French Academy urges government to invest in small tech

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PARIS, France, April 30, 2004 – Top scientists and technologists in France revealed their vision of a very contemporary issue: the present and future of small tech at the 17th-century Palace of the Institut de France located on the banks of the Seine in Paris. France’s Academies of Science and Technology, known as the parliament of the learned, handed in a joint report on the state of nanotechnology and nanoscience and its recommendations.

The report, “Nanoscience, Nanotechnology,” argues that France needs to create a major national nanotechnology program, if it wants to avoid being “a metro too late” for the small tech revolution. It suggests that the government launch a National Agency for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, or A3N for short, to manage the initiative. It also recommends that the government build medium-sized small tech infrastructures, such as clean rooms, in universities and other higher learning institutions, to be used by local businesses for a fee.

France is already spending a fair amount of money on small tech research, but not in the right way, according to Philippe Nozieres, a member of the Academy of Science and one of the report authors.

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“The money is very dispersed and there is no control over the way it is spent,” he said. “In France there are many excellent labs, but they are very dispersed and don’t integrate very well into a larger project.” The academies recommend that the A3N act as a central platform, managed by scientists, which would distribute contracts to laboratories and define national research objectives.

The report argues that government decisions in coming years will have a decisive long-term economic impact. “We have to master matter at a nanometric scale today, if we want to partake in the industry of tomorrow,” said Claude Weisbuch, a member of the Academy of Technology and a director of research at France’s Polytechnical School. “Tomorrow it’s going to be about industry, but patents are being registered today.”

The national agency proposal is not meant to create a new level of bureaucracy, but to centralize research initiatives and provide leadership structure to French nanotech research. The agency itself would self-destruct in time. “We think that nanosciences are going to be a national priority for 10 or 20 years, but after that, we expect them to be integrated into the other scientific disciplines,” Nozieres said.

It’s unclear to which extent the French government will opt to follow the scientists’ recommendations. The newly appointed Minister of Research, François d’Aubert, didn’t immediately comment on the report or the recommendations. The French government currently faces a major cash crunch as it struggles to recover from an economic downturn.

The country has exceeded European Union deficit limits for the last two years. Yet the current political leadership has said it is committed to investing in research. Earlier this month, the right-of-center government gave in to striking public-sector scientists by restoring over 500 permanent jobs in scientific research. The government also vowed to create more research jobs in the future.

The issue of an absence of clear focus in France is echoed by another report recently made public in Britain: “Too little to late? Government Investment in Nanotechnology.” The British report, issued by the House of Commons’ Science and Technology Committee charged that Britain’s Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) has failed to support small tech appropriately and has not maintained a “clearly focused strategy.”

The French Academy of Science was created in 1666 to advise King Louis the 14th on matters of science and erudition. The French monarchy is long gone, but the academy has maintained its role as an independent advisor to the state. It has 350 members who are elected by their scientific peers. The Academy of Technology, created in 2000, occupies a similar function.

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