Greenhouse gas challenge

importance of giving researchers the freedom to follow their curiosity, without being overburdened with administrative tasks and job insecurity. “She has done a lot for research and education in the region which she governs,” said one CNRS researcher who requested anonymity, continuing: “I will certainly vote for her from the first round on.” Sarkozy has also made his positions clear, giving a talk to researchers at the new SOLEIL synchrotron at Saclay on January 18. He called for more strategic focus in research, for more efficient evaluation of the projects carried out, and for companies to play a bigger role in bringing French research forward. Sarkozy said that he was going to increase public spending on research by a quarter, implying an extra sum of 4 billion euros to be spent by 2010. However, SLR spokesperson Alain Trautmann and board member Henri Audier were quick to pick this promise apart. Not only was this increase already included in the “pact for research” agreed by the current government. Worse still, nearly half of the 4 billion bounty was never going to arrive at the publicly funded laboratories, according to the SLR’s analysis. Instead it was earmarked for tax relief and project grants for private companies which engage in research. Research evaluation is another hotly debated issue between Sarkozy’s camp and the SLR. The candidate calls for more control over research projects and for funding measured by their immediate benefit, while SLR upholds the principles of the freedom of curiosity-driven research, where benefits cannot always be planned or anticipated. Both candidates appear to be tiptoeing around one of the biggest issues awaiting the research policy of any future government, namely the reform of the CNRS. Founded by De Gaulle, neglected by Pompidou, and converted into a doubleheaded bureaucratic monster by Mitterand, as one of the organisation’s senior researchers, Alain Mauger, laments in Le Monde, the CNRS must change its structures to be able to compete in today’s world. So far, the current government has steered a course which many see as a gradual destruction of the CNRS, beginning with the transferral of funding streams to the new agency, ANR. Researchers fear that Sarkozy might dissolve the organisation completely and replace it with more dynamic mechanisms of distributing research funding. The London stage of the election ‘tour’ saw Nicolas Sarkozy confidently in the lead. However, a lot of things can happen in two months, and grass-roots grumbling can have a significant impact, as the history of the SLR movement shows. It remains to be seen who will be in the lead when the competitors reach the final stage. And whether science will ultimately win or lose.