The Minister of Research, Frédérique VIDAL, leaving the Council of Ministers on September 23, 2020. -

NICOLAS MESSYASZ / SIPA

While it is rejected by the unions and the left, the deputies largely voted on the night of Wednesday to Thursday the bill on research.

This sets the budgetary trajectory over ten years, with the promise of a 30% increase in the research budget between 2021 and 2030, from 15 to 20 billion euros per year.

The text was adopted at first reading with 48 votes to 20, MPs will have completed their examination in three short days, without major modification.

"It's a real historic moment," said Minister of Research Frédérique Vidal, after the vote.

The will of @gouvernementFR with the #Research Law is also to support the links between the world of #research and the private sector while respecting the prohibition of conflicts of interest.

pic.twitter.com/mB3Po21chm

- Frédérique Vidal (@VidalFrederique) September 23, 2020

Low mobilization at the start of the university year

The unions and university collectives, which had sent several thousand people to the streets in March, this time struggled to mobilize, in the midst of the academic year.

“We have the impression that the subject is slipping through our fingers.

We are completely stuck by the start of the new school year ”, testified Noé Wagener, professor of law at the University of Paris-Est Créteil, hoping for a remobilization during the examination in the Senate towards the end of October.

The left and the LR accuse the government of making the bulk of the effort weigh during the following five-year terms, when it will no longer be there to "guarantee" the investments.

The executive, for its part, considers that this law will allow public research alone to reach 1% of GDP in 2030, a level to which the country had committed 20 years ago.

An important part aims to enhance the careers of researchers to make them more attractive.

And more than 5,000 jobs for researchers will be created.

The question of employment contracts

The unions are contesting for the flagship measure aimed at distributing new funding mainly through calls for projects, by bailing out the National Research Agency (ANR) to the tune of one billion euros.

According to them, this will be done to the detriment of sustainable funding and would push towards “competitive and selective” research.

Major point of tension: the establishment of parallel recruitment channels, perceived as an attack on the status of civil servant.

The bill provides for new paths to gain tenure after a maximum of six years, as well as "CDI scientific missions", supposed to replace the CDD repeatedly, but ending with the associated research project.

On this last point, Frédérique Vidal defended a system which will offer “visibility” to researchers, in particular for “projects of more than five years”.

And "these are CDIs, it also very often makes the difference" in daily life "to obtain a loan," she added.

During the day, MEPs also voted to limit the duration of a post-doctoral contract to a maximum of four years - two years renewable once.

The Assembly also voted for an amendment to ensure from 2023 the “monthly” payment of temporary employees.

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