France to double funding for industrial innovation
French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin has announced that the government will double its grant for industrial research from 500 million to one billion euro. Speaking at the Paris Air Show on 18 June, Mr de Villepin explained that the grant to the Industrial Innovation Agency would be doubled and would back commercial projects in the fields of solar energy, nanotechnology, biotechnology and bio-fuels. According to the prime minister, Europe should respond to 'one of its most difficult crises' by redoubling its efforts to develop joint industrial projects. Mr de Villepin promised that France would press ahead with its own ambitious industrial policy to stimulate the economy and create jobs. 'We must be able to fund rapidly major technological projects,' he said. 'Those are the ones that will be the dynamos of tomorrow's French industry. Those are the ones that will attract the best researchers and the most skilled workers to our country,' he added. Mr de Villepin insisted that small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) 'must be directly associated with this project', and called on the Ministry of the Economy to 'make sure that SMEs can benefit alongside the big groups from the share to which they are entitled'. Mr de Villepin also announced that the National Agency for Research would receive 350 million euro. 'More upstream, we need to increase our efforts in favour of research to maintain a high quality in public research, increased cooperation between researchers and economic circles, and to favour the most promising projects.' Mr de Villepin's announcement follows strong criticism from UK Prime Minister Tony Blair of EU spending priorities and the need to allocate more to science, technology, research, development and training.
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