Macron creates council of 12 researchers to guide French science policy

French President Emmanuel Macron brought together dozens of researchers and start-up bosses at the Élysée Palace on Thursday to call for a revival of French research and to announce the creation of a Presidential Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.

While the president has launched several investment plans in recent years, such as France 2030, relations between researchers and the Élysée remain mixed. In particular, they criticise him for the lack of funding for French research and the lack of a strategic vision.

In his speech, the president announced the pursuit of university autonomy, administrative simplification and the reorganisation of French research, which he wants to “transform” and make more “competitive”.

Macron chose 12 researchers representing French excellence in a wide range of fields – physics, biology, philosophy, etc. – to form this new Presidential Science Council.

The researchers are expected to support and advise the president as he puts in place a French scientific strategy for the next 10-20 years while raising the profile of French research.

Emmanuel Macron also wants to bounce back from France’s inability to produce a French RNA vaccine during the COVID-19 crisis.

It was at this time that the first Scientific Council was set up, which has since been replaced by the Committee for Monitoring and Anticipating Health Risks (Covars). Unlike Covars, the opinions of the Presidential Science Council will not be public.

Following these announcements, several scientific representatives expressed their scepticism about the creation of yet another Council, after the High Council for Climate and the Council for Ecological Planning.

“Will it be useful or not? We’ll probably find out much later”, ophthalmologist José-Alain Sahel, a member of the Presidential Science Council, told the radio France Info.

Of the twelve members, five are women and there are two Nobel Prize winners: Jean Tirole in economics (commonly known as the Nobel Prize in economics) and Alain Aspect in physics.

(Hugo Struna | Euractiv.fr)