving both parties, which it has been previously.

In a joint statement on 11 June, the higher education and student unions said that the ideas of the far right “constitute a threat to public service in higher education and research, which furthers emancipation through knowledge, social life and the development of critical thinking”.

The unions therefore call “on staff and students to build a massive mobilisation to prevent the extreme right from reaching government”.

Neither the National Rally nor the far-right party Reconquest, which is led by Éric Zemmour and which won over 5 per cent of the vote in the European election, have published manifestos as yet.

But the unions said that, based on previous far-right positions, “the implementation of [a far-right] programme would have dire consequences” for higher education and research.

The far right’s programme would mean “preference on grounds of nationality for students and staff, reactionary alignment in educational matters, repression of all dissent [and] priority given to free training and tax gifts to businesses”.

‘Heavy responsibility’

The unions were nonetheless far from offering support to Macron’s party. Instead, they said that the current government bore a “heavy responsibility” for the political crisis.

“Thanks to the antisocial measures it has taken—[reforms in] pension law, immigration law, unemployment insurance, measures against foreign students and so on—the Macron government has contributed to this rise of the extreme right in our society,” they said.

The current National Assembly was dissolved on 9 June, making it possible that Retailleau, who is not an elected parliamentarian, has given her last speech there.

A version of this article also appeared in Research Europe

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This week: a deal with South Korea and a “gravely concerning” outlook for universities

In depth: Fees for students in French universities will rise for the first time in six years, the government has confirmed.

Full story: ‘Contempt for youth’: small fee hike draws big union response

Also this week from Research Professional News

French research consortium inks deal with Springer Nature—But consortium member CNRS turns terms down again

Here is the rest of the French news this week…

ANR joins up with South Korean funder

The ANR, France’s national research funder, has signed a deal with the National Research Foundation of Korea to allow for co-financing of scientific projects and jointly run funding competitions. The agreement focuses on shared areas of interest including artificial intelligence, biotechnologies and quantum sciences.

University leaders worried about 2025

The president of France Universités, an association of university heads, has said that the medium-term financial outlook for French universities is “gravely concerning” for university leaders. In an interview with the news website EducPros, Guillaume Gellé said, with reference to the cuts to the 2024 higher education and research budget made by the government in February: “If we had a horizon for 2026 and 2027, we could better understand the effort required in 2024 and 2025.” He said that 2025 looked like it would be “a high-risk year” for French universities.

Inria to support Court of Auditors

The Court of Auditors, which is responsible for auditing French public institutions, has signed a deal with Inria, the national agency for digital research. Inria researchers will provide training and support to the court, with joint events organised to encourage interactions between the two institutions. The court may also run a programme for researchers in residence. Pierre Moscovici, president of the Court of Auditors, said the deal would help the court fulfil the need for “ever more rigorous and professional use of data in our work”.

The post France news roundup: 30 May to 5 June appeared first on Research Professional News.

But consortium member CNRS turns terms down again

Seventeen members of the Couperin consortium, a collective representing major French higher education and research institutions, have signed a deal with the scientific publisher Springer Nature for open-access publication and journal access.

However, the CNRS, France’s largest research agency, is not a signatory to the deal. This continues the precedent set in 2018 when the CNRS rejected the previous deal with the publisher negotiated by Couperin.

The CNRS has been a vocal proponent of a move towards open science that minimises reliance on for-profit companies. It unsubscribed from the Scopus publications database owned by Elsevier earlier this year and said it would unsubscribe from Clarivate’s Web of Science database* once “open solutions are sufficiently mature”.

Research agencies

The 17 signatories to the deal include Paris Dauphine University, the Ensam engineering school and the CEA, France’s national research agency for energy, defence and technology.

The consortium has 260 members altogether, including 99 universities and 27 research agencies.

Springer Nature said that any Couperin members could join the agreement at any stage, including those not currently subscribing to Springer Nature journals.

The deal gives researchers in participating institutions open-access publication options and reading access to more than 2,200 journal titles.

Dagmar Laging, vice-president of European institutional sales for Springer Nature, said: “This agreement…is a key step towards fostering a more open and collaborative research environment, ultimately increasing the visibility and impact of French research on a global scale.”

*Research Professional News is an editorially independent part of Clarivate.

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French university fees will rise in line with inflation after six-year freeze

Fees for students in French universities will rise for the first time in six years, the government has confirmed.

However, a large jump in fees often called for by politicians on the right—and which president Emmanuel Macron has previously flirted with—will not happen, at least during the 2024-25 academic year.

Instead, fees will rise by 2.9 per cent—in line with inflation—the ministry of higher education and research confirmed to the newspaper Libération on 3 June.

Inflation-based rises

The rise means that for students with EU nationality, fees will be set at €175 per year for bachelor’s degrees (against €170 this year), €250 for master’s degrees (against €243) and €391 (against €380) for doctoral students for the 2024-25 academic year.

Undergraduate and masters’ students from outside the EU will pay €2,850 (up from €2,770) and €3,879 (from €3,770) respectively per year in fees. Non-EU doctoral students will pay the same amount as EU doctoral students.

University fees have not risen in France since the start of the 2018-19 academic year, despite rumours appearing in the French press each summer that they would. Before 2018, fees rose in line with inflation.

Speaking to Libération, a spokesperson for the higher education ministry said: “It’s not a decision to raise fees, more the absence of any decision to freeze them.” They said the previous six years had been “exceptional” in that regard.

Angry response

The decision drew angry responses from unions and left-wing politicians. A joint statement from 23 student and higher education unions said: “This government is once again showing its contempt for young people, whom it continues to make vulnerable.”

The statement drew attention to a rise in rents in subsidised student housing of 3.5 per cent, inflation in electricity and food prices, and a rise in the Student and Campus Life Contribution (Cvec) charge to €103, which it said represented a 12.6 per cent increase in six years. The cumulative effect of these increases, the unions said, was “to limit access to higher education for the poorest”.

The ministry spokesperson told Libération that the Cvec had in fact replaced the student social security contribution, which was higher. They said: “A non-scholarship student paid €401 to enter an undergraduate course in 2017. They will pay €278 in 2024.”

Political row

The fee rise also drew a response from the Socialist Party, which drew attention to the cuts in the higher education and research budget for the rest of this year, which amount to €904 million of the original allocation.

The party said that the government’s statements on the importance of higher education “once again contrasted with the reality of the policy being pursued. [A policy] of false promises and contempt for young people who the government continues to make precarious.”

Macron has publicly entertained the idea of raising student fees far higher than inflation to help fund higher education. In January 2022, he told a meeting of university presidents that “we will not be able to remain in a system where higher education comes at no cost to almost all students”. But a week later, he denied having any intention of hiking fees.

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This week: a Paris-Saclay presidential hopeful drops out and learned societies launch a parliamentary partnership

In depth: Biomedical research in France operates in a context of “chronically insufficient” funding and overly complex organisation, the authors of a government-commissioned report have said.

Full story: France ‘must increase funding for biomedical research’
 

Also this week from Research Professional News

French AI clusters up and running with €360m to play with—Recruitment at artificial intelligence centres of excellence “has to happen very quickly”, Macron says
 

Here is the rest of the French news this week…

Iacona withdraws from Paris-Saclay race

Estelle Iacona, former president of Paris-Saclay University, has withdrawn her candidacy for a second term after failing to garner sufficient support in three rounds of voting by the university board. Iacona, who was president from 2022 until earlier this year, was competing against Yves Bernard, an engineer and former director of Polytech Paris-Saclay, which is part of the wider university. In a letter to the board obtained by the newspaper Le Monde, Iacona said she wished “to leave the field open to a candidate who will be able to move away from debates about people and carry forward a project with untampered ambition, in continuity with the will of the communities and founders of Paris-Saclay University”. The board has reopened a call for applications and will vote again on 11 June.

CEA launches data exchange lab

The CEA, France’s research agency for energy, defence and technology, has joined up with the technology company Dawex to launch a joint lab focused on industrial data. The agency said the lab would deploy data engineering and artificial intelligence to address economic and environmental challenges. Alexandre Bounouh, a CEA institute director, said: “Data exchange plays a major role in the industrial transformation that France and Europe are facing today.”

Learned societies launch parliamentary partnership

Opecst, a parliamentary advisory council for scientific and technological choices, has launched a partnership with the French Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Medicine. The partnership will involve creating ‘trios’ comprising one Opecst member, one academy member and an early career researcher, in order to strengthen links between the parliamentary world and the scientific world. Opecst said: “This partnership pursues two main objectives: to increase mutual understanding of the parliamentary and scientific worlds and to dialogue on subjects of common interest.”

The post France news roundup: 23-29 May appeared first on Research Professional News.

Recruitment at artificial intelligence centres of excellence “has to happen very quickly”, Macron says

The French government has allocated €360 million over the next five years to help nine ‘artificial intelligence clusters’ become national training facilities and research centres of excellence.

The AI Clusters scheme was announced in June 2023 as a central plank in France’s AI strategy, which has been allocated €2.2 billion for 2023 to 2028. It follows on from the previous 3IA scheme, which resulted in the launch of four interdisciplinary AI institutes in 2019.

All four of the 3IA centres have had their funding continued under the new scheme. They are: Prairie-PSAI, led by PSL University in Paris (awarded €75m over five years); the MIAI Cluster, led by Grenoble Alpes University (€70m); the Aniti IA Cluster, led by the University of Toulouse (€20m); and 3IA Côte d’Azur 2030, led by Côte d’Azur University (€20m).

Three of the five new centres are based in Paris: the Hi! Paris Cluster 2030, led by the Polytechnic Institute of Paris (€70m); PostGenAI@Paris, led by Sorbonne University (€35m); and the DataIA Cluster, led by Paris-Saclay University (€20m).

Rounding out the new winners, Enact, led by the University of Lorraine, won €30m; and SequoIA, led by the University of Rennes and focusing on AI applications in ocean and maritime research, won €20m.

The total funding awarded to the clusters is €140m less than was announced as being available under the scheme when it was launched.

Moving fast

The winners were announced on 21 May by president Emmanuel Macron, who emphasised the importance of the clusters to the French national effort to increase training in AI. He said that 40,000 people in France are currently enrolled on AI training courses annually, and he wants to raise that to 100,000 annually.

Macron said that each site would have to take on “research priorities in sectors from health to quantum and organise themselves to attract international talent”. He added that the clusters would launch fellowship programmes to enable them to do that.

The clusters will need to “engage already-recognised talents, the best teachers and the best entrepreneurs too, who would agree to return to teaching”, he added. “This all has to happen very quickly.”

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This week: Sanofi does AI deal, research agencies promote diversity and ANR readies for evaluation

In depth: The association of university presidents, France Universités, has published a list of 22 recommendations for the European Union to strengthen research and higher education in the bloc, and benefit the economy and society more widely.

Full story:  Double funding for EU science, urge French university heads
 

Also this week from Research Professional News

ANR applicants free to use AI tools—But evaluators at the French national funder are constrained by confidentiality guidelines
 

Here is the rest of the French news this week…

Sanofi does AI deals

French pharmaceutical company Sanofi has done a deal with OpenAI, the company behind generative artificial intelligence model ChatGPT, and American biotech Formation Bio to upscale the use of AI in drug development, the newspaper Les Echos reported. Sanofi said that the deal would put it on the way to becoming “the first biopharmaceutical company powered by AI at scale”. The OpenAI deal follows deals with biopharmaceutical AI startups Aqemia and Owkin, Les Echos says.

Agencies celebrate diversity awards

France’s multidisciplinary research agency CNRS has been toasting its win in the ‘advanced’ category at the European Prize for Gender Equality. CNRS is the first French institution to receive the award, which was established last year and comes with a prize of €100,000. Meanwhile, Inrae, the national agricultural research agency, has said that its accreditation from the French regulatory body Afnor as a workplace encouraging and protecting both diversity and equality has been approved. Inrae said that it remains the only French scientific institution to gain such accreditation for both its diversity and equality efforts.

Hcéres sets out plan for ANR evaluation

French higher education evaluation agency Hcéres has confirmed the makeup of the committee and the timetable for its assessment of the national funder, ANR, which will take place this year. The committee has nine members, five of whom are women, with two based outside France. They will visit the ANR for interviews in November and publish their report on the funder in spring 2025.

The post France news roundup: 16-22 May appeared first on Research Professional News.

But evaluators at the French national funder are constrained by confidentiality guidelines

Applicants to the ANR, the French national research funder, are currently free to use generative artificial intelligence tools while preparing their applications, a spokeswoman has told Research Professional News.

However, while the use of such tools is considered “the responsibility of the researcher” at the ANR, the spokeswoman said, those reviewing bids for the funder are not so unconstrained, although this is due to guidelines on confidentiality rather than on the use of AI.

The spokeswoman said: “The evaluators undertake to take all necessary measures to preserve the confidential nature of the information and documents…and as such not to deposit all or part of this data in AI tools, in particular ChatGPT, or tools using AI, such as DeepL, to conduct the evaluation or write the evaluation report.”

European guidance

In March, the European Commission put forward a set of guidelines for the European research community, drawn up with EU member states. The guidelines say researchers should “refrain from using generative AI tools in sensitive activities such as peer reviews or evaluations”. On the other hand, the guidelines support the use of AI tools in other aspects of the research process, with some caveats.

The ANR oversees most open funding competitions in France, which may also involve one or several of France’s 26 public research organisations. Four of the major ones—the CNRS (multidisciplinary), Inserm (medical research), Inria (digital technology) and the CEA (energy and defence)—failed to respond to requests for comment on whether guidelines governing the use of AI were in place.

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France Universités sets out 22-point plan to bolster EU research and higher education

The association of university presidents, France Universités, has published a list of 22 recommendations for the EU to strengthen research and higher education in the bloc, which it says will benefit the economy and society more widely.

The measures include doubling funding for the next EU research and innovation programme, which is scheduled to run from 2028-34, to enable the EU to achieve its ambitions on ecological and digital transitions.

This call aligns with those of other European university associations to double the budget for the EU’s next research programme, currently known as Framework Programme 10. Horizon Europe, the current programme, has a budget of €93.5 billion for 2021-27.

In addition, France Universités recommends the creation of “a partnership between the European Commission and member states to finance research at European universities”.

Greater unity

Environmental and digital concerns figure prominently in the recommendations, which include proposals to “integrate digital technologies and artificial intelligence into the skills of students and learners” and “decompartmentalise research and training in European programmes on digital technology and the environment”.

France Universités seeks to promote greater collaboration and unity within EU higher education, especially within medical research and training, with recommendations to “bring together the organisation of healthcare studies in Europe” and “facilitate a European approach to clinical research by removing regulatory barriers”.

France Universités also said that the European University Association should be consulted “on any European law relating to action in the sector (agreements on immigration, digital regulation, etc)”.

Under the heading of “reinforcing the European model of citizenship”, the university presidents recommend a guarantee of freedom of movement for all students within the European Higher Education Area and greater access to the Erasmus+ programme for “student populations who suffer from discrimination, are economically disadvantaged or have disabilities”.

Election time

France Universités said it was publishing its recommendations to coincide with European elections on 6-9 June, which it said are “of crucial importance for the future of the EU and the preservation of democratic values and the rule of law”.

The far-right National Rally is expected to do well in these elections. While it does not advocate for the withdrawal of France form the EU, it does promote replacing it with a “community of European states”. The left-wing France Unbowed party is similarly expected to enjoy a strong showing while promoting a thoroughgoing renegotiation of the EU treaties.

The Fédération Syndicale Unitaire, the main education trade union in France and the largest trade union in the public sector, has also published a statement exhorting people to vote in the election. It criticised the National Rally’s position, saying that the far-right was “the enemy of workers’ rights, public freedoms and democracy in the European Parliament”.

The FSU said: “It is through massive participation in voting that everyone can…make their voice heard at a time when Europe is more than ever at a crossroads, due to climate issues, social challenges, the geopolitical context and wars.”

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This week: Microsoft invests in French AI and EcoPhyto under fire again

In depth: Thirty-six representatives of French learned societies have hit out at the government cuts to public spending, including cuts to research, calling them short-sighted, unevidenced and potentially harmful.

Full story: ‘No solid scientific basis’: Learned society leaders decry budget cuts
 

Also this week from Research Professional News

French university blockades spur parliamentary inquiry—Investigation to probe ‘respect for republican values’ in higher education
 

Here is the rest of the French news this week…

Microsoft makes €4bn AI promise

Technology giant Microsoft has said it will spend €4 billion in France to update its cloud-storage and artificial intelligence infrastructure, roll out AI skills training and invest in French AI startups. During a presentation at Microsoft’s headquarters in Paris attended by French president Emmanuel Macron, Microsoft president Brad Smith said the company intended to train one million people and support 2,500 AI startups by 2027. The company said it is “directly contributing to France’s national strategy for AI and aligns with the recent recommendations of the French Commission for AI, to position France as a leader in the development and usage of AI”.

Pharma companies call for cuts to red tape

The French pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry association Leem has called on the government to simplify and clarify regulations on clinical trials and development of new therapies if France is to benefit from an estimated €2 billion of investment that was promised by member companies during the Choose France conference that took place this week. The organisation listed seven measures that would make France more welcome for pharma and biotech investment, including putting in place a multi-year health budget.

EcoPhyto under fire again

Prominent French science journalist Stéphane Foucart has joined the criticisms made by many researchers in saying that the EcoPhyto pesticide-reduction plan, which was relaunched by the government on 6 May, represents a failure of ambition. Previously, one senior agricultural researcher called the new plan “a sign of the end” of serious reduction efforts. In an article in the newspaper Le Monde, Foucart agreed that a change of measurement system rendered EcoPhyto’s goal to reduce pesticide use by 50 per cent by 2030 easier to attain and said this constitutes a “democratic fraud” by the government.

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