French researchers obtained their demands and more last week—3 months to the day after the launch of the protest movement “Let's Save Research”—but the operative term among researchers returning from the Easter holiday this week remains “vigilance.”
Last Wednesday (April 7), the new minister of national and higher education and research, François Fillon, announced that 550 permanent posts in public research institutes, cut last year, are to be recreated immediately. They will be split among scientists (200) and technicians, engineers, and administrators (350). The temporary posts that, according to the 2004 budget, were to replace them will remain to introduce some flexibility in the employment structure.
In addition, 1000 new posts are to be created in universities, for professors who are also involved in research. They are distinct, in France, from research positions in government institutes, which don't necessarily have a teaching requirement.
“It is essential, in my view, that ...
