French science 'under attack'

More than a third of France's laboratory directors resigned en masse Tuesday to protest a government funding shortage, threatening to paralyze large areas of scientific research in a country that has always set great store by its technological prowess.

The dramatic move, plunging the world of French science into crisis, has revealed grave fears for the future of innovation in France, which is falling behind its international competitors and losing increasing numbers of scientists to jobs abroad.

A world-beater in many 20th century technologies such as space exploration, aeronautics, nuclear energy, and high-speed trains, France is lagging behind in cutting-edge fields such as biotechnology and nanotechnology, where small labs have an advantage over cumbersome industrial research institutions.

The lab directors are demanding higher government spending on fundamental research. But the plight of French science goes beyond money to the heart of France's painful efforts to modernize itself while maintaining its sense of identity.

"Money is not the major issue in French science," says Claude Desplan, a French biologist who teaches at New York University. "The problem is the way it is distributed: France has an egalitarian system, but science is elitist."

Many French scientists, however, fear that planned moves to a more competitive, US-style system of laboratory funding - paying researchers for specific projects - would endanger both long-term research efforts and scientists' job security in a country where most researchers get tenure early in their careers.

"Copying the American model will not allow labs to develop long-term plans, and it will create worry for employees about finding another job," says Jean Dejax, a paleobotanist at the Natural History Museum in Paris. "We had an excellent system that is under attack."

The resigning directors are demanding that the government unblock research funds that have been frozen since 2002, promise to hire a larger number of young researchers this year, and turn 550 temporary research contracts into permanent positions.

The funding shortage has become critical, says Philippe Lesavre, head of a laboratory at the National Institute for Health and Medical Research (INSERM), who resigned with more than 1,000 other lab directors at a mass meeting Tuesday at the Paris city hall. "Our budgets have been shrinking slowly for some years, but this year there are no new jobs at all at INSERM for young immunology researchers," he complains.

"I resigned because it is no longer possible for me to function like this, with no new jobs and no new money," says Veronique Monnet of the National Institute for Agricultural Research.

The center-right government has pledged to release the frozen funds, and to create 120 new permanent research jobs this year. Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin promised over the weekend to commit 3 billion euros ($3.7 billion) to scientific research over the next three years, and announced plans to reform the whole system of funding.

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