On the face of it, research spending and investment is still prioritised by a French government that has moved so fast from stimulus to austerity in its public spending that the Minister of Finance, Christine Lagarde, coined the term “la rilance”, a word that mixes rigour and “relance”, or stimulus in French, to describe the current policy.
As the axe falls elsewhere, stirring strikes and public protests, for the fourth year in a row the French budget for research and higher education has been increased in the 2011 budget adopted recently by the French Parliament. At €25.2 billion, it is increasing by 1.9 per cent, slightly less than in 2009, when there was a 2.7 per cent rise. Still, along with Justice, R&D is the only public budget that has not been cut.
Within this, the higher education budget is increasing 1.3 per cent to reach €14.9 billion. Public support for research, which stood at 2.07 per cent of GDP in 2007 and 2.21 per cent in 2009, will reach 2.7 per cent of GDP in 2011.
To read the full, original article click on this link: Science|Business In times of austerity, France keeps up science stimulus
Author: Fabrice Delaye
