Research bill: the rant of a researcher against the "American model"

INTERVIEW

Frédérique Vidal describes this effort as "the biggest movement to invest in science since the end of the 1980s".

Supported by the Minister of Higher Education, the research programming bill has been debated since Sunday in the National Assembly.

In particular, it provides for the injection into the world of research of 25 billion euros programmed over ten years.

But for Cécile Agosta, researcher on the Antarctic climate and guest of Patrick Cohen, Tuesday noon, "the opposition of the researchers relates to the pointing of this money".

"Need for visibility"

If she "can only welcome the efforts to put money into science", Cécile Agosta regrets the fact that there is "a kind of blackmail on 'OK, we give you money, but only then if it's more fixed-term contracts and no permanent positions' ".

Because, describes the researcher at the Laboratory of Climate and Environmental Sciences, France is today characterized by relatively low salaries compared to the Anglo-Saxon world, but more stable permanent positions.

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"Part of the research can be linked to emulation but, in terms of the sustainability of jobs, we need visibility", defends on Europe 1 the one whose work concerns the regional modeling of Antarctica, in order to help to reconstruct the past climate from ice cores.

"The fact of being in competition to eat and to have a salary wastes a huge amount of energy. We are constantly looking for new projects, instead of advancing science."

A "fraud" linked to precariousness?

For Cécile Agosta, this professional insecurity can even "lead to scientific fraud": "When you always need to have projects, with the best marks, for your own salary, you can tend to orient your research towards things. which have the most media visibility and not necessarily those with the most scientific background. "

The climate science researcher denounces more generally the liberal inspiration of this bill: "The emphasis is on 'putting more resources'. Yes, but only if it's hyper competitive, because the government model is the American model, seen as modern, ”she points out.

"In research, what we see as modernity is more about having long-term positions."

High level in France

While asking for "more resources in research to work and have new positions", Cécile Agosta affirms that "the choice to have lower salaries but visibility attracts a lot of researchers".

And that the French level is today far from being indigent: "Access to competitive examinations is extremely difficult, the average age of recruitment at the CNRS is 35," she recalls.

"In France, the bar is extremely high."

According to her, the Shanghai 2020 ranking testifies to this, in which the University of Paris-Saclay, to which the Laboratory of Climate and Environmental Sciences is attached, is ranked 14th in the world.