“Through this COMP, the CNRS affirms its scientific ambitions and priorities for the next 5 years”

What are the priorities set by the CNRS in its Objectives, Resources, and Performance Contract (COMP) for 2024-2028?
Antoine Petit: This five-year contract establishes a roadmap for the organisation, and identifies the resources required for the CNRS to continue promoting French science throughout the world. Through this COMP, the CNRS affirms its scientific ambitions and priorities for the next 5 years.

Conducting world-class basic research of course remains central to the organisation’s mission. It was therefore important for us to include in this COMP a “scientific notebook” presenting our priorities–an element that we had already expressed in the preceding contract, but that remains original in such a document. This notebook lays out 48 scientific priorities grouped into 7 areas,1  for which we detail the noteworthy contributions we are aiming for over the next 5 years. They obviously do not cover all of the research activities of CNRS teams and laboratories, but grew out of forward planning efforts conducted by CNRS Institutes. Each institute will aim at committing a significant percentage of its resources to these priorities.

To conduct this research, it is also crucial to strengthen the tools and interdisciplinary axes underpinning our scientific policy. Alongside our investment in very-large research infrastructures, the development of open science remains a priority. The preceding contract focused on open publications, doing so with a certain degree of success, as today 95% of publications by CNRS researchers are in open access. This new contract will emphasize the large-scale deposit of research data.

In establishing this contract, we took into consideration the recommendations of the International Committee established under the auspices of HCERES, which evaluated the CNRS in 2023. While the Committee recognized our action, notably indicating that it “considers the CNRS a major research institution of world-class standing,” it made important recommendations to “improve” even further. We therefore chose to prioritise issues relating to human resources and attractiveness from the very first pages, thereby also echoing the results of the CNRS Staff Survey conducted in the second half of 2023. We aim to pursue an ambitious HR policy with a view to attracting, supporting, and retaining the best talent for both scientists and support staff, notably by developing a culture of mentorship and inclusion at all levels. In addition, the CNRS is committed via its Overall Sustainable Development and Social Responsibility Plan. These issues will thus be directly integrated in the organisation’s strategy and activities.

This COMP identifies six major interdisciplinary challenges to which the organisation seeks to make substantial contributions over the medium term. Why this choice?
A. P. : We had already completed this exercise during the preceding contract. This approach had a beneficial effect, giving rise to a tangible dynamic cutting across the entire institution with respect to major issues. It also helped to better explain—outside our world of higher education and research—what exactly we do. The challenges of the 2019-2023 COP naturally remain current,2  and the actions that were initiated will be continued.

For this new period, we identified six additional interdisciplinary challenges: the brain, materials of the future, life in the Universe, instrumentation without limits, generative AI for science, and societies in transition. The goal is to mobilize the ten CNRS institutes in a coordinated manner in order to structure scientific communities that can make substantial contributions to these subjects in the coming years. Notably, we will devote a significant portion of recruitment for new permanent researchers to these topics. The selection of these six challenges took into account their scientific relevance, the need to mobilise multiple disciplines to address them–with the CNRS being the only research organisation able to do so with such effectiveness–and their temporality, in the sense that it became clear it was the right time to consider them. These six issues strike us today as being sufficiently mature scientifically in order for this emphasis to yield significant results.

The CNRS intends to maintain its position as a key actor in global science. How is that reflected in this contract?
A. P.: European and international collaboration remain a priority for the CNRS. This is all the more important today in a general geopolitical context that is complicated, in which it is simultaneously important to defend not just one’s values–freedom of research, free movement of ideas and scientists, scientific integrity, gender equality–but also the interests and sovereignty of both the nation and Europe.

In 2024 we celebrated the 40th anniversary of European framework programmes for research and innovation, of which the CNRS is the leading beneficiary. We must maintain this dynamic and continue to bolster the CNRS’s presence–and more generally that of French institutions–within European call for proposals, as well as build a competitive European Research Area and promote our values on the European scale. That is why we are very actively involved in building the next framework programme (FP10), and why we intend to use all of our leverage, such as the G6 network.3

On the global stage, the international relations network built by the CNRS over the last 85 years has broadly contributed to the impact of French research. We possess various high-performance tools to this purpose: international research projects, networks, and laboratories of course, and our international research centres, an unprecedent tool launched in connection with the preceding contract that has proven its worth; joint PhD programmes (in French) that we are launching with our partners of excellence to co-construct training programmes through and for research; and regional roadmaps that enable fine-tuned steering of international cooperation. All of this proceeds with the support of the CNRS’s eleven offices abroad. We are proposing to the French universities willing to do so that they help develop this international cooperation, with a view to advancing “team France” and ensuring this cooperation is consistent with everyone’s expectations. This will also allow us to include a training and student exchange component in our strategy.

What role does the CNRS have in national programmes?
A. P.: In 2021, the government launched a large-scale investment plan, France 2030, which aims to position France as a leader in the technologies of the future. With regard to research, this translates into national programmes to strengthen French research efforts. The CNRS plays a key role across the various components of this plan. In particular, thanks to its unique capacity to mobilise diverse skills from numerous scientific fields, the CNRS steers or co-steers nearly three-quarters of the PEPR Programmes launched or in the process of being launched, including all the exploratory PEPRs. It also participates, via its teams, in almost every other PEPR programme.

As part of the new Risky and High-Impact Research national programme, another component of France 2030, we chose to select risky scientific projects that cannot be funded easily or rapidly via the usual avenues (French National Research Agency ANR, PEPR, ERC, etc.). These projects propose an original idea with no guarantee of results, but if successful would lead to important advances in terms of knowledge and know-how.

Also, the government entrusted an additional mission to the CNRS in late 2023: the Climate, Biodiversity, Sustainable Societies programme agency will provide support to public decision makers based on knowledge of the global functioning of the Earth System. By virtue of its multidisciplinary approach, the CNRS will also take part in the activities of all the other agencies entrusted to our academic partners.

What actions does the CNRS intend to implement in order to share the knowledge acquired?
A. P.: The CNRS has set itself a goal and a responsibility: putting basic research in the service of enduring progress for all of society. Social demand for scientific knowledge has never been so strong, even as “anti-science” is paradoxically very visible, and “fake news” and counter-truth widespread. We will therefore enhance our activities to shed light on major societal issues for our decision makers and citizens. This is notably the role of the Mission for Scientific Expertise (in French) created in 2022, whose diverse services will experiment with shorter formats that are smaller in scope. These expert assessments provide elements to support decision making in connection with public policies. We will also implement thematic programmes designed for professionals to understand major scientific issues.

The CNRS will also pursue the highly voluntarist policy it has conducted for a number of years to facilitate the transfer of research towards the business world, whose impact was highlighted by the 2024 Evaluation Committee. This transfer strategy will be consolidated and strengthened. First, we will pursue the prematuration programme, its articulation with SATTs,4  our “sectoral” strategy, as well as the deployment of the transfer engineer network (in French). Three associated actions will be launched: expansion in both the number and amount of transfer contracts, enhanced activity relating to the transfer engineer network, and increased amounts of private-sector funding. To go further, we will strive to bolster the culture of innovation within the CNRS, in order to make a growing number of research staff “want to” initiate technology transfer activities for their results. We will underscore experience sharing between peers, deepen regional innovation activity, and launch proof of concept for more innovative ideas. We will also broaden this approach to projects with societal and environmental impact (PISE) that also contribute to this culture of innovation within CNRS units. 

Finally, communication with the general public will be another priority of this contract. For example, our Meudon campus must be home to a scientific mediation centre, which will simultaneously serve as a showroom for science and innovation, as a space for dialogue pertaining to major scientific topics, and as an incubator for projects relating to Science and Society. We will also pursue our activities with a school audience, such as thematic years in partnership with the French Ministry in charge of National Education.

Unlike previous years, the contract signed with the government is not only a Contract for Objectives and Performance, but also for resources. What does that change for the CNRS?
A. P. : When I was reappointed CNRS Chairman & CEO in 2022 (in French), I called for a genuine objectives and resources contract, which would be beneficial because it commits both signatories. I am still convinced that it is vital to compare the objectives that are established at the CNRS with the resources it possesses, with respect to both state funding and CNRS-generated income. To this end, we must share a multi-year vision with the government regarding the evolution of the CNRS’s budget. This COMP is a first step. Developed with the Ministry in charge of Research, which is a co-signatory, it commits us and should help us fulfil our missions as an employer, a research operator, a research infrastructure coordinator, and now also a programme agency. This COMP confirms our commitment to conducting world-class basic research in the service of society. This is essential, for there is no great country without great scientific ambition.