French science jobs reinstated

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 the crisis that [research] has known for the past few months come to an end,” said Fillon at Wednesday's briefing. “The government has decided to make an exceptional and immediate effort in favor of scientific employment and to the benefit of public research.”Yet postings made by scientists on the Let's Save Research Web site shared an element of caution. Most appear satisfied that their movement has obtained their most contentious “symbolic” demand. The restitution of the 550 permanent posts had been resisted since January and tipped the scales in favor of a mass resignation on March 9. Many scientists caution against sitting back and considering the crisis over. “The urgent measures, to be enforced before any debate could take place, have been obtained,” one wrote on the Web site, “but our vigilance must be extreme throughout the rest of the movement.” “Everything remains to be done,” agreed Axel Khan, director of the Institut Cochin. In an interview with The Scientist this Wednesday (April 14), he suggested that one of the greatest achievements of the movement has been to show that French research has the stamina to stand up and fight for itself. “The shifting of national politics on research made it to the forefront of media coverage,” Khan said. “This has never before happened in France.”But the rest will not happen at the wave of a wand. First in line among future goals is to complete the national consultation on the future of research, already underway. Planning the research budget for 2005 is also at the top of the list of priorities. As every year in France, discussions will take place over the summer and a proposal will be issued in September. In response to worries that the government may try to hurry the national consultation and weaken its impact, Khan said: “It is absolutely certain that it [the government] can no longer do this without putting itself at risk, in the same way it thought it could a few months ago.”Fillon's announcement last week came hard on the heels of Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin's speech at the National Assembly on Monday (April 5) in which he discussed his new government's goals. “I want a rapid solution to be found for the immediate problem of research jobs,” he said in the course of his speech. It also followed a televised speech by President Jacques Chirac on April 1, during which he said he thought the dissatisfaction of researchers was “justified.”In a debate held last week by the broadsheet Le Monde, Roger-Gérard Schwartzenberg, minister of research from 2000 until 2002, explained how he had initiated a policy, later abandoned, to increase employment in research. “In total, 500 jobs were created in the 2001 budget,” Schwartzenberg said. “Five hundred more should have been created by the 2003–2004 budgets. But what actually happened was unfortunately the opposite. Not only were these 500 jobs not created, but, in all, in 2003 and 2004, 700 permanent posts were cut. That is: 150 in 2003 and 550 in the 2004 budget.”Alain Trautmann, spokesperson for Let's Save Research, was also present at the debate. He expressed his determination to continue the efforts to reform the research structure. “We have simply stopped a hemorrhage, but we must now heal the patient in a more thorough fashion,” Trautmann said.

French science jobs reinstated

Campaign to save research wins a battle, but scientists say the broader fight goes on

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