France: highly contested research bill arrives before the National Assembly

Researcher at the vaccine unit of French drug manufacturer Sanofi Pasteur in Marcy-l'Étoile, near Lyon, Tuesday, June 16, 2020 (Illustrative photo).

Gonzalo Fuentes / AP

Text by: RFI Follow

2 min

While all the indicators of the Covid-19 epidemic are on the rise in France, it is from this Monday, September 21 that the National Assembly examines the research bill, aimed at putting France back on track of international scientific competition.

Publicity

Read more

This much-anticipated bill is already causing a lot of disappointment.

In 25 years, France has gone from 4th to 12th place, in terms of budget allocated to research, among OECD countries To raise the bar, the bill therefore provides for an unprecedented investment of 25 billion dollars euros over 10 years.

The first criticism of the unions is that by spreading the increase in the budget over a decade, the government is placing most of the effort on the following five-year terms.

Without any real guarantee.

Funding through calls for projects

However, the stated objective is for the public research budget to reach 1% of GDP, while it is currently at 0.7%.

The other major point of contention concerns the way in which the new funding will be distributed through calls for projects.

The unions fear that this system will sign the end of sustainable funding, in the long term, essential according to them to make great discoveries and increase the number of researchers.

They therefore call on the government to abandon this bill by demonstrating this Monday, September 21 in front of the Palais Bourbon.

►Also listen

Newsletter

Receive all the international news directly in your mailbox

I subscribe

Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application

google-play-badge_FR

• France

On the same subject

France: the research bill adopted despite criticism