Would-be French presidential candidates pledge support for research
The French presidential elections will be held in 2007, and while the country's main political parties have yet to choose their candidates, some of the favourites, it would seem, have already started their electoral campaigns. For the first time, research and development (R&D) emerges as a major priority, the French daily newspaper, Le Monde, reports. In the past, issues such as R&D were relegated to the annexes of presidential campaigns. In 2002, presidential candidates Jacques Chirac and Lionel Jospin spent little or no time speaking about their respective party's science programmes. This time around, however, things may be different, the newspaper surmises. Ségolène Royal of the French Socialist Party, and a contender for her party's presidential candidacy, recently referred to practice in the US and Sweden, stressing that the 'State [...] must invest more in research and innovation to prepare for the future'. 'Our research base is suffocated. It must, after 2007, become a real national priority,' she added. The Socialist's Party programme for 2007 is ambitious. It aims to increase the annual research budget by 10 per cent and create 4,500 research jobs every year. This raises the stakes for the current national research programme. Introduced in 2005, the programme, known as the 'pact for research', aims to increase the sector's resources by 26 per cent and to employ 21,000 new people between now and 2010. Annually, this would mean an annual increase in R&D expenditure of EUR 1 billion (four per cent) and the creation of more than 3,000 jobs. For 2006, a total budget of public R&D expenditures was set at EUR 20.7 billion. At the time of its launch, French Prime Minister and presidential hopeful, Dominique Villepin called it 'an unprecedented effort for research', enabling France to 'play a driving role in the construction of a European Research Area'. Another would-be candidate, Interior Minister; Nicolas Sarkozy, has also underlined the importance of investing in science. In a recent Le Monde report, he pointed to the need to take 'ambitious' measures to reform France's current research and higher education systems in order to enable universities to become more 'autonomous', make scientific careers more 'attractive' and scientific evaluation more 'efficient'. But scientists and researchers will not be satisfied by promises and good intentions alone. The association 'Sauvons la Recherche' (SLR, 'Let's Save Research), created in March 2003 by a group scientists, has invited presidential candidates to participate in a debate in October on the future of research. Candidates will be requested to lay their cards on the table and listen to the concerns of the French scientific community. So far several candidates have responded to the invitation.
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France