Postponed until a little later in the heat of summer. The multi-annual research programming bill (LPPR), originally scheduled to be presented to the Council of Ministers on July 8, should finally be discussed at the weekly government meeting on Wednesday July 15. Officially, this delay is due to the reshuffle, but it suits the affairs of the executive well as this text raised an uproar in the scientific world, when it was unveiled in June.

"It is a text eagerly awaited by the world of research and higher education, because the programming laws in this field are rare and must serve to improve the situation", recalls Samuel Alizon, director of research at the CNRS and infectious disease specialist, contacted by France 24. Hopes are all the more important since the Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of research to understand the coronavirus and seek a cure. "The Covid-19 crisis reminds us of the vital nature of scientific research and the need to invest massively for the long term," Emmanuel Macron even pointed out last March during a visit to the Institut Pasteur.

The money is not there

But on June 6, the scientific world woke up with a hangover when discovering the details of this LPPR. Since then, the stands, petitions and rants of researchers and academics have multiplied in the media. Even the Economic, Social and Environmental Council (EESC) gave an unfavorable opinion on this text on June 24. “Financial programming is not up to the considerable challenges that our country has to face”, write these representatives of the socio-professional world. 

This bronca does not seem to have moved the government an iota and Frédérique Vidal, the Minister of Research and Higher Education, was reappointed during the reshuffle. 

What bothers the scientific world above all is a story of big money. Emmanuel Macron had promised an "unprecedented [investment] effort since the post-war period" when he mentioned, in March, an envelope of an additional five billion euros per year for research. The amount is well inscribed in the bill but “only 104 million euros are budgeted for 2021, and the rest constitutes investment promises over 10 years”, regrets Samuel Alizon. In other words, nothing prevents the possible successor of Emmanuel Macron, in 2022, from ignoring the promises made by the current tenant of the Élysée.

The discrepancy between the presidential speech and the reality of the text is all the more disappointing for the scientific world that France is still far from “the objective set in the 'Europe 2020 strategy' [adopted by European countries in 2013, Editor's note ] to invest 3% of GDP in research by 2020 ”, recalls the opinion of Cese. Currently, French investment is around 2.2% of GDP and the dropout with certain European neighbors who have already achieved this objective, starting with Germany, is likely to increase. Berlin has therefore committed, as part of its recovery plan to end the health crisis, to allocate 60 billion euros by 2023 to research, higher education and innovation.

Precariousness and short-term vision

But lack of money is not the only point of this programming law, which makes scientists and academics unhappy. This is the whole “short-termist vision of this bill”, which is denounced by the sector, explains Samuel Alizon. One of the changes foreseen in the text which crystallizes the most dissatisfaction concerns the creation of “CDI of scientific mission”. This is an open-ended contract… until the end of a research project. "The objective seems to be to circumvent the rule of the compulsory transformation into CDI of the contractual relations of a duration higher than six years", fears the Collective open university.

A measure that would aggravate “precariousness in research, accentuating competition at the expense of long-term research”, denounces Samuel Alizon. In fact, according to him, "when you are precarious and your salary depends on what you will publish at the end of the month, you will not do the same research as if you had the time". 

This researcher also denounces the establishment of a system of “increased research management”. The government plans, in fact, to substantially increase the budget of the National Research Agency (ANR). This organization should eventually have an additional billion euros per year to finance research programs. A prospect that does not delight all researchers because “the ANR operates on a system of calls for projects, that is to say an arrow research, which requires a terrible expenditure of energy to fill the files and diverts the strictly speaking, research work ”, explains Johanna Simeant-Germanos, professor of political science at the École normale supérieure and opponent of the LPPR, interviewed by France Culture.

In addition, strengthening the role of this body may not do good to basic research. The ANR “sets objectives, and we cannot say in advance what fundamental research must discover”, underlines Samuel Alizon. 

It is also a way of proceeding, which does not fit well with the requirements of research in times of crisis. Anticipate what will appeal to the ANR, prepare the files, wait for the organization's response: "It is a much less reactive system for dealing with a crisis like that of the coronavirus", summarizes the CNRS researcher. "Funding by project does not, by definition, produce science to respond to crises, it always happens after the fact," adds Johanna Simeant-Germanos.

The fact that this programming bill, which has been in the making for more than a year, has maintained measures such as strengthening the role of the ANR proves, in the eyes of Samuel Alizon, to what extent “it is a disconnected reform of the reality of research, and which has not learned the lessons of the health crisis ". In short, the world of research deplores, like the nursing staff throughout the negotiations of Ségur de la santé, the mismatch between official praise during the crisis and the reality of what the government is putting on the table to improve their lot.

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