Nature 457, 636 (5 February 2009) | doi:10.1038/457636b; Published online
4 February 2009
No time for rhetoric
Nicolas Sarkozy must engage with French researchers if his much-needed
science reforms are to succeed.
In a speech on 22 January, as he set out his plans for a national strategy
on science and innovation, French president Nicolas Sarkozy lambasted the
country's university system as "infantilizing" and "paralysing for
creativity and innovation". Sarkozy implied that French researchers were
fainéants (layabouts) with cushy jobs, and no match for their supposedly
more industrious British counterparts.
The speech was a typically melodramatic example of la méthode Sarkozy and,
if it contained some home truths, it was largely a caricature. His harsh
rhetoric in this case (see
http://tinyurl.com/av7flg) can only reinforce
the resistance he has set out to overcome. In 2000, the incumbent science
minister, Claude Allègre, saw his plans for sweeping reforms dashed after
scientists united against him, weary of his unnecessary provocations and
sceptical of reforms imposed from on high with little consultation.
Sarkozy is tempting a similar fate.
To their credit, Sarkozy and his science minister, Valérie Pécresse, have
pushed through much-needed modernizations. These include putting
universities on the road to independence from the centralized
administration, giving them badly needed cash, and injecting a healthy
dose of grants awarded on the basis of competitive proposals (see Nature
453, 133; 2008).
But a massive strike across French universities that began this week (see
page 640) suggests that, applied to the research community, la méthode
Sarkozy has reached its limits. Sarkozy should heed Allègre's earlier
mistakes and understand that he cannot modernize France's research system
unless he has scientists on board. As things stand now, even top
researchers who support the broad thrust of the reforms complain that
their advice is being ignored, and that many changes seem as though they
are being imposed by technocrats seeking grandiose institutional
rearrangements as ends in themselves.
The substance of Sarkozy's reforms is right, but to succeed he must engage
more with scientists. Many researchers experience the reforms as if they
were in an aircraft flying through thick cloud, buffeted by the turbulence
of almost weekly changes, with little idea of where the plane is taking
them. Some fears are exaggerated, but others are legitimate. To arrive at
their destination, Pécresse and Sarkozy need to consult on reforms with
the navigators in the research community who know this airspace best. And
Sarkozy, a speedy man, may have to accept that throttling back can
sometimes avoid unwelcome accidents.
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