French reform plans worrying

A proposal to reorganize France's National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) encountered hostility from scientists this week. Researchers who signed a petition opposing the plan on Saturday (September 11) say it is motivated largely by a desire to cut costs, and threatens to destroy the organization's unity.CNRS is the world's largest research body, employing 26,000 staff, including 11,600 researchers in 1,300 laboratories. Its budget for 2004 reaches 2,214 million euros. The plan, put forward in July by the head of CNRS, Bernard Larrouturou, envisages splitting the agency into five regional centers that would play a more active role in European and international research.Larrouturou also proposes stepping up efforts to recruit world-class researchers, with up to one quarter of CNRS research staff coming from countries other than France by 2015.Sofia Nadir, a spokeswoman from CNRS, told The Scientist that splitting into five regional centers would give researchers greater freedom and help strengthen partnerships between CNRS and regional universities and companies. She said that the plan had been prompted by the need to rethink the role of the CNRS within Europe and the emerging European Research Area.However, the reform is facing strong opposition from the French scientific community. On September 11, 140 members of two major trade unions who are also on the National Committee for Scientific Research, a key scientific strategy advisory body, signed a petition opposing the plan.Alexis Tsoukiàs, a research director at CNRS who also signed the petition, said that the aim of the reform was to save money. "The French government is trying to reform the research structure only for budgetary purposes," he told The Scientist. "Although a problem of reforming the CNRS exists, the procedure and the purpose are less than clear." "We do not trust the management of the CNRS since their project does not say how to improve research, but how to save money," Tsoukiàs said.In the past year, the French government and scientists have repeatedly clashed over funding pressures as the government struggles to contain a high budget deficit. For scientists who fear that the French government is not listening to them, the announcement of the plan to reform CNRS is another sign that the government puts control ahead of a full democratic debate. "You should consider that after the [Let's Save Research] movement of recent months, the government has committed itself to a broad consultations with researchers, a process which is in progress. The reform of the CNRS appears to escape this process and this is a big concern," said Tsoukiàs.Jacques Fossey, secretary general of the National Union of Scientific Researchers, also criticized the plan. "Creating five regional centers will destroy the natural unity of the CNRS, and make it even more bureaucratic." He also deplored the expansion of the powers of the director general, who would appoint the heads of the regional CNRS centers.Moreover, Fossey warned against recruiting scientists from abroad when many French scientists already could not find jobs. "Of course, I welcome more scientists coming from abroad to work at CNRS if CNRS had more jobs to offer. But as it is, the plan foresees CNRS staying the same size for the next 6 years, and that means there will not be more jobs, not even for the many French scientists who need them," he told The Scientist.Fossey also criticized proposed changes to the internal evaluation model for CNRS, which will give the director general the power to appoint the head of the commission responsible for evaluating performance. "We cannot accept this," he said. "Evaluation must remain independent."Fossey also challenged the government's record of funding the CNRS and said that France would have to double its rate of increase of spending on research to reach the European Commission's target of spending 3% of its GDP on research and development by 2010. "President Jacques Chirac keeps saying: 'We will do it! We will do it!' We keep asking: How? How?" Fossey said. "If we are lucky, we will reach 3% in 2020."The administrative council of CNRS is set to meet on December 16 to decide how to proceed with reorganizing.

French reform plans worrying

Researchers are unhappy about a proposal to split CNRS into regional centers

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