Public researchers protest against cutbacks

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During the first half of 2004, French public scientific researchers mounted a campaign to protect funding and jobs in their sector. The protests received a high level of media coverage and were though to have contributed partially to the defeat of the governing conservative majority at the regional elections in March. The researchers were finally successful in having the measures they disliked withdrawn and in obtaining a commitment from the government over the drafting of legislation on future policy and planning for the public research sector.

Publicly-funded scientific research in France is structured around several major state-run bodies, with researchers holding civil servant status. This structure has developed gradually. The first step was the creation, prior to the Second World War, of the National Science Research Centre (Centre national de la recherche scientifique, CNRS), encompassing the majority of non-specialised basic or applied public research facilities. It was designed to coordinate research at national level.

After the Second World War, specialised applied-research bodies were set up in various sectors, including: the Atomic Energy Commission (Commissariat à l’énergie atomique, CEA); the National Agricultural Science Institute (Institut national de la recherche agronomique, INRA); the National Centre for the Study of Space (Centre national d'études spatiales, CNES); and the National Health and Medical Research Institute (Institut national de la santé et de la recherche médicale, INSERM).

As a result, unlike in many other countries, public research in France has mainly developed outside the university sector. A specific government department (the Ministry of Research), quite separate from that responsible for universities, oversees public research policy, funding and management.

Funding problems and protests

In the wake of the poor economic situation of late and low tax revenue, the government has been endeavouring to find ways of significantly reducing public spending, first by freezing and then by cutting expenditure, including in the area of public research. In December 2003, as part of this economy drive, the government announced its intention to reduce the number of tenured research posts to be filled by workers selected by competitive examination in 2004. They were to be replaced by staff on fixed-term contracts. This announcement led to a major campaign by the French research and science community.

In January 2004, following President Jacques Chirac’s unveiling of framework legislation for the research sector, a group of researchers launched a petition under the slogan 'Save our research' (Sauvons la recherche!). The petition rapidly garnered the signatures of many prominent scientists and researchers as well as those of people outside academia and research.

At first, Research Ministry officials and the Minister responsible, Claudie Haigneré, appeared not to grasp the scale of the campaign. As a result, the Minister announced that research funding for 2004 and 2005 would be brought back to 2002 levels, 'on a needs basis', but refused to reallocate cancelled funding or to make some 550 fixed-term contracts into tenured positions.

On 29 January 2004, a series of demonstrations organised by the 'Save our research' group, and endorsed by public research sector trade unions and student and university professors’ organisations, took place simultaneously in Paris and other major urban centres throughout France. Unless their demands were met, directors of research laboratories, units and teams threatened to resign from their administrative duties as of 9 March 2004.

Campaign continues with widening support

The campaign continued throughout the following months, with researchers growing increasingly exasperated at what were seen as efforts by the government to increase funding for lobbies deemed to be politically closer to it (eg retailers licensed to sell tobacco and restaurateurs). In early March 2004, a trickle of research laboratory and unit directors began to forward their resignations to the 'Save our research' campaign. By the end of March, this number had grown to over 3,000. Furthermore, a letter of support from foreign researchers was published in early March 2004. In an editorial on 11 March 2004, the journal Nature severely criticised French government policy in the area of research, pointing to disparity between the pledges made by Mr Chirac during the 2002 presidential election campaign of 'historic action' to boost research and the 'historic cuts in science funding, the historic decline in opportunities for young scientists and … the historic number of researchers taking part in demonstrations'. Lastly, the European Commissioner responsible for research, Philippe Busquin, stressed what he saw as the contradictory nature of the government’s policy, which promised on the one hand to increase research funding to 3% of gross domestic product (GDP) but effectively cut public civilian research funding on the other. In an interview with the Le Monde newspaper, the Commissioner also stated 'the French researchers’ campaign is at the cutting edge of what can be achieved in Europe' (19 March 2004).

Political impact

The political Left was very quick to join forces with the researchers’ campaign. Several former ministers of research took part in the demonstrations - Claude Allègre (1997-2000), Laurent Fabius (1983-4) and Roger-Gérard Schwarzenberg (2000-2). The campaign for the regional elections on 21 and 28 March represented an opportunity for left-wing parties to publicise or to exploit - depending on one’s point of view - the researchers’ arguments. The social climate in March 2004, which was dominated by the announcement or the implementation of economic and industrial restructuring initiatives and by concern over the upcoming reform of the sickness insurance system (FR0406105F), was marked by major media coverage of the researchers’ campaign.

The regional election results were a major setback for the conservative ruling majority and led to the resignation of the cabinet. The Minister of Research, Claudie Haigneré, stepped down and François d'Aubert, an experienced politician, was appointed Junior Minister for Research under the authority of the Minister of National Education, François Fillon.

Towards new legislation

In early April 2004, Minister Fillon announced that 550 fixed-term contracts for researchers were to become tenured positions, 1,000 extra positions were to be created in universities, and 'policy and planning' legislation was to be tabled in parliament in late 2004 or early 2005.

There will now be a reform of the entire French public research sector. This new approach comes on the heels of a 2003 public report by the Court of Auditors (Cour des comptes), which was very critical of the continual interventionism adopted by the Ministry of Research with regard to state research facilities, and an audit of the CNRS submitted on 13 December 2003 by the General Finance Inspectorate (Inspection générale des finances), stating that the CNRS model 'is now outdated'. Although this audit was not public, its content was leaked to the press.

There are several possible organisational models for the public research sector that would enable the government to reach the EU target of spending 3% of GDP on research and development, set at the Lisbon European Council in March 2000 (EU0004241F).

The main central employers’ organisation, the Movement of French Enterprises (Mouvement des entreprises de France, MEDEF), with the assistance of the Paris Chamber of Commerce (Chambre de commerce et d'industrie de Paris, CCIP), has put forward its initial ideas on the matter in a paper entitled 'MEDEF and CCIP, national consultation on the future of research. Initial ideas' (MEDEF et CCIP, Consultation nationale sur l'avenir de la recherche. Premiers axes de réflexion).

The Initiative and Proposals Committee (Comité d'initiative et de proposition), which is responsible for organising the research community’s own discussions, submitted its initial proposals for the overhaul of the public research sector to the government on 29 June 2004. The Committee is calling for state laboratories to receive an extra EUR 1 billion in 2005 and is advocating enhanced research activity at the university level and an improved situation for young researchers.

Lastly, the National Technical Research Association (Association nationale de la recherche technique, ANRT) - whose chair, Jean-François Dehecq, is also the chair of the Sanofi-Synthélabo pharmaceuticals company - has presented its plan for the development of public and private research in France to the Prime Minister. ANRT wants to see legislation that would prevent further 'piling up of initiatives' leading to even less flexibility in the French research system.

Commentary

In the wake of several months of unrest and demonstrations, the government finally met the most pressing of the researchers’ demands. The campaign has placed the EU's Lisbon target of increasing research funding to 3% of GDP at the heart of the debate on research in France. The issue now is the overall review and possible overhaul of the French public research system. There are several competing plans on the table and the government intends to take its time before opting for one particular initiative or attempting to combine parts of several different plans. (Maurice Braud, IRES)